Your Engineering Offer

4 mins read

When I first joined a company long time ago. I didn’t know there are things other than Cash (Salary) exist. So this post is to help you understand what companies offer you. I write this post to younger me that not even know about this. This post is written in the spirit of Obvious to you. Amazing to others.

Let’s take a look at Offer, compensation, full package. Usually consist of these:

These are the basics any company MUST offer you.

Truth is big company pays more by giving you things can eventually become cash. Small company pays you more by giving you opportunities. Big company also pays more in cash. Levels.fyi, Paysa or Glassdoor all prove this. The best chance to get higher salary is at interview.

There are many guides like this one: ultimate guide on how to increase your salary at interview. But screwed the negotiation, find a company that pays everyone fairly based on your role and responsibility. Note that Happiness benchmark says you are not going to be any happier for making more than 83k.

For employers, find the gap between highest paid employee and lowest. Set a goal over time to narrow the gap. Find if you pay above/around/below market. Pay below means you will lose talent eventually. Try to include everyone for everything. Offer private health care even for part-time employees.

Benefit: Compensation that is not wage
Perks: Nice to have

Common Benefits you’ll find in companies.

Following are called Office Traps:

Any other things designed to keep you at work after work.

There are many forms of them:

Along with different rules to get them (exercise):

Stock “Option” give you options to buy stocks.

Company can tweak these in whatever terms they mean. This is very complex. I don’t really understand. You just need to know this exists and ask. Hopefully your employer is fair and offers fair things to you.

Small company use this to make you take less cash; Big Company use this to make you stay with the company longer (golden handcuffs). There are companies pay full in cash that avoid all these complexities (rare): Netflix.

Small company’s equity could be over-night lottery. Private company’s equity is long-term investment. Public company (IPO’d)’s equity is delayed, guaranteed cash with higher interest rates.

Your vesting should not stop when you take on parental leave.

Most important things to ask yourself evaluating an offer:

Because even getting $500K would not truly make one satisifies: Only Intrinsic Motivation Lasts.

Thanks for reading. I hope this helps you.

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