The market’s recent downturn and the many dotcoms going out of business faster than they sprang up have rubbed away the luster of stock options. Gone are the days when working for a scrappy startup often meant quick and substantial wealth. And the story of the receptionist-turned-overnight-millionaire is now something of an urban legend.

When Stocks Are an Option Here are things to consider when you’re offered stock options as part of a compensation package. 1. Evaluate your compensation package on traditional merits including base salary, benefits and guaranteed bonuses. 2. Think of stock options like you would a lottery ticket. It would be wonderful if you win, but not devastating if you don’t. 3. When looking at a job offer, focus on the management -- who they are, what experience the management team has, etc. 4. Look at the job for career growth potential and its day-to-day components, not as a possible ticket to wealth.

Job seekers are quickly realizing that stock options probably have about as much chance of making them rich as a lottery ticket. However, instead of fleeing the Internet sector in search of a safer harbor, job seekers can now benefit from this industry reality check and take advantage of the significant opportunities still available. The good news is that they can also learn from what others have gone through.

Allison Rao, who is now the copy chief at Monster.com, used to work as a producer at iVillage.com, where she had a nice chunk of stock options. Had being the operative word. "My salary was augmented with about $15,000 worth of the company’s stock options. I was thrilled at the possibility of making more money with the options."

In August 1999, iVillage’s stock was doing well; it was being traded around $46. Unfortunately, the stock’s value began to depreciate, and while the company kept giving her more options, Rao wasn’t convinced that she would break even -- never mind make a profit -- when she would be allowed to exercise her options.

Rao left iVillage before any of the options vested, but even if she had stayed, she would not have been much better off than when she started; shares are currently trading around $7.00. The irony is that she joined iVillage because it seemed stable compared to the thousands of other struggling dotcoms. "I went to iVillage because I was concerned about working for a startup that could fold at any given moment. I felt it was better to work for a more established company."

Just narrowly escaping stock option hell has left Rao wiser. "In the wake of the NASDAQ shake out, many employees now have a "show me the money" philosophy and aren’t as captivated by the intangible allure of stock options," she says.

"They now expect something more than the promise of wealth, like a competitive salary, even from a struggling dotcom startup. Many of my colleagues who moved to dotcoms when I did took salary cuts in exchange for options packages. The promise of options – and eventual wealth -- was a key selling point for dotcoms." That’s not the case anymore.

Even though the stock market has taken many employees for a very bumpy ride indeed, Rao and others are still confident that there is still plenty of opportunity out there in Internet land. "I don’t think the market downturn will deter people from working for dotcoms in the long run," she says, "but it will make them more circumspect."

Recruiters view the market rollercoaster and subsequent dotcom shakeout as a wake-up call. "I think the real key to this is taking a longer term view," advises David Mather, managing director, Technology & Venture Practice at Christian & Timbers. "While wealth creation through stock appreciation is an important consideration in the overall view of compensation, it should not be the driving force."

In addition to the all-important cash component of a job package, Mather says that the "content of the job" is also incredibly valuable. "Professional growth is an important driver in the overall picture. If an employee is experiencing significant growth in his experience, then it is much easier to ride out the fluctuations in the market," he says.