<prompt> Human: I did an interview with a company and it went well. They mentioned that if I got hired, they were a employee owned company, so everyone gets stock of that company, but you cant sell it. I have school loans to pay, so I dont really get the utility, Im not really business savvy. Edit: Thanks for everyones response.  <response>: At some larger companies which are not publicly traded, employees can opt into a stock purchase plan which allows them to buy shares of the company from the company itself and also allows employees to sell shares of the company back to the company itself at certain times, so they cant sell their shares at arbitrary times but the company itself will still step in as a buyer during specific periods so that employees have some kind of option to liquidate their shares.If its a smaller company that isnt publicly traded eg most startups, then it would be difficult to liquidate any shares you receive convert them to cash unless the company either went public or was bought.You can almost always sell shares you own, but if you own them outside of a normal brokerage or 401k and the company itself isnt listed on any of the big 3 exchanges, then the question is where you are going to find a buyer for them. 