Reply to: Job offer but not sure what to ask for

[vetran]

Ask Agents and previous employers.

Read adverts for similar organisations.

good luck

[vetran]

If you want advice regarding joining a start-up at a senior level then might I suggest a PM to MF? He's been there, seen it, done it and got the 4XL T-Shirt.

FTFY

[MyUserName]

I didn’t apply for it. They gave me a shout.

[edison]

You can get a rough idea for CTO roles from various annual salary surveys that are done by some of the big recruiters and a few boutique firms. Some of these have granular detail on size and location of firm.

Looking at one from La Fosse (one of the boutique firms), their numbers for perm CTO salaries are:

Established brand £150-250k
Startup/scale up £130-160k

I found that rates in this survey seemed a bit on the high side given the current market, something I've seen in some other similar 2023/24 surveys.

One of the key variables will be at what stage is the startup at. Sifted is a well known startup information site published by the FT. Data is from 2021:

Profitable & Sustainable: Up to £175k
Series B: £75-95k
Series A: £50-100k

If you want some more accurate numbers there are a couple of other websites out there that have data specifically for startup remuneration but I can't remember them unfortunately.

I guess the biggest variable might be what type of CTO are you and how big is your team? A true CTO will be a senior level leadership position with a significantly higher salary that some startup CTOs who are really just glorified technical leads or devs.

Some kind advice for your next role, make sure you do your detailed research on salary or rates before you even start looking. I find it hard to believe you didn't do this when applying for such a senior role.

[Zigenare]

I know better than to think anyone is going to be impressed by someone being offered a job like this at a start up. Most of the people on here could easily do it if they were inclined.

If you want advice regarding joining a start-up at a senior level then might I suggest a PM to MF? He's been there, seen it, done it and got the T-Shirt.

[MyUserName]

What? Specifically In General, like? .

A question about my personal position did not seem to fit in Business or Accounting etc.

[MyUserName]

It's not a "real" question, it's a "look at me".

I know better than to think anyone is going to be impressed by someone being offered a job like this at a start up. Most of the people on here could easily do it if they were inclined.

[Zigenare]

What? Specifically In General, like? .

I know!

[DoctorStrangelove]

It's not a "real" question, it's a "look at me".

What? Specifically In General, like? .

[Zigenare]

You aim to be a CTO, and have been one in the past, and can't answer your own question? OK...

It's not a "real" question, it's a "look at me".

[hobnob]

Regarding the first question ("how much do you need?"), you should be able to answer that based on your current spending. I.e. what's the minimum that you'd need to earn in order to maintain your current lifestyle, and what's the minimum you could live off (e.g. to pay mortgage and council tax) if you cancelled Netflix etc?

Whether you should give that figure to the employer is another matter, but it's useful for you to keep in mind.

[dsc]

Ask on glassdoor, people seem to be fairly open there re salaries.

[MyUserName]

OK, so why not take your last package and apply the intervening wage inflation rate ( that might need a bit of Googlefu) and use that as the bottom line. The other two would then be percentage increments above that one.

Actually, that is not a bad idea. It is so simple I literally did not think of doing it!

[MyUserName]

Cant really bench mark roles like that. Too many factors IMO. Even looking at companies the same size is gonna be hard as you can't see what they earn. Even in a like for like comparison rates are going to vary wildly due to the bargaining power of the people in the role due to them not putting a figure out there and asking each CTO what they want.

Tough one that.

Yeah, that is what I am finding!

[malvolio]

Pretty much! I have no idea what CTOs are going for these days, not sure why gathering other perspectives would be a bad thing? Previously the offer came from the company and I accepted it, this time it is working the other way around.

OK, so why not take your last package and apply the intervening wage inflation rate ( that might need a bit of Googlefu) and use that as the bottom line. The other two would then be percentage increments above that one.