I joined a company (my first full-time salaried job) a few days before their IPO. I got stock options (like, 500. I was 18. heh.) but they were awarded/priced/etc post-IPO and were never actually in the money after vesting, as I recall. So I remember some of the IPO excitement but I'm not sure it really qualifies as "going through an IPO" for the purposes of the "full thrill ride package".
Incidentally, that company was also taken private during the dot-com crash, and I did make money from that, because the ESPP I was buying for <$1 got converted to cash at something like 3.5x the valuation. It wasn't much, but, again, I was young, so it seemed like a lot.
