Total compensation
Weight it honestly. Pretending money doesn't matter just hides it inside other criteria — where it does its damage anonymously.
Decision guide
Deciding on a job offer
The salary is a number. The decision isn't.
Compare job offers with a weighted decision matrix: compensation, growth, the manager, flexibility, and the criteria people forget until month three. Stress-test the choice before you sign.
The decision, weighed
A typical should i take this job offer? matrix, scored and totaled. The line under it is the part nobody does by hand: the exact weight change that would flip the winner.
CriterionWeightTake itStayShop around
Total compensation8865
Growth & learning7856
Manager & team7774
Flexibility & location6687
Stability5784
Mission & interest6765
Weighted total72%66%52%
Take it wins at 72%. No single weight within reach changes that — the verdict is sturdy.
The weights worth arguing about
Manager & team
The single best predictor of day-to-day satisfaction, and the criterion people most often score from vibes. Score what you actually observed in interviews.
Flexibility & location
Commute and remote policy feel small in offer week and enormous in month three. Weight them for your Tuesday, not your signing day.
How to actually decide
Score the job you'll actually do, not the one in the posting
Job descriptions are marketing. Use what you learned in interviews: the real projects, the team's turnover, how the manager answered 'what happened to the last person in this role?' Score evidence, not adjectives.
Watch the flip point, not the winner
If 'shop around' wins by two points, the matrix is telling you something real: this offer isn't exciting enough. Flipweight shows the smallest weight change that flips the verdict — if one point of 'growth' undoes the offer, you already know how you'll feel in a year.
Run the regret test through a criterion
Add a criterion for the thing you'd be ashamed to admit matters — title, prestige, telling your parents. If it changes the verdict, better to know its exact price than to pay it unconsciously.
Questions people actually ask
Should salary be the highest-weighted criterion?
Only if it's genuinely your top priority right now. A common pattern: weight compensation at 8 and stability at 5, then notice you'd still take the underpaid offer — which means your real weights were different from your stated ones. The matrix's job is to surface that gap.
How many criteria should a job decision have?
Four to eight. Fewer and you're really just comparing salaries; more and the low-weight criteria become noise that drowns the signal. If two criteria always move together, merge them.
What if the offer has a deadline?
A deadline compresses your information, not your criteria. Weight everything the same, but score 'shop around' with the realistic chance it produces something better in the time left — not the fantasy version.