I know an engineer at Qualcomm.. worked there pratically in the Link-A-Bit days…

The person cashed out a cool mil.. paid cash for a $300k house in North County.. sold it 5 years later for $1+ mil, and moved up to Northwest and bought 100+ acres cash and are sitting on alot of money from Qualcomm and everything else related to how perfectly their timing was(admittedly accidental; wasn’t trying to time the market or anything).

Like others said.. imagine what the hierarchy looks like with 7000 employees(does that include sub/contractors?) How hard it would be to break through not only to a level where you’d get enough options, but also how far the stock would have to breakout for it to be that significant.. now compare that to the average employee, how many people does the winner have working for him/her.

Back when I was making 80k/year, gas was $1 and single family homes were like $180k in Elsinore.. my salary hasn’t quadrupled like gas, and it hasn’t tripled like homes in Elsinore, I need to get outta here!