We all do job hunting. And of course, we apply for multiple jobs at a time. However, in case you are applying for one job, wait for their response and then apply for another job, then something surely is wrong with you. Because that is not how you job hunt if you are doing that it is one senseless thing. You must apply to everything, as often as you can. Let us know How To Stall A Job Offer While Waiting For Another?
So, you are job hunting and like the decent human being that you are, you are applying to a wide range of companies, big and small. You are also applying for a wide variety of positions. For instance, some positions you are comfortable in and some a bit outside of your lane. And you get a good offer from one specific company and it is a pretty decent offer with a decent salary and good benefits. However, you have to respond to this offer in let us just say 5 days, okay. But, you just completed an interview for your dream company and the job role that you want. And you know the fact that this job role is going to take you far and you are feeling good about the interview. Therefore, you are quite confident that you are going to get offered. However, your dream company is probably going to take a week or two to respond.
So, what do you do?
The answer should be pretty straightforward. You need to do what is best for you and your career. If you use this philosophy, you are not going to go wrong. Let us say a scenario, where you got an offer from company A on the table and you got company B which you prefer to go for but the offer is not made to you yet.
Here are the steps on how you can manage this complicated situation:
Step 1. Request the company you are waiting for to give you a quick response
When you have been offered by one company, and they give you a deadline of five days to either accept the offer or decline. But you have also interviewed for your dream company and you are positive about getting an offer from them. But, they said that it will take at least a week to get back to you. In this case, you can go to the company that you are waiting for and tell them that you have been offered by another company as well. And you have to respond in around five days. So, hopefully, they will give you a response in those five days. Because if they liked you, they will want to make sure that they give you a more competitive offer than what you already have. But if they say that it is not possible to make a quick decision and that is why they will need a time of one week, then you have no other option but to go to the first company and request for some more time to reply to their offer.
Step 2. Request the company that gave you the offer to give more time to think
The other best thing you could do is go back to the company that first gave you the offer and tell them that you would like some more time to look at this. Yes, we understand that the company has already given you enough time to think about the offer. But if you get caught in such situations, it is not wrong to just go and ask for more than two days or so. Because you probably have no other option. Always make sure to ask the company you are waiting for to give an exact time for their response. According to that, ask for extra time from the company you got an offer from. It is advised to always ask for one day extra from the first company than the second company promised to give you their response.
Possible responses you might get from the first company that offered you:
The types of responses you will get from the first company will depend on a lot of factors.
1. They might open negotiations
If they like you and want you to join their company, they will surely open some negotiations with you and offer you a high salary. The reason is that they will think that this offer might hopefully make you accept their job offer. And this negotiation will also help them fend off all the competition. So, this will be their response in case they think you are the best candidate for the role and hence do not want to risk losing you.
2. They will give you an extra day or two to reply to their offer
If they think that you are a pretty decent candidate, they will give you an extra day or two to make the decision. And if you cannot come up with your decision within that period, they will offer that position to some other candidate.
3. They will not give you any extra time to think
In some cases, the company will tell you that unfortunately, they need to fill in that position. So if you cannot respond by the date given to you, they will have to assume that you are not going to take the offer.
Some points to keep in mind while deciding to stall the company’s offer:
1. A wise man once said that a bird in hand is worth two in the bush. In other words, it is not worth losing something that you already have while trying to chase something that you might not even get at all. So, it is also quite a risk to stall the company’s offer that you already got. However, if you are sure that you will get a positive response from the company that you want to work for, then such risk will be worth it.
2. If the first company already gave you more than enough time to make a decision like let us say, five days, which most of the companies do not give. But if they do, then asking for extra time may not work for you. On the other hand, if the company gives you 24 hours to reply to their job offer, then asking for extra time makes more sense.
3. If you take too long to respond to the job offer that you already got, then by the time you respond they might have given that offer to somebody else. And companies do that. So, in a lot of cases, it is much better to take the offer from the first company. Because you have no idea what is going to happen with another company. And companies also interview a lot of other people, so you might have had a really good interview experience, and soon after you left another much better candidate came through. So they might decide to go for them.
But the best-case scenario is you have two offers to choose from, right? Hopefully, the company that you are waiting for will respond before you can accept the offer from the first company. And then you can decide which one to go for.
How to choose from the two companies?
Step 1. Determine whether it is a step-up, step-down, or lateral move
From both the offers for a job, you need to consider this step. All you need to do is look through each job and see if it is a step up, step down or lateral move in terms of salary, benefits, opportunities, etc. And then you need to compare both the offers and see which one is a step-up move. In case one offer is a step down from another, you must not consider that job and hence the decision will be easy for you. In case both offers are the same, you need to move to the next step.
Step 2. Understand what job duties you will get to do
This is a very important thing to consider while accepting a job offer. Because a lot of people do not think about this and make decisions in excitement but later in their career, all they do is regret it. So you must make sure to look at the job duties that you will be required to perform and not just focus on salary, benefits, people that work there, or the company culture. Because all this will not make sense to you if you don’t like your actual job duties. So, go through all the offers that you got, and see which one favors duties that you are willing to do.
3. Sense the company culture
Another thing you should consider while deciding from multiple job offers is to feel out the company culture. When you go for interviews at different companies, try to think of how you feel about the company’s environment. Did you get a warm and welcoming sense from the people working there? Ask yourself. If you feel a kind of tension in their environment, do not just try to logically persuade yourself into thinking that it is a great company to work for when your gut feels otherwise. So, compare the company culture of each company and that will help you guide which job offer to land on.
4. See whether you are getting fairly compensated
Most of us consider compensation as the most important thing when looking at a job offer. Yes, it is important but not the only thing to pay attention to. You should not just look at the compensation and make yourself think it is the heaviest. Because when it comes to compensation that is still negotiable, even though they wrote a certain amount on your job offer letter, you can still negotiate that. So, the reason why you would want to compare compensation packages is not necessarily to just decide but you can leverage other job offers. If the company gave you higher amounts, then go to the company that you are feeling the best about and tell them that you got another job offer and it is the higher amount. From there you will be able to negotiate and leverage that other job offer to hopefully get them to match the job offer amount from the other company. Please do not be afraid to do this because if the company likes you, they will be willing to pay you what you deserve as long as it is justifiable.
5. See which company makes you excited the most
Lastly, you need to determine which job makes you feel more interested in their role. You should listen to your gut feelings and not just go for the company because everyone thinks it is cool. Do not join the company to impress others when you are not feeling excited about the role. Because you can pretend to like the job for a couple of months or even a year, but after that, you will not be able to carry on with the role with that enthusiasm.
Conclusion
The above article is a complete guide on how to face a critical situation where you got an offer from company A on the table and you got company B which you prefer to go for but the offer is not made to you yet. Yes, almost everyone faces this issue in their life when they do job hunting and apply to multiple companies at a time. And it is not wrong, okay.
There are detailed steps mentioned in the articles to handle this scenario along with some bonus tips on how to choose from multiple job offers you might get. You have to consider the important points before deciding to stall the job offer. Go through the article and wisely make the decision.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. Will the company take back the offer letter if we ask for extra time to respond to their offer?
Most probably they will not unless you stall the offer for way too long.
2. Can we decline the job offer after accepting?
Yes, you can. However, it is not considered a very professional move.
