How to Read a Job Offer, and the Company Behind It

A candidate once turned down an offer from us for a role paying eleven percent more elsewhere. Nine months later he applied again. The other company had been through two reorganisations, his manager had left in month three, and the equity he had been shown a large number for was worth nothing at the price the company last raised at.

He had evaluated the salary carefully and the company barely at all. That is the standard mistake, and it is understandable — the salary is the only part written in a font you can read.

I have written a lot of offers and negotiated a few from the other side. Here is what I would check, in order.

The compensation, properly

Base salary is the only number you can rely on. Everything else is conditional. Compare offers on base first.

Bonus requires two questions: what triggered a payout in each of the last three years, and is it discretionary or formulaic? "Up to 20 percent" where the company paid 4, 0 and 7 percent is a 4 percent bonus with optimistic packaging. Ask for the actual history. A company that will not tell you is telling you.

Equity is where most candidates are misled, usually without anyone lying. A number of shares means nothing on its own. You need:

• The total number of shares outstanding, so you can calculate your percentage
• The strike price and the most recent preferred share price
• The most recent 409A or equivalent valuation
• The vesting schedule and the cliff
• The exercise window if you leave. This is the one nobody asks about, and it matters enormously. A 90-day window means that to keep vested equity, you must find a large amount of cash within three months of leaving, and pay tax on paper gains. Companies with a 7 or 10 year window have made a deliberate choice in your favour.
• Whether there is a liquidation preference stack above you. If investors are owed 60 million before common shareholders see anything, your equity is worth zero in most realistic outcomes.

Ask all of it in writing. Reasonable companies answer. I have never thought less of a candidate for asking, and I have adjusted offers upward for people who asked well.

The rest adds up more than people expect: employer pension contribution, health cover and what it excludes, leave and whether it carries over, notice period on both sides, and any clawback on a signing bonus.

The clauses that bind you

Read these before you sign, because they are almost impossible to change afterwards.

Non-compete and non-solicit. Check the duration, the geography and the definition of a competitor. Definitions like "any business in technology" are unenforceable in many jurisdictions but will still cost you legal fees and a job offer to fight.

Intellectual property assignment. Some contracts claim anything you create during employment, including on weekends and unrelated to the company. If you have a side project, get it carved out in writing before you sign. Afterwards you have no leverage.

Probation terms. How long, what notice applies during it, and what the criteria are.

Termination and severance. What notice you receive, whether there is severance beyond statutory minimum, and what happens to unvested equity.

Now evaluate the company

This is where the actual risk sits, and where candidates spend the least effort.

Financial position

Ask directly: when did you last raise, how much, and what is the current runway? A company that will not answer runway questions for someone about to join is either badly run or in trouble. Both are worth knowing.

For a profitable business, ask whether it is profitable and growing. For a funded one, ask what the next milestone is and what happens if it slips.

Your manager

This is the biggest single predictor of whether the job is good, and it is assessed almost entirely by vibe.

Ask them:

1. How long have you been in this role, and how long at the company?
2. How many people have you managed, and where did the last two who left your team go?
3. What happened the last time someone on your team disagreed with you publicly?
4. How do you evaluate whether I am doing well in the first six months?

Listen for whether the answers are specific. A manager who cannot describe how they will assess you has not thought about you.

Turnover

Look at LinkedIn. How many people in this function joined in the last eighteen months and left? If the average tenure in the team is under a year, no compensation package compensates.

Ask why the role is open. "We are growing" is fine. "The last person moved internally" is good. Evasiveness about a predecessor is a genuine warning.

How decisions get made

Ask for an example of a recent decision that was reversed, and how that happened. Companies that can describe changing their mind based on evidence tend to be sane places to work. Companies that cannot recall ever reversing anything are either not learning or not telling you.

Talk to someone who left

Find one or two people who have left the team in the last two years and message them. Most will reply, and most will be candid. Ask: "What would you want to know if you were joining now?"

Twenty minutes here is worth more than every interview you did.

Negotiating without damaging anything

A few things I know from the other side of the table.

Negotiate once, comprehensively. Come back with everything at the same time — base, equity, start date, whatever else. Serial requests over four days exhaust goodwill fast.

Anchor on something other than your feelings. Market data, a competing offer, the scope of the role. "I was hoping for more" gives the recruiter nothing to work with internally, and the recruiter is usually the one arguing your case.

Ask what is flexible. Sometimes base is capped by band but a signing bonus, an earlier review, an extra week of leave or a better title is completely available.

Get everything in the written offer. A verbal promise about a promotion, a review in six months, or a remote arrangement does not survive a manager change. If it is real, it can be written down.

And be genuinely willing to decline. That is the only leverage that exists, and it evaporates the moment you signal you have already decided.

The question underneath all of it

Two things predict whether you will be glad in a year: whether the work will make you better, and whether the person you report to is good at their job.

Compensation matters, and I am not going to pretend otherwise — being underpaid corrodes everything over time. But of the people I have watched leave a job within twelve months, almost none left because the salary was too low. They left because of who they worked for, or because the work stopped teaching them anything.

Read the offer carefully. Then spend twice as long reading the company.