Comparing Two Offers — Deciding Quantitatively with a 12-Item Scorecard
Decide between competing offers on gut feel and you will likely regret it within six months. Look only at salary and you lose on equity, growth, and culture; look only at culture and you sign without noticing the pay cut. This guide lays out a 12-item scorecard for comparing job offers quantitatively, using criteria that hold up across global markets.
The 12-Item, Four-Domain Scorecard
Score 12 items — three per domain — from 1 to 10, multiply by your personal weights (e.g., compensation 40%, growth 30%, stability 15%, culture 15%), and sum.
| Domain | Item | What to evaluate |
|---|---|---|
| Compensation | 1. Base salary | Position vs. market median, raise cadence, currency and tax treatment |
| 2. Variable pay (bonus, commission) | Target criteria, historical actual payout rates, objectivity of performance reviews | |
| 3. Equity (RSUs, options) | Standard 4-year vesting, 1-year cliff, strike price, volatility of company valuation | |
| Growth | 4. Scope of responsibility | What line this role adds to your resume within 1–2 years |
| 5. Learning environment | Caliber of seniors and peers, code review and mentoring structures, education budget | |
| 6. Visibility of the next step | Promotion track and how much the role raises your market value at your next move | |
| Stability | 7. Company financial health | Revenue, runway, funding rounds; for public companies, market cap and EPS |
| 8. Industry risk | Industry cycle, exposure to AI and automation, regulatory risk | |
| 9. Employment type | Permanent, contract, or outsourced; probation period; dismissal protections under local labor law | |
| Culture & Life | 10. Commute and work mode | Remote, hybrid, or full on-site; travel frequency |
| 11. Manager and team fit | 1:1 cadence, decision-making authority, first impressions from team interviews | |
| 12. Work-life balance and benefits | Average hours, vacation usage rates, health, pension, family, and relocation support |
The Trap of Quantitative Comparison — Do Not Look Only at the Score
The offer with the higher total is not automatically the right choice. The scorecard does two jobs at once:
- Number check — It tests your vague instinct that "A seems better" against objective data.
- Gap detection — When scoring reveals a blank ("I have no information on this item"), that blank is a question to put to the recruiter or hiring manager. Every blank is a negotiation card.
The second is worth more than the first. Fewer than one candidate in ten asks the recruiter about vesting schedules, performance review criteria, or the average bonus payout in the last cycle after receiving an offer. That one candidate is the one who extracts a legitimately better deal.
Global Trends in Offer Comparison
- US and Europe: At tech companies it is common for equity (RSUs, options) to make up 30–60% of total compensation. Always factor vesting, taxes, and valuation volatility into any equity estimate. Glassdoor and Levels.fyi are the primary comparison data sources.
- Korea: Base salary plus incentive structures dominate; stock options remain limited to a subset of startups. Salary data from Saramin, JobKorea, and Blind can locate your market position.
- Japan: Employment stability and promotion track outrank total compensation in typical comparisons. See JIL and Statistics Bureau of Japan data.
- Remote and cross-border EOR: The same role at the same company can pay 25–50% differently depending on country of residence. Payoneer and Remote.com reports are the primary sources.
Conclusion — 12 Items + Weights + Asking About the Blanks
Offer comparison is not a game of "which one feels better" but of "which offer scores higher on 12 items multiplied by my weights." Rely on instinct alone and the regret arrives within six months.
Build the scorecard, find the blanks, and ask the recruiter about them. Candidates who run these three steps sign, on average, packages 10–20% better. Bring market-median data from LinkedIn Salary Insights, Glassdoor, and Levels.fyi to the table and the negotiation effect compounds.
One last line: comparing offers is not the decision — it is the opening of the negotiation. Take both offers through one more round.
Sources and Further Reading
Offer-evaluation criteria are broadly standardized across global markets. Recommended primary sources:
- LinkedIn, Salary Insights and Workforce Reports — compensation distributions by function and seniority.
- Glassdoor, Salary Database — self-reported global pay data.
- Levels.fyi — base, bonus, and RSU breakdowns by level at big tech and tech companies.
- US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (annual) — mean and median pay by US occupation.
- Payoneer, Global Freelancer Income Report — remote and cross-border EOR pay comparisons.
- Salary data from Saramin, JobKorea, and Blind — market averages and per-company distributions in Korea.
- OECD, Employment Outlook — wage and employment structures by country.
- JIL and the Statistics Bureau of Japan — compensation and promotion-track data for the Japanese market.
