Declining Offers and Deadlines
Brian wrote a very thoughtful response to my last blog post of declining offers with some valuable comments, which has prompted my next post:
What do you do when faced with multiple interviews and offer deadlines that overlap? How do you evaluate all of your options and make a decision in a reasonable timeframe?
This is a common problem, and if you are looking at multiple employers, it's hard to avoid (and Yes Brian, I agree with you, there is nothing wrong with looking at multiple companies, I would do the same thing).
Here is my advice:
Be upfront at the start. Hiring managers and recruiters don’t like “surprises," and you have little to gain by having “secret” interviews with other companies. When you receive your first offer, let all the recruiters know, and instead of delaying the deadline on the current offer that you just received, push your other pending interviews to an earlier date. This approach does a few things:
- It will maintain the passion and integrity you have with your current offer and show them you are interested and taking them seriously; not willing to let them be “second place."
- It demonstrates to your other pending interviews that you are wanted elsewhere, and puts the ownership on the second company to “sell” you as well as evaluate you.
- Nothing speeds up a recruiter faster than knowing that you have other offers and a tight deadline.
When you tell the second interviewing company of your competing offer, it is a gesture of “good faith” to offer to FAX your competing offer to the recruiter (this can be a power move for candidates as it also establishes a new “bottom-line” on compensation). While this won’t likely be required, it will demonstrate that you are truthful and transparent in your communication and not just pushing date changes for arbitrary reasons.
And what if the other pending interviews refuse to change the date? I would argue that any company that refuses to change the date of your interview with a competing offer in hand is not that serious about your candidacy, and this should be taken into consideration with your decision. This may sound harsh, but I stand by it….
-Jenna
PS-- Look for two follow up posts I will do next week: the first one with more detail on ”what is a reasonable deadline?" and a second on a real-life example of a recent hire who used this above approach with me…
15 Comments
Mihir said:
Jenna-
Thanks for the post. I was a little surprised at some of the stataements in your posts. For example (I quote):
"When you tell the second interviewing company of your competing offer, it is a gesture of “good faith” to offer to FAX your competing offer to the recruiter (this can be a power move for candidates as it also establishes a new “bottom-line” on compensation). While this won’t likely be required, it will demonstrate that you are truthful and transparent in your communication and not just pushing date changes for arbitrary reasons. "
Personally, I feel, that disclosing dollar amounts from competing offer is unprofessional. Would it be annoying for the recruter of company A, if I faxed my salary offer to company B, specially if the two companies are direct compeitetors? I have been in similar situations in the past, and I have *never* disclosed the company names to the recruiter. While negotiating, I have always told that "I have a competing offer in the range of $XX,XXX. However, the position described by company B sounds more interesting and challenging, and my skillsets compliment this very well. Is there anything that can be worked out for my offer to be on par with company A?". This is always worked for me - no disclosing company names.
Thoughts?
Zac said:
I agree with Mihir on this. I found your suggestion about faxing a competing offer interesting.
My MSFT recruiter specifically told me that the specifics of the offer was confidential and he expected me not to disclose it to anyone (expect for those who would help me decide on it)
James said:
Zac, here's some food for thought - many recruiters and companies will tell you that they don't want you to disclose the offers that they have given you or that you shouldn't tell your coworkers what you make. However, those same companies often try to demand that you disclose what you have made in past positions in other companies...
Jason Haley said:
Mihir said:
James -
I have interviewed with MS several times before, and I do agree that they have always asked me for my current salary. I have always told them that the position I am seeking at Microsoft bears more resposibility, and therefore my past history and current salary will mean very little. When I say this, the recuiter has never "pushed" me to disclose the salary - I am always asked a follow-up question of "How much do you expect?".
Jenna said:
Wow- all great comments:
OK, to the first point about disclosing your current salary: I wrote a prior series of posts about it under "negotiating offers" and also "transparency". Depending on what you are making (and what you want to make) disclosing your salary can be a very strong negotiating move.
And to the second point about FAX'ing an offer letter: this is one example of why this blog is so great.. you can actually hear examples of what "other people" do in the process. And disclosing offer specifics, and the companies that are giving those offers, is a very standard practice, whether you choose to agree with it or not. James is exactly right; companies don't want you to disclose their offers because it allows firms to get in a bidding war for you, which hurts the company (but is excellent for you).
People don't always agree with the advice I give on disclosing $, and that is ok with me... but I stand by my statement that being transparent about $ likely helps you.
James said:
Mihir -
Not having been through an interview at Microsoft, I can't speak for their practice in that area. I can say, however, that almost every company which has asked that question and I instead point out that my value is not in what someone else was paying me but in my skills and experience, I was not asked a follow up of "what do you expect" but rather a broken recording of "what did you make before?"
If Microsoft really does take the approach that you mentioned, I take my hat off to them. They're in the minority.
Mihir said:
Jenna -
Thanks for the comments. I will wait for the other two series, particularly the one where you are going to talk about a live example candidate.
James -
I do not know if this is a Microsoft-wide approach. It may just be that the recruiters I have spoken to have taken the approach. Ofcourse, I have never received an offer from Microsoft, so I can not say what information is asked during the negotiation process.
James said:
Jenna –
I agree that disclosing the other offers you have can usually only help you. However, disclosing your previous (or current) salary can either help or hurt you. If you are making a good salary, then it’s a positive thing to disclose. However, sometimes when you come off of a bad job (like my situation at the moment) it can act as justification for the company interviewing you to try and give you a lower salary than you should be making (or, in the case of some places I have seen recently, just completely blow you off).
In my case, the first thing on my resume was when I was still a student (and students there are always underpaid). After graduation, I started doing freelance work as a developer (I like development, just not constantly trying to find new jobs) and, late last year, I ran into a company that was starting up a technology magazine.
They offered me what could have been a really good deal (50% of the revenue) if it worked out, so I took a chance. Thanks to one of the articles that I wrote (which, as far as I know, is still circulating around the net) and a decent amount of guerilla advertising, the readership really took off. Unfortunately, the advertisements didn’t within a reasonable time frame, so I relinquished most of my duties there, just staying on board to offer advice and guidance.
That leads me back here, to the occasional freelance work again and looking for a full time position. In my case, the “What did you make before” question is kind of a poison pill at the moment. I’d love to find a decent company (here or elsewhere) to be a part of the team with, but most of the ones where I currently am don’t seem to understand the concept that sometimes startups fail and assume that I wasn’t good at what I did no matter what they are told.
Brian Korzeniowski said:
James -
I can relate to what you are saying, but I agree with Jenna. At my present position, the hiring manager flat out asked me what my salary requirements were. I told him upfront what I wanted. Then, I proceeded to contact every recruiter - like Jenna says. My phone rang off the hook with their clients wanting to know if they could sweeten the deal to land me.
Only a handfull of employers attemtped to offer me less than what I asked for, or what was industry standard when they found out I was willing to "negotiate" salary. Notice I am not working for them right now. :-)
Oh - instead of apologizing for your entreprenurial experience you should be touting that! That's HUGE dude! You got to experience FIRSTHAND how a business grows and extinguishes itself. That knowledge is never wasted. Talk that up not down - especially in an entreprenurial atmosphere like Microsoft!
scooblog by josh ledgard said:
Today was Gretchen’s last day of work at Microsoft and therefore the last time we’ll really be driving...
Dave said:
What I did, when I was looking at changing jobs (and I did eventually accept an offer from Microsoft) was set a "decide by" deadline. Every company I spoke with knew that there was a specific "I will make my decision by this date"; the feedback I received from recruiters (both third-party recruiters I was working with, and companies) was that having an explicit decision date was viewed as a good thing.
Technical Careers @ Microsoft said:
I’m sure we could have a hearty debate on the use of offer deadlines, but instead of entering into...
Atul said:
Interview process with MS is so weird GOD knows are you getting hired for a big company who cares what you know without any influence of who you are in race or colour.
I had an interview where the product manager does not even asks me any technical question and still says HR will call you for further discussion! NO call back... not even sure why he dropped .
May be he knew somebody who he wanted to hire.
Microsoft's JobsBlog said:
I’m sure we could have a hearty debate on the use of offer deadlines, but instead of entering into a