Job offer letter: what to check before you accept

Three documents get called an offer and they are not the same thing.

A verbal offer is a signal of intent. Everything can still change. Do not resign on one.

An offer letter sets out the main terms and is usually conditional — on references, on documents, on medical clearance, on approvals. It is a real commitment in practice and still not the employment contract.

The employment contract is the binding document, and it may contain terms the offer letter did not mention.

Ask for the contract before you resign. If it is not available yet, ask which terms in the offer letter will carry over unchanged and which are subject to the contract. A reluctance to answer that question is itself information.

In Saudi Arabia a package is usually presented as basic salary plus allowances — housing, transport, sometimes others. The total is what gets discussed. The split is what matters, and here is why.

End-of-service award. Under Article 84 of the Labour Law, an employee is entitled on termination of the relationship to half a month's wage for each of the first five years of service and one month's wage for each subsequent year, calculated on the last wage and pro-rated for partial years. What counts as "wage" for that calculation depends on how the package is defined in your contract. Two offers with the same total can produce materially different end-of-service entitlements. Ask explicitly: what is the basis for the end-of-service calculation?

GOSI contributions are calculated on a defined basis, not necessarily on the headline total. This affects both your deduction now and your entitlement later.

Anything expressed as a percentage of basic — bonus, increases, overtime — is smaller when basic is a smaller share of the same total.

So: ask for the split in writing, and ask what the end-of-service and GOSI bases are. A package of SAR 30,000 that is 60% basic and one that is 40% basic are not the same offer, and no one will point this out for you.

Work through it once, properly, with the document in front of you. Anything you cannot answer becomes a question you send back.

Money

• [ ] Basic salary, stated separately
• [ ] Each allowance, named and quantified — housing, transport, other
• [ ] How housing is paid: monthly, annually in advance, or provided
• [ ] Bonus: discretionary or contractual, what triggers it, when it pays, whether it is pro-rated in year one
• [ ] Any sign-on payment, and whether it is repayable if you leave within a period
• [ ] The basis used for end-of-service calculation
• [ ] The basis used for GOSI
• [ ] When salary is paid, and in what currency
• [ ] Whether any part is subject to performance conditions you have not seen

The role

• [ ] Exact job title as it will appear internally and on your iqama, if applicable
• [ ] Who you report to, by title
• [ ] Whether anyone reports to you
• [ ] Location, and whether relocation or travel is expected
• [ ] Working hours and days
• [ ] Start date, and how much flexibility exists on it

Contract terms

• [ ] Fixed-term or indefinite, and if fixed, the duration and what happens at expiry
• [ ] Probation length, and what applies during it. Under the Labour Law probation may not exceed ninety days, extendable by written agreement to a total of one hundred and eighty; if the contract ends during probation there is no end-of-service award for that period
• [ ] Notice period in each direction — check the contract and Article 75 of the Labour Law, and note that the contract may set a longer period than the statutory minimum
• [ ] Annual leave entitlement, and how it compares to the statutory minimum under Article 109
• [ ] Sick leave terms
• [ ] Medical insurance: who is covered, what class, from when
• [ ] Flight allowance or tickets, if applicable, and for whom
• [ ] Education allowance, if applicable
• [ ] Non-compete: duration, geographic scope, definition of competing activity
• [ ] Confidentiality and intellectual property clauses
• [ ] Any clawback or training-bond clause

Non-Saudi candidates

• [ ] Who sponsors the iqama, and the profession title recorded on it
• [ ] Whether the recorded profession matches your actual role and any professional registration you need
• [ ] Family visa eligibility and who bears the cost
• [ ] What happens to the iqama if either party terminates
• [ ] Whether a transfer from your current sponsor is required, and who manages it

The things not in the document

• [ ] Why the role is open — new position, growth, or a replacement
• [ ] If a replacement, how long the last person stayed
• [ ] What success looks like in the first year, from the person you will report to
• [ ] Who else you would work with most closely, and whether you have met them
• [ ] What the team's turnover has been

That last block is not in the letter and is the block most likely to tell you whether to accept. Ask before you sign; after you sign, the questions get harder to ask and the answers stop mattering.

Most candidates accept in a mood of relief and gratitude, and ask nothing. A clear, unemotional request for written clarification is completely normal, and employers who react badly to it have told you something useful.

Subject: Offer — [Job title] — a few clarifications

Dear [Name],

Thank you for the offer for the [job title] role. I am keen to move
forward, and I would like to confirm a few details in writing before
I formally accept.

1. Could you confirm the breakdown between basic salary and each
   allowance?
2. Could you confirm what basis is used for the end-of-service
   calculation, and for GOSI?
3. Could you confirm the probation period and the notice period that
   applies in each direction?
4. [Bonus / leave / insurance / relocation — the one or two items
   that genuinely matter to you.]
5. Would it be possible to see the employment contract before I
   resign from my current role?

I would also welcome ten minutes with [hiring manager] on what a
successful first year looks like in this role.

Thank you — I am looking forward to it.

[Your name]

Four rules for this email:

Ask everything at once. Three separate rounds of questions reads as hesitancy. One organised list reads as diligence.

Ask for facts, not concessions. This email is not a negotiation. Establish what the offer actually says first; negotiate afterwards, once you know what you are negotiating about.

Keep the tone warm and the questions specific. "I am keen to move forward" and a numbered list are not in tension.

Put a date on it if you have one. If your current employer needs an answer, say when you need theirs.

Do not resign until the offer is unconditional, or until every remaining condition is one you are certain of. Offers are commonly conditional on references, document verification, medical clearance and internal approval. A withdrawn conditional offer after you have resigned is a genuinely bad situation, and the sequence is the only protection you have.

Get the acceptance in writing, and keep the whole thread.

Check your own notice period before you promise a start date. It is in your current contract. Promising four weeks when you owe sixty days creates a problem with the employer you are leaving and, occasionally, with the one you are joining.

A few signals are worth pausing on, not because they are always disqualifying, but because they are cheap to check now and expensive to discover later:

• Pressure to accept within 24 or 48 hours. Reasonable employers allow a few days. Manufactured urgency is usually about the employer's process, and occasionally about preventing you from reading carefully.
• Refusal to put the package breakdown in writing.
• A title that does not match the role you discussed. Titles affect your next move as much as this one.
• A broadly drafted non-compete, especially in a small sector where it could restrict most of your realistic options.
• A start date that ignores your notice period after you have stated it.
• Different numbers in the offer letter and the contract.

How long can I take to respond?

Two to five working days is normal for a considered response, and asking for a specific extension is usually accepted if you give a reason and a date. Silence for a week is not the same as asking.

Can I ask for changes after receiving the letter?

Yes, and this is the normal point to do it — the letter tells you what there is to discuss. Do it in one round, not several, and read how to negotiate a job offer first.

Is a verbal offer binding?

Treat it as intent, not commitment. Do not resign, do not decline another process, and do not announce anything.

The offer is lower than expected but the role is right. What now?

Separate the two. Decide whether the role is right on its own terms, then decide whether the gap is negotiable, then decide whether you would accept if it is not. Making all three decisions at once is how people accept packages they resent by month four.

I have two offers.

Different problem, different method — comparing two offers covers it.

Should I have a lawyer read it?

For a standard mid-level offer, usually not. For an executive package with equity, a long non-compete, a clawback, or an unusual structure, a lawyer is a small cost against the amount at stake. This page is not legal advice, and none of it substitutes for reading the current Labour Law and your own contract.

Work the checklist, send one clarification email, and wait for the answers in writing before you do anything irreversible.

Then: negotiate the offer if there is a gap worth closing, or compare it properly if there is a second one. If accepting means resigning, the resignation letter has its own conventions.

And if what you are actually uncertain about is not the terms but whether to make the move at all, that is a career decision rather than a contractual one — a discovery call with the offer in hand is a focused hour, and it is one of the coaching options built for exactly this.