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How to compare two job offers

Put two offers side by side, mark what’s still unknown and decide which questions to ask before you accept.

Ghosted editorialPublished 13 min read

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The comparison

Put the two offers side by side

Made-up offers: Oak and Elm
  • Factor: Base pay
    Oak
    €48,000 a year
    Elm
    €51,000 a year
  • Factor: Office days
    Oak
    Two a week, in the written offer
    Elm
    “The team is flexible”: to confirm
  • Factor: Decision date
    Oak
    Wednesday 13 May
    Elm
    Monday 18 May

Example: Oak offers €48,000 base and two office days a week. Elm offers €51,000 and says the team is flexible. If the commute matters, the open question is how many days Elm expects you on site. Ask that before deciding what the extra €3,000 is worth to you.

Three rows are enough to show the shape of the decision. Elm pays more. Oak’s office days are known; Elm’s are a word from a conversation. And Oak needs an answer first. Everything else about the two jobs may matter too, but these are the rows that could change Alex’s mind.

What if the offers expire on different days?

Write both decision dates at the top. If you need longer, ask the first employer for a specific date while there’s still time for them to answer.

Your turn

A blank sheet for your two offers

Copy it into your notes or print it. Fill in what’s in writing first, then what you were told, and mark anything that only came up in conversation as “to confirm”.

Decision dateThe day they need your answer
Offer 1
Offer 2
Base payPer year, before tax, one currency
Offer 1
Offer 2
Other payBonus or allowances, only if written
Offer 1
Offer 2
Office daysDays a week on site, fixed or not
Offer 1
Offer 2
HoursWorking hours, weekends, on call
Offer 1
Offer 2
HolidayDays a year, and when you can take them
Offer 1
Offer 2
Start dateWhen they want you, and your notice
Offer 1
Offer 2
Still to confirmWhat only came up in conversation
Offer 1
Offer 2

Change the rows to suit you. If you’ll never work weekends, “Hours” may be the most important line on the sheet. If the commute doesn’t matter to you, drop “Office days”. A row earns its place by being able to change your answer.

The open question

Ask the question behind the blank

Every “to confirm” on your sheet is a question you can still ask. Once you have an offer, asking is normal: they want you to accept with your eyes open, not find out in your first week. Send one short email with the question and nothing else.

Ask about office days

Subject: Reply in their thread

Hi [Name],

Before I make my decision, could you confirm how many days a week the team normally works in the office and whether those days are fixed?

Thanks, [Your name]

Filled in for Alex, writing to Jo at Elm:

ExampleMade-up details

Subject: Reply in their thread

Hi Jo,

Before I make my decision, could you confirm how many days a week the team normally works in the office and whether those days are fixed?

Thanks, Alex

Add the reply to your comparison. If Jo says “two days, Tuesday and Thursday”, the office row is now equal and the choice is about pay and the work. If Jo says “four days, the team likes to be together”, Elm’s extra €3,000 has more to pay for.

If you have more than one question, put them in the same email, numbered, with the date you’ll answer by. One round of replies is quicker than three.

Two questions and your date

Subject: Reply in their thread

Hi [Name],

Thank you again for the offer. Before I decide, could you confirm two things?

1. [First question] 2. [Second question]

I’ll give you my answer by [date].

Thanks, [Your name]

What an office day costs in time

56 minutes

Those working from home saved an average of 56 minutes that day from not commuting, in the ONS’s Time Use Survey of March 2024 in Great Britain. Your own commute may be shorter or longer, but it’s the reason the office row deserves a real answer.

Source: ONS, Who are the hybrid workers? (November 2024)

Start here

Compare what could change your mind

A comparison of everything turns into a spreadsheet nobody reads. You don’t need to know which offer has the better pension provider. You need to know which differences are big enough to change your answer, and whether you actually know them or only think you do.

So sort what you know by where it came from. Each kind goes on the sheet differently.

  1. In writing

    The offer letter, the contract, an email from the recruiter. Put it on the sheet as it’s written: “€48,000 base”, not “about 48k”.

  2. Said in conversation

    “The team is flexible.” “There might be a bonus.” Useful, but not yet a promise. Put it on the sheet with “to confirm” after it.

  3. Not known yet

    Nobody has said, and you haven’t asked. Leave the space blank, so the gap is as visible as the answers.

Then look at the blanks and the “to confirm”s. Most of them won’t matter. One or two will be the thing your decision really turns on, and those are your questions.

Pay and balance, nearly level

64%

A significant increase in income or benefits was “very important” to 64% of US employees deciding whether to accept a new job, in Gallup’s survey of 13,085 adults in October 2021. Greater work-life balance and better personal wellbeing came next, at 61%.

Source: Gallup, The Top 6 Things Employees Want in Their Next Job (2022)

What to compare

Rows worth putting on the sheet

Not all of these will matter to you. Read the list, keep the ones that could change your answer, and add anything particular to your life that isn’t here.

Base pay

The fixed salary, per year, before tax, in the same currency for both. This is the figure to compare first, because it’s the one you can count on.

Other pay

Bonus, commission, allowances. Only put a number down if the offer gives one. “Eligible for a bonus” isn’t an amount, so ask what people in the role have usually received.

Office days and the commute

How many days a week, which days, and whether they’re fixed. Then the commute itself: how long, and what it costs. Two jobs with the same pay can feel very different on a Thursday morning.

Hours, weekends and on-call

Start and finish times, weekend cover, out-of-hours calls. A support role with one weekend in four is a different job from one with none.

Holiday and leave

How many days, and anything that limits when you can take them. If you already have a holiday booked, ask whether it can be kept.

Start date

When they want you, against the notice you have to give. A start date you can’t make is a question to raise now, not on your last day.

The work and the people

What you’d own, who you’d report to, and what you learned about the team in the interviews. Harder to put in a cell, but often the row that decides it.

Money

Make the pay figures comparable

Two pay figures only compare if they’re in the same terms. Put both in the same currency, per year, before tax, and base pay only. If one offer gives a monthly figure, ask how many payments there are in a year before you multiply by twelve. If one gives a total that includes a bonus, split it out.

Then work out what the difference is worth to you, in something you can picture. Here’s Alex’s rough sum for the case where Elm turns out to want four office days, two more than Oak:

Made-up example: what Elm’s extra pay would have to cover
  • Step: Extra base pay a year, before tax

    Figure: €3,000

  • Step: Extra office days a week

    Figure: 2

  • Step: Weeks a year Alex expects to work

    Figure: About 45

  • Step: Extra office days a year

    Figure: About 90

  • Step: Extra pay per extra office day, before tax

    Figure: About €33

Is €33 before tax worth an extra day of commuting? For some people, easily. For others, not close, especially once the fare or fuel comes out of it. The sum doesn’t decide for you. It turns “€3,000 more” into a question you can actually answer.

Deadlines

When the offers expire on different days

Write both decision dates at the top of your sheet. If you need longer, ask the first employer for a specific date while there’s still time for them to answer. In the example, Oak wants an answer on Wednesday 13 May and Elm on Monday 18 May, so Oak’s date is the one to deal with first.

Ask the first one for time

  • Ask Oak whether you can answer by a later date, such as Monday 18 May
  • Ask early, not on the morning of the deadline
  • Be honest about why, without naming the other company if you’d rather not

Ask the second one to speed up

  • Tell Elm you have an offer with an earlier deadline
  • Ask whether they can answer your questions, or decide, before then
  • Only say what’s true about the other offer

Decide on what you know

  • If neither date can move, decide by the earlier one
  • Settle your open questions first, today
  • Choose knowing what you’d give up

The wording for both requests is in how to ask for more time on a job offer, including the email to send a company you’re still waiting on.

Before you choose

Four things to settle before you decide

What you’d turn down regardless

Write down the line you won’t cross before you look at the totals: weekend work, five office days, a pay figure. Any offer on the wrong side of it is out, however good the rest.

Which unknown matters most

Usually one blank decides it. Ask that question first, and don’t spend days on the rows that couldn’t change your mind.

Whether you’d ask for more

If you prefer one offer but the other pays more, you can ask whether there’s room. Say only what’s true: “I have another offer at a higher base. Is there any flexibility?” Then accept the answer.

Who else it affects

A partner, children, anyone who shares your week. A ten-minute conversation now is better than finding out after you’ve signed that the commute doesn’t work for the household.

What goes wrong

The mistakes people make comparing offers

Comparing a total with a base

One recruiter quotes base pay, the other quotes base plus a bonus. Split them out before you compare, or the higher number may not be the higher pay.

Treating “flexible” as an answer

It can mean one office day a month or four a week. Anything said in passing goes on the sheet as “to confirm” until someone puts it in writing.

Letting the earlier deadline decide

Accepting the first offer because it came first, without asking either company about timing. Asking for a few days is a normal request.

Deciding on the salary gap alone

€3,000 is easy to see on paper. The commute, the hours and the manager are harder to see and often matter more by the end of the first month.

Stretching the truth to negotiate

Mentioning an offer you don’t have, or a figure higher than the real one. If it comes out, it costs far more than the money it was meant to win.

Last look

A checklist before you accept

After you decide

Answer both, in writing

Accept the one you chose in writing, and ask what happens next: the contract, the start date, any checks. If the offer depends on references, now is the time to ask your references and tell them what the job is. When the letter arrives, check it against what you compared; if a term doesn’t match, here’s what to say when the offer letter is different.

Then tell the other company, the same day if you can. A short, clear no lets them move on to their next candidate, and leaves the door open if you meet again. Here’s how to decline a job offer by email.

Keep your sheet. If the job you chose turns out differently from what you were told, it’s a record of what you were promised and when.

Questions

Questions people ask about comparing job offers

How do I compare two job offers?

Put them side by side on the factors that could change your choice: pay, office days, hours, start date, the work itself. Write what’s in writing as it’s written, mark anything only said in conversation as “to confirm”, and ask about the gap that matters most.

Should I just take the higher salary?

Not without comparing like with like. Check both figures are base pay, per year, before tax, then weigh the difference against what each job asks of your time. A higher salary with a longer commute or weekend work may not be the better offer for you.

What if the offers expire on different days?

Write both decision dates at the top. If you need longer, ask the first employer for a specific date while there’s still time for them to answer.

Can I tell one employer about the other offer?

Yes, if it’s true. You don’t have to name the company or the figure. “I have another offer and I’d like to decide by Monday” is honest and enough.

Is it OK to ask questions after I get an offer?

Yes. Asking how many office days are expected, or what the bonus usually is, is a normal part of deciding. One short email with your questions is easier for them than several.

How do I compare offers in different currencies?

Convert both to one currency at the same rate, per year, before tax. For a rough comparison that’s enough. If the jobs are in different countries, the cost of living and tax differ too, so treat the converted figures as a starting point.

What if a detail only came up in conversation?

Mark it as something to confirm, and ask for it in writing before you accept. A recruiter’s “we’re flexible” is useful, but it isn’t part of the offer until someone writes it down.

Keep both offers and their dates in view.

Keep every offer with its deadline, the questions you’ve asked and the answers you get.

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