Vesting means you have earned the right to buy your options, not that you own shares yet. On the vesting dates the options become yours to exercise, usually after a one year cliff and then monthly or quarterly over four years. You still have to exercise (pay the strike price) to turn them into shares, and until the company has a liquidity event those shares are usually impossible to sell. So a vested ESOP is a right, not cash. Read your grant letter for the cliff, the schedule, and the exercise window if you ever leave.
A curated summary to orient you, not advice. The resources below are the real value.
2 hand-picked resources, 1 link-checked. Pick how you want to dig in.
Why we picked it The most thorough plain-language reference on vesting, cliffs, strike prices, and exercise windows. Read it once and stop being confused by your grant letter.
From Holloway by Holloway
Open holloway.com →Why we picked it A working glossary of the words on your cap table, from the company that stores most of them, so the jargon stops getting in the way.
From Carta by Carta
Open carta.com →The same ground, over in Raise money, our Starting Up track.
