Many companies today offer their employees the ability to purchase shares of stock in the company by granting stock options as a form of compensation. Stock options are beneficial to both parties, as it allows employers to attract and retain high-quality employees, while providing a nice additional benefit for employees. While stock options can be a great potential benefit, many employees are not very familiar with how they work. The goal of this article is to help you better understand what stock options are and how they work, what types of stock options there are, and how to maximize them for your benefit.