How to Evaluate a Job Offer

You finally got the job offer you were waiting for... but before you accept the offer, there's three things you absolutely must do to make sure that you end up with the right job and the right offer.

Read all the way to the end of this post (or watch the video above) to find out exactly what you need to doto evaluate a job offer.

Is this the job you want?

The first thing that you need to do is actually really fundamental: determining if this is the job that you really want. In order to be able to answer this question fully there's a few things that you need to know.

First of all, you need to know what your career vision and your values are. Aside from your vision and values guiding your career, they are instrumental to your consideration right now.

Before you say yes to the offer you need to know: is this your ideal workplace? Are their values aligned with yours? Is the environment one that is really designed for you to succeed based on what you actually need?

There may be all sorts of razzle dazzle things that really woo you and make you think you should take the job, like remote working and free food. But if you don't work while working remotely, that's going to be a disadvantage to your career instead of an exclusive benefit you enjoy.

So much of our energy and focus when we're looking for a new opportunity is on getting the job offer. Now you have it, it's time to stop and be really deliberate to make sure that this is the right offer - and right move - for you.

If this is the perfect opportunity,and it's one that you definitely want to proceed with, you're going to move into the next step.

But, if it isn't the right opportunity, you it's safe to politely and graciously decline the offer quickly so they can move to finding the next best candidate.

Get Into the Details

When I say that you're going to get into the details, that means that you're really getting into the dollars and cents here.

There is the obvious thing that includes your salary and any bonus or commission structures that you have. But there is so much more that is direct and quasi-monetary compensation you need to evaluate in the job offer.

• Does the offer include stock options or RSUs?

• Is there a signing bonus? What is the signing bonus and what are the terms?

• If you are moving for the role, is there a relocation bonus?

• Is there wellness reimbursements?

• How much of your health insurance is going to be paid by your company?

• Is there a 401k? If there is, do they offer any matching?

These are all of the things that you need to look at in the offer because this is the meat bones of the actual offer.

I know a lot of people have resistance in terms of appraising an opportunity just based on compensation, but if you want to hear my philosophy, my philosophy is money is currency.

And currency is energy.

The more energy that you are able to bring into this role the more that you're going to be able to knock it out of the park. And the more awesomeness they're going to get from you,

directly impacts your future team and manager and contributes to the company thriving and succeeding.

There is hopefully going to be a whole bunch of incredible elements within the job offerthat you're really excited that they've come forward with - it's such a great opportunity. This is likely going to be the case if you did a really great job in terms of positioning and selling yourself during the hiring process.

However, in many cases, there are going to be things that you want to make adjustments for.

In fact, many companies are making an offer on the assumption that you are going to negotiate.

And so when there are the things that are less awesome, you need to take note of them - because you need to change them.

And this is where you're going to make your list of what you want to actually negotiate on this job offer.

Prepare to Negotiate

I know, I know - unless you're a lawyer, you don't think that your job is negotiation.This is the part of the process that makes most ambitious professionals (especially women) really uncomfortable, and it's also probably the step you feel least equipped to do.

However, what you don't want to be is that person who cringes and recoils from negotiating. Because you won't have the conversation, you will end up taking an offer that really could have been much better than it actually is.

Before you jump into the negotiation, you're going to want to dig into those things that you want to make some adjustments on - and you're going to spend time preparing.

First, you will invest time in making sure you know what you should be making (psst if you want a deepdive, you'll definitely want to attend my masterclass).

Because I know this post is going to be way too long (and I have more coming up on salary negotiation to really dive into it) I won't get too far into detail here, but there is one thing you must know - because it is the biggest mistake you can walk into a negotiation and make.

In fact, if you make this mistake, I can almost guarantee you that your negotiation won't be successful.

Before you begin the discussion, you are going to research and prepare. You are going to know exactly what you want because you completed Step Two (above). The last thing you are going to do is internalize this one thing:

It is not personal.

I know - your paycheck how how much is being deposited into your bank account on a biweekly basis feels extremely personal. But the compensation discussion is not.

Knowing that it is not personal is going to allow you to enter the negotiation from a non-emotional place. You're having a conversation with get to your mutual goal: getting you onboard.

When the negotiation - especially the compensation piece - is about you, it's easy to begin to lack confidence in yourself when they don't appraise the role the way they appraise the role. And to succeed in any negotiation you need every ounce of confidence available to you - because whoever you are negotiating with is going to need to borrow your confidence to help get you exactly what you're asking for.

Stay tuned for posts to help you sharpen your negotiation skills, or subscribe to my YouTube channel to make sure you don't miss out.

Are you currently negotiating a job offer? What are you going to action from this post?