Having multiple job offers to choose from is one of the best situations you can be in during your career. Mind you these days, just getting one job offer is probably something most people searching for a job would be happy with.
Sometimes, things work out where you have several job options to choose from and it can actually become quite difficult to figure out which job offer is best for you. I’ve seen plenty of cases where a person can’t find a new job, gets frustrated and having been looking for a job for a period of time, suddenly find themselves working through two or more job opportunities that end up resulting in them receiving more than one job offer.
These days, companies can take a lot longer to make a decision and can drag out the hiring process to the point where the start align and two or more companies make you a job offer around the same time.
If you have multiple job offers to choose from, here are some suggestions to figure out which one is best:
1. Get all job offers in writing. A job offer isn’t a job offer until you have a hard copy in your hands. You need everything that was promised in writing and shouldn’t accept verbal promises made by someone who might not be in the position (or even with the company) to live up to the promise in the future.
2. Look beyond the money when making your decision. If the job offers you are considering are different in terms of the compensation, remember to consider all aspects of the two job offers. Picking the highest paying position isn’t always best in the long term. Sometimes, other perks (ie. more vacation, better bonus, shorter commute, stock options, benefits) can more than make up for another company offering a higher salary.
3. Compare the pros and cons of each offer and each job opportunity. Sometimes it might be difficult to compare two job offers exactly since some components might not appear on each offer but do your best to remember which job will fulfill most if not all of your requirements.
4. Don’t string along the companies whose offers you are considering. In most cases you’ll be given a period of time to accept a job offer and while you want to take the necessary time to consider the offer, don’t wait so long that one of the companies pulls their offer, assuming you aren’t interested. I’ve seen this happen.
5. Be careful about playing one company against. With multiple job offers, the first thought might be to see if one company will increase their offer if you tell them that you are considering another offer and sometimes, this can result in you getting an improved offer from one or more companies. Or it could result in an offer being pulled away from you by a company who isn’t happy that you are trying to use them this way. Use discretion and common sense.
6. Make it official before resigning. Don’t reject any job offers until you have returned a signed copy of the job offer you are accepting and have confirmation from your new employer that they have received the signed offer in their hands. Job offers get rescinded…I know a woman who verbally committed to a job, told her current employer she was resigning only to have her new employer change their mind and rescind the job offer before she’d returned the signed copy.
