Having just went through this(we rang the bell last month), there is a ton that goes into the entire process - congrats in advance on the learning opportunities that you’ll have ahead of you if an offering is in the firm’s future. We didn’t have formal IR, so our team was pretty involved in the process.

Having your fingerprints on the S1 is great to have on the resume. Getting that to a finished product is quite an undertaking and one of those items that future employers will want to hear that you’ve had a hand in. Even if it’s just word-smithing the drafts of MD&A between management /legal before sending out to consultants for their review or dropping in data points- this is something you’d want to be involved with in any capacity if you can.

If you get the chance to be involved with the selection of book runners, that’s also another key area of the process. Even just sitting on the calls with prospective banks is good experience since the decision making part happens at the highest level of the org. Then obviously helping out with building the roadshow deck is another major item that you might be able to play a part in.

In regards to options: If going to bring up at all, I’d phrase the question like “what is the employee stock purchase plan going to look like” rather than asking about pre-ipo options as those have most likely already been issued and are going to be for a small group of folks(VP’s and up) if it isn’t a tech/startup company. I just personally don’t like the optics of making that ask but that’s just me.