The five things that actually matter
Total compensation (base + bonus + equity, vested correctly). Equity at a private company is worth 0 if you don’t reach a liquidity event. Discount it.
Growth: who’s your manager, what does the team’s career-progression track look like, who else has been promoted from this role recently?
Manager. The single biggest predictor of your first-year experience is your direct manager. Try to meet them more than once before accepting.
Mission and product. Will you be proud of what you’re building in 2 years? "Sure" is fine; "no" is a yellow flag.
Optionality. What does this role open up next? Engineers from Stripe go everywhere; engineers from a niche industry company often have to break in again next time.
Questions students forget to ask
"What does success look like at 6 months?" If they can’t answer specifically, the role isn’t well-defined and you’ll struggle.
"What’s the team’s on-call rotation like?" Especially for engineering. "We don’t have one" can mean either great infrastructure or a small team that hasn’t hit scale yet.
"How long has my manager been in this role?" New managers are common and often great, but it’s a different experience than working for someone with 5 years in the seat.
"Can I talk to two more people on the team before I decide?" Almost always yes; almost always informative.
Negotiating
Always negotiate. The downside risk is essentially zero (companies almost never rescind for politely negotiating); the upside is meaningful.
Negotiate on more than just base salary: signing bonus, equity, start date, remote arrangement, additional vacation, a learning budget. Bigger packages have more axes.
If you have competing offers, share them. If you don’t, don’t fabricate one — recruiters call references and find out.