I'm expecting to get a job offer over the next week. The salary is unknown at this time, but I do know some benefits (3 weeks vacation, an okay medical coverage, a 10% bonus which I was basically told is paid out as long as you keep your job). Here's the three cons to the offer (in no particular order):
1) It is an employee position. While this might not see like a con, I have been doing my own consulting for the last 2 years. I enjoy it. The current client is probably going to extend the contract for three months (and I would need a higher rate at this point). Being an employee wouldn't preclude me from continuing some of the other side might not be allowed given the space while not exactly similar is tangental. I talked to them about consulting and they are not interested in that. They want someone full time.
2) There is no 401K match, currently. The recruiter claims they are re-vamping their benefits package and says that is one thing they are looking to add. It is a smaller company and currently they only match up to a certain salary. They are looking to remove that cap.
3) The commute will suck in about 2 months. Currently, the office is 20 minutes form me. They are moving in September to be about 45-60 min commute.
The job position is for a smaller company and the role is what I enjoy to doing. I would even be working indirectly with a guy that I graduated college with and am good friends. It is one of the reasons I started talking to them.
So the ultimate question is: how do you value not having a 401K match and how does it impact a salary request?
On a separate note, while googling for trying to find this answer, I came across the following article:
http://www.bloomberg.com/bw/articles/2014-08-13/why-your-companys-401-k-match-is-worth-less-than-cash