Name every component
A software-engineering offer can include base salary, a target cash bonus, sign-on cash, equity, vesting, refreshers, retirement match, health benefits, paid time off, relocation, and sometimes severance. Each has a different payment schedule, condition, and risk profile.
A one-time sign-on paid after starting is cash with a timing and repayment condition; it is not the same as a permanent increase to base.
- Read any repayment or clawback language before counting a sign-on as freely available cash.
- Benefits and retirement value can matter, but they are not automatically interchangeable with cash.
Separate guaranteed cash from targets
Total compensation is not guaranteed annual cash. Base and explicitly guaranteed payments are mechanically comparable; a target bonus can depend on company, team, and individual conditions. Record it separately until the offer says it is guaranteed.
First-year guaranteed cash can be written as base + guaranteed sign-on + other guaranteed compensation. Add a target bonus only when the offer explicitly makes it guaranteed.
- Do not assume a target bonus will pay at target.
- Do not invent tax, withholding, or take-home estimates.
Treat equity as a distinct instrument
Public-company grants, refreshers, options, and RSUs can be meaningful but have vesting, liquidity, market, and employment-continuity risk. Headline equity value is not guaranteed realized value.
A four-year grant may be displayed as the grant value you entered divided by four for planning, while still carrying a warning that the realized value can differ substantially.
- Do not predict stock prices or private-company exit values.
- Ask which equity documents control if an offer summary and grant paperwork differ.