Category Archives: Job Offers
How to Turn Down A Job Offer
Job offers: There are many things that you need to know to get a job offer.
For some people, turning down a job offer is unpleasant. Handling the situation with confidence is often difficult.
Learning to say no to other people is critical to creating healthy relationships.
www.jaywren.com
How you turn down a job offer is important to managing your career both short-term and long-term. In the short-term, you can add the contacts you made in your interviews to your career network. If you are willing to accept the offer provided that the hiring company can change the conditions that do not work for you, you can open the doors to an offer negotiation that may get you the job that you want. In the long-term, people often reappear in your career in ways that can help you. How you turn down a job offer affects the relationships you have with the people you have met.
Getting a job offer is only part of interviewing. Interviewing is a learning process. You learn things about yourself. You learn things about the hiring company. You may learn things that help you better understand your current job.
Withdrawing from the interview process or turning down an offer as soon as you have reached your decision is better for you and better for the people who are interviewing you. You save time for everyone involved. You also lower the risk of burning bridges with the people at the hiring company.
When you turn down an offer, call the people you have met. Thank them for their time. Then send each one of them a thank you note or an email. In your letter or email, you can give them your contact information for their future reference. Put the name, contact information, and brief notes about each person in your contact manager. This information becomes part of your database for managing your career.
When you do turn down a job offer, give the people you have met a specific reason for why you turned down their offer. During the interview process, you will learn things about your goals and about the job at the hiring company. Sometimes when you are interviewing your circumstances change. You receive an offer from another company. You receive a pay raise or a promotion at your current company. The reason you started to look for a job no longer exists. Letting the hiring company know immediately once you have made your decision is courteous and fair. Explain that you had not known these things before you began the interview process.
If you are taking yourself out of the running, you can build goodwill by offering the hiring company suggestions for referrals or new prospects for the job. Before giving a person’s name as a prospect, get that person’s permission. Not everyone wants to have calls about a new job.
Job Offer Questions: 6 Questions to Ask before Accepting a Job Offer
Offer Questions: Mutual understanding starts with great questions. Here are questions you should ask before accepting a job offer.
When a company makes offers you a job, you have done a lot of work. Writing your resume, scheduling interviews, company research, job interviews, follow up, and other steps along the way.
Now you are in control of the process. You have the power to accept or decline the offer.
Before you do either, ask yourself some questions.
Job Offer Questions: Have you met the supervisor?
As a recruiter, I have seen situations where people had not met with the supervisor before starting to work.
In one case, a man quit three days after meeting his supervisor for the first time on the first day of work. He returned to his former employer.
Do you understand the job description?
I have learned from working on recruiting assignments that job descriptions can create confusion. Here are some things you might want to clarify before you take a job. This question is one the most important job offer questions.
- If the job involves travel, where will need to go and how often?
- What are the reporting relationships in the new company? If the job title includes a word such as “manager,” what does that mean? Will you manage a budget? Will you manage people? If so, how many?
- What is the job? If you think that you are joining an innovation team and you find that you are joining a planning team, you will need to do a lot more analysis that creative thinking.
- What is the promotion opportunity or expectation? If you want promotions and there is little opportunity, you are facing frustration. If the company expects you to take promotions and you want to settle into a career position, you could find that you face pressure to leave for people who can keep the promotion pipeline fluid.
Is the workplace right for you?
- How long is the commute?
- What type area surrounds the office?
- Does the job allow you to work at home or require that you commute daily?
- Do you have affordable transportation?
Do you have any special conditions?
For example, you sunk a few thousand dollars into a family vacation that will start six months into your new job.
If you cannot get your money back or if this vacation has special importance to your family, the time to raise the subject is before you accept the offer.
In taking my first job after military service, I came to an agreement that I would be able to take an early vacation for my honeymoon. The management team at the new company fully supported the honeymoon vacation time.
Discussing the matter in advance was important. I was able to prevent any surprises to my new employer. I had the peace of mind of knowing before I started the new job that my plans worked well for the company and me.
Do you understand the benefits?
There are a few things for you to consider about benefits before you accept a job offer.
- What the start date of the benefits? This information is critical to transitioning your healthcare coverage from your current coverage to the coverage at your new job.
- What are the out-of-pocket costs for the benefits? There are differences from one company to the next. I placed people with a company that had terrific coverage for people who lived in California, the home state of the company. However, the costs to people who lived outside of California were several thousand dollars a year.
- What benefits are you giving up in the transition? If you have prescription, major medical, primary care coverage, dental, and optical coverage at your current company, and the new company does not cover some of these things, based on your health, you might find a big gap between what you are getting and what the new company will give you.
- What are the deductibles in the plans at your new company? Insurance companies offer lower rates for higher deductibles. You not need in any surprises in these potential gaps.
How often will the new company pay you?
If the new company pays you twice a month, you get 24 checks a year.
If the new company pays you every two weeks, you get 26 checks a year.
I went through a counteroffer interview when I left a fulltime job while working my way through college. I didn’t accept the counteroffer. However, in hindsight, I did learn that my pay raise at the new job was not a great an increase as I thought.
Salary Increases: Changing Jobs for More Money
Salary Increases: Some people recommend changing jobs every few years solely for an increase in base pay. The benefits could make a difference of tens of thousands of dollars.
Most companies give pay raises of three percent. On the other hand, in changing jobs, you could see salary increases of 10 to 15 percent. Additionally, when you change jobs and move into a job with greater responsible, you could see even greater increases in your salary.
Immediate Gains of Salary Increases
Increases in salary have a compounding impact in your income. At 12% for each job change, your salary increases look like this example.
Current Salary: $50,000
First Job Change: $50,000 + 12% = $56,000
Second Job Change: $56,000 + 12% = $62,720
Third Job Change: $62,720 + 12% = $70,246
Longer-term Gains of Salary Increases
Another powerful reason for changing jobs for salary is that, as your salary grows, the amount of your pay raises increase. In other words, changing jobs for more money not only gives you a short-term boost in income; the change affects your long-term increases. Here are two examples for comparison. In both cases, I used 3% increases you might expect at your current employer.
Base Salary: $50,000 plus 3% pay raises
- Starting Salary: $50,000
- First Raise: $51,500
- Second Raise: $53,045
- Third Raise: $54,636
- Fourth Raise: $56,275
- ($50,000 + $51,500 + $53,045 + $54,636 + $56,275 = $265, 456)
However, with a salary of $70,246, your 3% annual increases would look like these examples.
- Starting Salary: $70,246
- First Raise: $72,353
- Second Raise: $74,524
- Third Raise: $76,760
- Fourth Raise: $79,063
- ($70,246 + $72,353 + $74,524 + $76,760 + $79,063 = $372,946 )
Negotiating higher starting salaries can also have a huge impact on your earnings.
How to Turn Job Interview Jitters into Poise and Confidence
Job Interview Jitters: At a time when you want to feel confident, you are tense and uncomfortable. Believe in yourself. Take these simple steps to create poise and confidence.
Believing in Ourselves is the First Step to Poise and Confidence. ~ www.jaywren.com
Job Interview Jitters and Stage Fright
Stage fright comes from thinking about ourselves. However, the audience is there to hear our message. Confidence comes from changing our focus from ourselves to what our audience needs to know.
Likewise, job interview jitters come from thinking about ourselves. However, instead, we can focus on the information the interviewer needs to know.
Arrive Early
Clear your schedule to arrive early and have time if the interview runs late. Getting to the interview early relieves you of the stress of trying to beat the clock. Additionally, when a hiring manager must wait for you to arrive, you risk frustrating the interviewer in ways that could cost you the job.
Eat Before Your Interview
Being hungry can make you feel nervous. Take a light snack and a bottle of water with you. Find a comfortable place to relax. Enjoy your snack about thirty minutes before your interview. Give your body time to digest the snack and get the food into your system. Hungry alone can create job interview jitters.
Reduce the Caffeine
Before an interview, avoid dark chocolate bars and caffeinated drinks. They are great for energy. The sugar and caffeine can give you an energy boost. However, as the sugar wears off, you can feel an energy drop. The caffeine can leave you feeling on edge. Caffeine, added to the adrenaline of having interview pressure can give you a heavy case of the jitters.
Prepare Thoroughly
Know the details of the company. Know the details of the job for which you are interviewing. Review your resume. Know how to discuss your experience in terms of how are qualified for the job.
Questions About the Company
Having questions about the company will show that you are interested in the job. Additionally, having written questions will help you to remember to ask the questions that you will need answered.
Anticipate Interviewer Questions
Try to expect questions that the interviewer might ask. Focus on situations in your background that make you feel uncertain about your skills and employment history. Write those situations in the form of questions and write your answers. Continue to practice giving your answers until you feel comfortable.
Breathe
Baseball players use this simple technique often. Watch pitchers right before the windup or batters right before stepping into the batter’s box. The players will take one or two deep breaths. You don’t need to master any complex breathing meditation. Just take a deep breath and release it slowly.
Script the Match
Research the company thoroughly. Create a script: list reasons why you want to work for this company; list reasons why you are the best candidate for the job and the company.
The Interviewer’s Background
Research the interviewer’s background. Be able to tell the interviewer positive things you know about them and their accomplishments. If you have things in common that are relevant to the job interview, mention those things. Use the interviewer’s name during the interview.
Job Interview Jitters: Conclusion
Poise and confidence are always inside us. We just need to know how to find them.
Remember that the interviewer wants to speak with you. The person sees things in your background that show that you are qualified for the job.
The night before the interview, read your resume. Make notes about your accomplishments. Write specific titles and names of the people with whom you have worked. Make a list of the specific skills you have used to create your accomplishments. Read your scripted notes about the interviewer. Review the match between you and the job opening. You should sleep better knowing that you are prepared. A good night’s sleep will give you even more confidence and poise.
Sharing Economy: Finding Gigs for Your Assets and Skills
The Sharing Economy: The purpose of this article is to help job seekers find income quickly and help employed people quickly find supplemental income. With the Internet expansion and coincidental high unemployment from the 2008 recession, companies began to spring up to connect personal asset sharing with consumers. The development of phone applications has increased the ease for making these connections.
For many people, this article will serve as a reminder of the opportunities for short-term, immediate ways of making money. For others, this article may help people understand how they can quickly make money by working with sharing companies.
Sharing Economy Keywords
Knowing the nomenclature of the sharing economy will help you locate opportunities on the Internet. Here are some of the categories of gigs and asset sharing.
- Vehicle or equipment renting
- Overnight accommodations
- Ridesharing alternatives to taxis and busses
- Delivery services from store to consumers
- Experts on demand
- Crowdfunding to raise money from a large number of people who contribute small amounts of money
- Ad-supported video sharing
The examples above will help you with keywords for searches to find ways of making money. Here are additional keywords to help you identify opportunities in the sharing economy.
- Sharing Economy, obviously
- Peer-to-Peer Redistribution Markets
- Social Commerce
- Crowdfunding
- Collaborative Consumption
The Benefits of the Gig Economy
For 33 years as a recruiter, I earned a living by filling one job and then another. I worked under contract with multiple companies. Essentially, my company worked gigs or projects. I did not receive a regular paycheck from an employer. The hiring companies contracted their search assignments out to me. I took advantage of social media and a monthly newsletter to promote my business.
I worked gig on contract.
However, I had the benefits of setting my own hours, living where I wanted to live, and increased my income based on my performance. The gig economy enables workers to have those freedoms.
On the other hand, my income was uncertain. Again, as I stated earlier, I did not have a regular salary from a large company.
Sharing Economy is Not Perfect
A few years ago, my firm tested working a shared economy recruiting site. Using a sharing service was different from the way my firm had always done business.
The sharing company had a website for finding and applying for contracts with their clients. Once my firm obtained a contract for a search, we uploaded applicants’ resumes to the website.
The reason that I began to work with this job search network was that one of my major clients had turned all of its search assignments over to this company and listed me as one of their preferred firms. To continue to work with this client company, I had to coordinate with the company’s chosen job-sharing search company.
My firm did have an offer extended through the sharing site. I received more searches, but the revenue per search was lower. I found that for my company I could make more money more quickly by sticking to my business model of working directly with hiring companies. Unlike working with my long-time clients where I typically had exclusivity, the job-sharing company assigned their searches to a number of recruiting firms.
Additionally, I began to become concerned that once my recruited candidates were in the system of the job-sharing company, I was not able to track how this company might be managing these job seekers for future searches.
Competition in the Sharing Community
How well job-sharing works for you depends in part on the number of competitors you have. The more people a gig company hires increases the power of the company to serve their customers. However, the more people a gig company hires reduces your opportunities for work.
In my experience, the gig job search company I joined listed dozens of jobs. However, I had to compete with countless other recruiters simply to get approval to work on a specific search. Then, for the searches I was able to contract, the gig company contracted other recruiters to work on the same search.
My experience is consistent with what other people find when seeking gigs through job-sharing websites. The hiring companies benefit from having a surplus of workers. On the other hand, the workers suffer from a system bloated with other workers.
Quit Struggling to Get Jobs Below Your Qualifications
Qualifications: Quit Struggling to Get Jobs Below Your Qualifications. Are you frustrated, because hiring companies will not see you for jobs you can do easily? Are you overqualified for these jobs. There risks to you and the employer in hiring people who are overqualified.
Risks to Employers
Speaking as a recruiter, I can tell you that my clients focus on specific skills. These clients want to hire qualified candidates. However, they avoid overqualified applicants.
Why? Overqualified people are a risk of leaving as soon as they find a job at their skill level. Vacancies are a burden. They damage morale and productivity. Filling vacancies takes time away from other company efforts. Furthermore, staffing fees are costly, especially when searching for highly qualified candidates.
The Risks to You for Interviewing Job Below You Qualifications
Taking a job below your qualifications damages your career. You risk creating a picture of yourself as backslider. You raise questions about your ability to continue to grow. Furthermore, you may raise questions about what happened to push you back in your career.
How to Get Great Interviews with Companies Who Need Your Experience
Case Study:
Bob (not the real name): “How I should format my resume for the greatest success?”
Me: “As a person with advanced degrees and advanced qualifications, you should consider two formats for you resume: A Curriculum Vitae (CV) format or a resume format. Here are two articles that may help.
Bob: ”How should I list my skills in a resume?”
Me: “Be specific. For example, I once had a search for a company that sold perishable products (products types are different from this example). I had a resume for a general manager who was perfect for the job. His resume showed that he had canned goods experience. However, his resume did not show is that he also had the required perishable foods experience at the same company.
After I filled the job, I learned that he was qualified for the job.
Bob: “How do I select companies?”
Me: “My recommendation is that you target specific jobs, not just every job opening. Identify roles that match your skills and get to know people who work at places that hire people for those roles.
Use your current close professional and personal network more frequently than you use a broad network of people on LinkedIn.
When introducing yourself via a referral, first ask for permission to use the person as a reference.
Where you have friends, who want to help you, ask them to forward your resume to a professional at a place where you want to work. Additionally, ask them to copy you on the resume. Then you follow up directly with the new contact.”
Job Counter Offers: The Stress of Leaving a Company
Job counter offers are ways companies avoid the annoyances of losing employees at the wrong time.
~ www.jaywren.com
Should you stay or should you go?
Job counter offers are risky.
If you stay, the reasons you resigned seldom go away. In addition, when you met with your boss to turn in your resignation, you showed your boss that you have been disloyal by interviewing with another company.
As for the value of a counter offer, be aware that companies prefer to lose people based on the company’s timing. The reasons are easy to understand. Your company is in the middle of a work project that could fail if people leave. You are one of those people. You find yourself in a counter offer that has more to do with completing the project than your value to the company.
So, what happens during a counter offer?
You go through a standard process to keep people aboard until the company can throw them overboard.
- Your boss asks you the reasons that you are leaving.
- Then your boss shows understanding about your frustrations.
- Your boss promises to make changes to keep you on the job.
- You may receive a pay raise or a promise of a pay raise. Remember that you forced the pay raise by trying to resign.
- Your boss may even may promises to improve things as time goes on.
- Your boss gets the details of your job offer and shows you the flaws in going to the new company.
- You feel pressure from the counter offer process. You become indecisive. Even if your company does not offer you a pay raise or change any of the conditions that have made you unhappy, the company pressures you to stay.
- You begin to waver in your decision.
The Stress of Job Counter Offers
If you are feeling the stress of a job counter offer, you are not alone.
As a recruiter, I have had applicants go through so much stress that they have cried. I had one manager who was going through a counter offer that was so stressful he called me at 2:00 AM. He was in tears. He was still in tears later that day when he called me to say that he had accepted his company’s counter offer.
The company convinced him to stay.
Seven month later, he was out again interviewing with another company. Nothing changed after he accepted the counter offer. He still hated where he worked. He needed to get another job.
Unfortunately, another employee saw him interviewing at the airport. The job searcher turned in a daily report that showed that he was making sales calls. The report was false. His boss knew that the report was false. At this point, his current employer no longer needed him. The same boss who had talked him into staying seven months before fired him.
He was unemployed without a job offer in hand.
How to Reduce the Pressure of Job Counter Offers
You can reduce the pressure.
When you resign, make the discussion short and to the point. Just be polite. Say that you are leaving. Don’t share any information about your future employer or the amount of the offer.
When you think you are reasoning with your employer by sharing information about your new job, you are just engaging in a discussion that will increase the pressure.
Just give your resignation and listen but don’t speak.
Interview Feedback: How a Thank You Letter Can Land You a Job
Interview Feedback: Have you had interviews and have no idea how well the interview went? A thank you letter can help you land the job.
“If you need interview feedback, sometimes all you need to do is ask for it.” www.jaywren.com
Interview Feedback: How A Thank You Letter Can Land You a Job
After an interview, you should always send a thank you letter to your interviewer. You are in competition with other candidates. Therefore, setting yourself apart from those candidates is important in getting a job offer.
A Thank-You Letter Can Help You Do Several Things.
You can reinforce your interest in the job. Additionally, you can reinforce your qualifications for the job.
Also, the thank you letter gives you an opportunity to ask for interview feedback and to ask for another meeting.
Who Gets an Interview Thank You Letter?
Send a thank you letter to everyone who met you. If you are working with a recruiter, send the letter to the hiring managers and a blind copy the recruiter. Recruiters have an interesting role between you and the company. They can help reinforce your interests and your qualifications for the job. Keeping the recruiters informed is important to enabling them to help you.
Note that both letters have a call to action: that is, you ask for a time to meet again.
Email or Postal Letter?
A thank you email helps you respond promptly.
A thank you letter is more formal and more impressive.
These formats will help you write a post-interview thank you letter in either format.
Sample Email Thank-You Letter
Name of Recipient:
The purpose of this email is to thank you for meeting with me to discuss my qualifications for the [name of position].
I am excited about your opportunity.
When may I meet with you again to discuss your opportunity further?
Thank you,
Your Name
Phone Number
Email address
Postal Thank-You Letter
I created a lengthier, more detailed discussion that might help you remind the hiring manager of your qualifications and your interest. You can add a discussion like the one in the postal cover letter to the email cover letter as well.
Your information
Street address
City, state, zip
Phone number
Email address
Date
Contact’s information
Name, titles
Company name
Street address
City, state, zip
Phone number
Email address
Dear [Name of Hiring Manager]:
Thank you for meeting with me this morning. After our meeting, I am even more excited about the possibility of working for your company.
I believe that I can contribute at once to your business. Furthermore, I have accomplishments in the following areas that crossover to the job you have available:
Increased administrative efficiency 20%
Reduced 3rd-party contract costs 30%
Trained 6 new hires, all of whom have been promoted
Four-year member of the President Sales Club.
Your description of the responsibilities, the team environment, and the growth plan for your company tell me that your job is the job I want and that your company is the place where I want to work.
I look forward to being invited back for another meeting.
When may I speak with you again?
Thank you again for your time.
Sincerely,
Your Signature
Your Name Typed
In Conclusion
In these examples, I created two bodies of content. The shorter you make your letter the better. However, if you believe that making the letter more detailed, and therefore, longer to read will help you get to a job offer.
The One Thing You Should Know to Get a Job Offer
Job offers are the midway point in a job change. ~ www.jaywren.com
Job offer: There are many things that you need to know to get a job offer. However, the answer to this one question is critical.
The One Thing You Should Know to Get a Job Offer
There are many interview questions that challenge your ability to think on the spot. There are many things that you just can’t know.
Often, you don’t know anything about the other candidates, the salary, or the interviewer.
Therefore, you need to prepare by being able to answer one simple question.
Why Should We Hire You?
The things that you do know are the facts of your qualifications: that is, the things that make you the person the company wants to hire.
Furthermore, you not only want to show that you have the experience and education for the job. You want to show that you have a record of accomplishment in the job for which you are applying.
Here’s How You Make It Work.
Before you go to an interview, rehearse a short pitch on how your experience shows that you have successfully performed the same job. Some people call this short pitch, “The Elevator Pitch.”
- Say that they should hire the most qualified person for the job.
- Summarize the objective of the job.
- State a list of successful things you have done to achieve and exceed this type of objective.
- State that the reason that you are interviewing for the job is that you enjoy performing the type of tasks the job requires.
- Close by saying that whomever the company hires, the person will be lucky to get the job.
- Say that you hope that the company hires you.
In conclusion, prepare for the question “Why should we hire you?“
This type of question challenges you to think about your qualifications. In your preparation, you can practice giving answers that show that you are an outstanding applicant for the job. Answering the question with a positive, enthusiastic statement about how much you want the job will help seal your opportunity in getting a job offer.
https://www.jaywren.com/category/job-offers/
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