Category: Charting Your Career for Success

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.

Build a Powerhouse Reference List as Part of Building Your Professional Network.

It seems that most people think of creating a reference list when a hiring manager requests to see one.

Another approach is to mention to people with whom you seem to bond that at some point you, should you need a reference, you would appreciate the person helping you. At the same time, let the person know that you are available to assist them whenever needed. Then, when the time comes, you can feel confident in having people who will speak positively about your character and your work. Building a reference list becomes simply an element of building your professional network.

Having a large list of references is important. Likewise, having a varied reference list is important. Different hiring managers have different ideas as to the types of people they want to contact. This experience can make you feel real pressure to tailor your list to a hiring manager’s request. Therefore, extend your contacts and build relationships wherever you go: work, neighborhood, conventions, and across your personal and professional spectrum.

Before submitting the reference’s name, speak with the person. Get up to speed with them. Offer to help them whenever they may have a need in their careers and networks.

Do not send references with your resume. You are burdening potential employers with the stress of managing extra documents they may feel they will never need. Moreover, you are sharing access to your professional when there is no need to do so.

A little planning can help make your job change easier. Build your reference list as you make new connections.

Identify your career options. Develop a refined list of options by examining your interests, skills, and values through self-assessment, researching companies, and talking to experienced professionals. You can further narrow your list when you take part in experiences such as shadowing or working alongside a company employee, volunteering, or internships.

Next, list all the things you need to do to accomplish your career goals.

Here are questions to ask to create a strategy for your career.

1. 1. Location: Where Do You Want to Live?
   2. Type of Job or Industry: What Do You Want to Do?
   3. How Well Do You Work with Other People?
   4. Opportunities for Promotion: Do You Want to Lead People?
   5. Money: How Important is Income?
   6. Risk: How Well Do You Tolerate Risk?
   7. Do You have a Mentor or Advisor?
   8. Job Security: What are the Risks of Playing It Safe?
   9. What Education Do You Need?
   10. What Experience Do You Need?
   11. Should You Take an Aptitude Test?
   12. Who Hires People with Your Goals and Qualifications?

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.