Comparing offers without fooling yourself

Comparing offers is harder than it looks, because the components are not commensurable. One pays more and demands a commute. One has better leave and a worse manager. People resolve this by picking and then constructing the arithmetic that supports the pick.

A structured comparison does not remove judgement, but it does stop the largest number from dominating a decision it should not dominate. When comparing offers, work hours in a year provides a practical baseline for translating annual pay into working-time assumptions.

Build the real annual figure first

Put both offers into the same units before comparing anything else.

• Base salary.
• Realistic bonus — not the maximum. Ask what percentage of target was paid in each of the last two years.
• Employer pension contribution, in cash. A five-point difference in employer contribution is a large sum that never appears in the headline.
• Employer healthcare contribution, and the excess or deductible you would pay.
• Shift premiums and on-call, if guaranteed.
• Commuting cost: fare or fuel and parking, times the actual number of days on site.
• Any relocation, sign-on, or training allowance, amortised over the period you must repay it if you leave.
• Cost differences that are structural: childcare near one site, mandatory professional fees paid by one employer and not the other.

Then the parts that do not convert

Score each of these one to five for both offers, and write one line of reasoning for each. The reasoning matters more than the score, because it is what you will reread in three days. For official U.S. guidance on wages and workplace rules, consult the U.S. Department of Labor.

• The manager. The strongest single predictor of whether you will be happy, and the thing most often ignored in favour of the number.
• What you would actually do each day, against what you want to be doing in three years.
• Whether the role is set up to succeed: is it resourced, is the scope agreed, does the manager have a clear picture of the first six months.
• Stability: the organisation's finances, the team's recent history, whether this role has turned over repeatedly.
• Commute, in time and in reliability rather than distance.
• Flexibility that is contractual rather than cultural.
• Learning: will you be more employable in two years, or less.
• The people you met, and whether you would want to work with them.

Weighting

Before scoring, decide which three of those matter most to you now — not in general, now. Someone six months from a mortgage application weights differently from someone who has just left a job that made them ill. Writing the three down in advance stops you re-weighting after seeing the results.

Traps

• Title inflation. A better title at a small organisation is worth something; a better title with no scope is worth very little, and it can complicate your next move if it overstates your level.
• Equity and share schemes in private companies. Treat as zero unless you understand the strike price, the vesting schedule, the dilution, and the realistic exit. Many people accept a lower salary for equity that never becomes cash.
• Sunk cost from the process. Four interview rounds does not make the job better.
• The counteroffer trap of comparing a known job's irritations with an unknown job's promise. Your current role's problems are visible; the new role's problems are not yet.
• Deciding while relieved. Relief after a long search feels like enthusiasm and is not.

The questions to ask before deciding

You are allowed to ask for more information after an offer, and the answers are usually more candid than at interview because they now want you to say yes.

• "What percentage of target bonus was actually paid in the last two years?"
• "How long has this role existed, and who has held it?"
• "Could I speak to someone who currently does this job?" — reasonable, and revealing whether granted or refused.
• "What are the first three things you would want me to do?"
• "When is the first salary review, and what is it based on?"

Deciding

Once the figures and the scores are down, sleep on it. If the numbers are close and the non-financial scores diverge, follow the non-financial scores — they describe the parts you cannot renegotiate. If both are close, take the one with the better manager. It is the least sophisticated advice in this article and the one people most often wish they had followed.