Sure, but it's not the days of coming in as the chef, getting early options and cashing them out after IPO for 26 million dollars: https://searchengineland.com/google-employee-53-charlie-ayer...

This was before Facebook broke the SV no-poaching ring, so the offer probably wasn’t that spectacular. Also, in 2006-2010 any RSU’s would be rather horizontal.

I don't know why people think that the SV no-poaching thing really had a large effect on people hired at Google when it was active. It didn't.

I don't know what "horizontal" RSUs are, but they were options back then, and every year, you got a bigger (more value) pile of them. My total comp doubled without me getting a promotion in roughly 5 years.

The stock moved horizontally during that time.

yes, but you'd get more stock each year (a larger count). Also the stockw as definitely not "horizontal". Google outperformed the market in each of the tech bursts.

Google IPO: $85

Today: $2500

That has nothing to do with RSU compensation offered in 2006.