I’m currently in the process of entertaining an offer from one company, and my current employer is countering with their own. At the moment, I don’t have numbers from either of them. In the meantime, I’m going to assume that both of them come in with good salary figures, and that all other parts of the compensation package (401k, medical, bonus plans, etc) are roughly equivalent.

At that point, I have some pretty deep decision making to do. I need to somehow quantify the important things in a job (non-compensation), rate them on some relatively arbitrary scale and try and see which one comes out on top. To some extent, I find this a useful exercise even if I weren’t in the job market. It help you realize the things you do think are important in your job satisfaction, and keep mental score as you go to your job everyday.

So whats in my list? Well, let’s see… people you work with, work environment and cleanliness, career pathing, commute times, company loyalty, company success (which hopefully then translates into stock being worth something), day to day task gratification, project completion, work/life balance, flexible hours, management support, sound executive level leadership, company respect for employees, challenging tasks, continuous learning … hmm … thats quite a list already. Please feel free comment with other things that you find important in doing this kind of evaluation.

All that having been said, if the numbers that come back are not equal, and one company’s offer is significantly higher than the other … well … let’s just say I’ll put up with a lot of bullshit for the right price.

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