Compare offers side by side

When offers differ in shape - one with a higher base, another with more equity or a large signing bonus, one vesting evenly and another back-loaded - comparing a single year misleads you. Lay the offers out year by year, then weigh what the numbers do not show.

• Year by year: base + bonus + equity vesting that year + one-time payments that year.
• Four-year total: the sum across the vesting period, before refreshers.
• Risk-adjust equity: public RSUs are close to cash; private options deserve a discount.
• Non-financial factors: the team and manager, growth and learning, level and title, stability, remote policy, commute, and the work itself.

A worked comparison: one offer pays a 160,000 base and a 200,000 grant vesting evenly. The other pays a 150,000 base, a 240,000 grant vesting 5/15/40/40 and a 30,000 signing bonus.

• Year one: 210,000 for the even offer, 192,000 for the back-loaded one.
• Over four years: 840,000 against 870,000.

The back-loaded offer pays less in year one but more over four years - if you stay four years. If you might leave after two, the even schedule wins. Your plans change which offer is better, which is why the year-by-year view matters. It is also a negotiating point: ask for a larger signing bonus to smooth a back-loaded first year.