How to Evaluate a Job Offer Beyond Salary

In this chapter

The previous chapter is how to ask.

This chapter is how to see. An offer is a bundle: base, bonus, equity, sign-on, benefits, title, manager, scope, location, hours, and the story they told you in the room. People take a high base into a bad seat and call it a win. People reject a fair bundle because a forum said the stock ticker should be higher. Both are avoidable.
Get it in writing.

A verbal package is a sketch. Compare written components, not vibes. If a piece is missing — bonus target, equity shares, vesting, on-call stipend, relocation — ask for it in a sentence before you decide. You cannot evaluate a hole.
Use the walk-away you already named.

This chapter is not a new personality. It is a checklist so mood does not pretend to be analysis.

Base is the only part that is usually cash on day one.

Bonus is a target, not a promise — ask how often the team actually hits it, and whether it is individual, company, or discretionary. Sign-on is real money with strings (clawback if you leave). Do not mentally add a best-case bonus to base and call that “the offer.”
Equity is not a year-one salary.

Ask for number of shares or units, strike or grant type, current 409A or equivalent if they will share it, percent of the company if it is early, vesting cliff and schedule, and what happens if they refresh, fire, or get acquired. Four-year vest with a one-year cliff means you may receive nothing if you leave at month eleven. Paper value is not banked value.
Location and tax change the math.

A number that looks large in one city is ordinary in another. Currency, benefits, and public healthcare vs employer insurance are part of the package. Internet averages flatten this. Your rent does not.

Read the title against the work they described.

A senior title with junior scope is a trap for your next search. A modest title with real ownership can be a better year. Believe the reporting line and the headcount they named in the interview more than the adjective on the offer header.
Manager: you interviewed a person.

Offers sometimes move you under someone else. Confirm. A great company with an absent manager is still your daily life.
Hours and constraints: on-call, travel, quota, classroom ratio, night shift, billable target.

If it was sold as “occasional” and the letter or the panel described chronic, believe the chronic. Ask for the last quarter’s reality, not the policy PDF.

Health coverage, leave, visa support, equipment, learning budget, retirement match — list what you will actually use.

A generous gym you will not visit is not compensation. Parental leave and disability matter more than swag. Read waiting periods.
Red flags in the letter: pressure to sign before you have the written equity details - a start date that assumes you resign tonight - a scope that does not match the interviews - a non-compete you do not understand - a bonus described as “discretionary” after they sold it as reliable - a request to drop other processes before they sign their side.

None of these is automatically a no. Each is a question.
If two offers exist, build a table with the same rows.

Do not compare one company’s best-case equity to the other’s base. Apples to apples, then add the unquantified: team, problem, commute, health of the project.

You may ask for time.

Use it. Talk to a person who understands equity if the grant is large relative to your life. You do not need a public performance of “I am negotiating.” You need a yes or a no you can live with.
If you accept, stop the other processes the same day.

If you decline, do it on time, in writing, without a lecture. If you negotiate after this evaluation, go back one chapter with a specific ask — not a fog of “I’m not sure the energy is right.”
The last chapter is still the hours after any interview, including the ones that never become an offer.

Most processes end before this page. When they do not, this is the work: see the whole bundle, then choose.

Generate questions from that job description — free preview, $2 for the full kit. No account. Paste a job description.