Evaluate a job offer beyond the salary

Help me evaluate this offer properly.

The offer:
[PASTE EVERYTHING — BASE, BONUS, EQUITY, PENSION, HOLIDAY, NOTICE, START DATE, ANY CONDITIONS]

Where I am now: [SAME DETAILS FOR YOUR CURRENT ROLE, OR "UNEMPLOYED"]
Country and rough tax situation: [SO YOU DO NOT COMPARE GROSS TO NET]
What made me look in the first place: [THE REAL REASON]
What I would regret in two years: [BE SPECIFIC]
Anything I have been told verbally but is not in writing: [PROMOTION PATH, REMOTE DAYS, TEAM PLANS]

Produce five sections.

1. THE COMPARISON — the whole package against my current position, like for like. Where a figure depends on something unstated, say what it depends on rather than assuming.

2. WHAT COSTS ME SOMETHING WITHOUT LOOKING LIKE MONEY — notice period, probation terms, equity vesting and what happens if I leave or am let go, bonus that is discretionary rather than contractual, holiday that is lower than it looks, on-call, commute, a title that is a step sideways in the wider market.

3. NOT IN WRITING — everything I said I was told verbally. For each: whether it is the kind of thing that is normally documented, and what to ask for in writing before accepting.

4. AGAINST WHAT I SAID I WOULD REGRET — does this offer actually fix the thing that made me look, or does it fix a different thing?

5. WHAT TO ASK OR NEGOTIATE — ranked by what is usually movable at this stage, with the one thing most worth pushing on. Say plainly if the answer is that this is a good offer and I should take it.

I am not asking for financial or legal advice. Tell me what to check and who with.

Offers get compared on base salary because base salary is the number that is easy to compare. Everything that makes an offer good or bad over two years is somewhere else: how the bonus is decided, what happens to equity if you leave in eighteen months, whether the notice period traps you, whether the thing you were told on the phone appears anywhere in the document.

Section three is the one people are most grateful for and least likely to do unprompted. Almost every offer involves something said verbally — the promotion timeline, the remote days, the team that is about to be hired — and almost none of it is written down. It is not usually dishonesty; the person who said it may well leave. Asking for one line in an email is a normal request and it is the difference between an understanding and a promise.

Section four is the check that stops a well-paid move from being a lateral one. If you started looking because you were doing three jobs, an offer that pays more for doing three jobs has not solved anything, and that is very hard to see while looking at a bigger number.

1. Paste the whole document, not the headline

   Section two lives in the clauses people skim — probation, notice, vesting, what counts as good leaver. The summary email does not contain any of it.

2. State the country

   Tax, pension treatment, statutory notice, and holiday minimums differ enormously, and a comparison built on the wrong assumptions is worse than no comparison.

3. Write down everything you were told verbally

   This is the entire content of section three. If it turns out nothing was promised verbally, that is a short section and a clean offer.

4. Take equity and tax to someone qualified

   Share options in particular have consequences that depend on scheme type, jurisdiction, and timing. Use this to know which questions to bring; do not use it as the answer.

• This is not financial, tax, or legal adviceEquity, pensions, relocation, and notice terms have consequences that turn on jurisdiction and personal circumstances. Use this to arrive at an accountant or a lawyer already knowing what to ask.
• Anything it says about market ratesSalary data in training data is old and geographically vague. Check current local sources before deciding a number is low.
• Visa, relocation, and cross-border offersThese add conditions that dominate everything else in the package, and the rules change frequently. Get specialist advice rather than weighing the offer on its face.

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