Should I take the job that pays more?

Only if pay carries the most weight for you right now. Weigh it first, then see whether it still wins once the work, growth and hours are counted.

How do I value startup equity against salary?

Score it at a fraction of the paper value, or score it as zero and let growth carry the upside. Use the same rule for every offer.

Which job offer should I take?

More than one offer is a good problem that still keeps people up at night. You usually know the facts: the salaries, the commutes, the titles. What you lack is a way to add them up, because each offer wins on something different and your head keeps changing which thing matters most.

A weighted decision matrix settles that once. You decide how much each factor counts before you compare the offers, then score them. The arithmetic does the adding, so the loudest detail stops winning by default.

Open the tool with this question filled in. Two to five minutes, no account.

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What should you weigh?

Five factors cover most versions of this decision. Rename them, drop the ones that do not apply, and add your own. Phrase each so a higher score is always better.

Total pay: Base, bonus, and equity at a value you would bet on. Leave the recruiter's projection out.
The work itself: What you would do on an ordinary Tuesday, not the job title.
Growth: Who you would learn from, and what the next role after this one looks like.
Work-life balance: Hours, on-call, flexibility and the commute, taken together.
Job security: Runway, market position, and how the last round of layoffs went.

What does it look like worked out?

Three offers: a large company, an early-stage startup, and a counteroffer from the current employer. Weights run 1 to 10. Scores run 1 to 5, where 1 is poor and 5 is excellent.

Worked decision matrix for: Which job offer should I take?
Factor	Weight	Big company	Startup	Counteroffer
The work itself	9	3	5	2
Total pay	7	5	3	4
Growth	6	3	5	2
Work-life balance	4	4	2	5
Job security	2	5	2	4
Total		106	108	86

Each total is score times weight, added down the column.

Startup wins by 2 points. The startup edges it, and the margin is thin. A thin margin tells you both front runners are good and the choice turns on one judgement. Here that judgement is risk.

Change the weight on job security from 2 to 6, keep every score the same, and Big company wins instead, 126 to 116. The options did not change. One judgement about what matters did.

Where do people go wrong?

Comparing base salary alone. Two offers with the same base can differ by a lot once bonus, pension, health cover and cost of living are counted. Score total pay.

Treating the counteroffer as neutral. Most counters fix pay and nothing else. If pay was not why you started looking, score the counter on the rows that made you look.

Scoring after you have picked. If you already want one offer, you will nudge its scores up. Set the weights first, score every offer, then look at the totals.

Common questions

Should I take the job that pays more?: Only if pay carries the most weight for you right now. Weigh it first, then see whether it still wins once the work, growth and hours are counted.
How do I value startup equity against salary?: Score it at a fraction of the paper value, or score it as zero and let growth carry the upside. Use the same rule for every offer.

Ready to weigh your own?

The question and starter options come filled in. Change anything. AI suggests factors; the answer comes only from your weights and scores.

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