<prompt> Human: TLDR: What questions should I ask to evaluate a job offer with salary and stock options in Silicon Valley?Recently a startup company in Silicon Valley approached me about a position and I interviewed with them. I have an engineering skill and experience set that is fairly hard to find but not unique. Currently I have a tenure track academic position not tenured yet and do a small amount of consulting on the side. They are interested in making me an offer but have cautioned me that the salary wont make up for the housing cost of living difference. I put down a very high anticipated salary in the job application based off of cost of living differences. Previously I worked in industry and took a fairly substantial paycut to make the jump into academia. Currently I make approximately 95K for a 9 month appointment and depending on research funding have additional months of summer salary plus usually a little from consulting. When I was working in industry I made close to 115K bonus when I made the jump to academia. Plugging in numbers to various cost of living calculators I end up with a range 170K to 230K for a cost of living adjusted salary in Silicon Valley. I really doubt they are going to offer me that much and the salary would be close to what I am paid in the Midwest maybe a little higher and instead much of the additional compensation will come through stock options In fact hey have basically told me this. The position seems interesting though I have some concerns about it. I think the startup has a reasonable chance of succeeding though be no means guaranteed. They are very well funded so far and fairly early stage.I am also a little loath to give up the academic position as I think that door will close and I wouldnt be able to jump back though constantly having to write funding proposals gets old. The startup position would obviously be significantly more risky than my academic position. Ideally in my mind I think I would do some extensive consulting for a mix of cash and equity. I havent had to evaluate offers before with stock options as most of my previous positions have been at established large corporations.What is the salary translation from the Midwest to Silicon Valley in your experience?What questions should I ask in regards to stock options?How would you evaluate them as a form of compensation?Has anyone seen consulting arrangements where the consultant is paid in a mix of cash and equity?Anything else I should be thinking about?  <response>: SV salaries can be all over the place: And this is just data for H1 holders. I really doubt they are going to offer me that much and the salary would be close to what I am paid in the Midwest maybe a little higher and instead much of the additional compensation will come through stock options In fact hey have basically told me this. Youve already decided 170-230 is your number, so ask for it and you may be surprised. Otherwise there are plenty of places that will give you that, if you want to move to SV. 