You’re finally nearing the end of your job search. You got your resume out there, interviewed with several companies, and now you’re waiting for those job offers to come rolling in. You’ve gotten one offer—what should you do while you wait for the second, third, fourth? Do you take it? Or do you put the first one on hold while you keep looking? Here are some tips on how to juggle offers while giving all your options a fair chance.
Maintain good relationships
Be honest with everyone. Don’t stiff arm the first company by telling little white lies. If they give you a firm deadline, don’t make up an excuse about why you need more time. Not only is this bad form, it frustrates them. They surely won’t wait around forever. Even the most compassionate hiring manager will get fed up. If you’re straightforward, they’ll respect your honesty and appreciate your integrity.
Lies are risky. Stay on everyone’s good side—you never know whether you’ll see these employers again. You always want them to remember you as “the one who got away,” not “the one who lied to them.”
Make them compete for you
Let’s say you’re waiting to hear back from a company who’s really dragging its feet, but you’ve already received a few offers. If you’re honest with that other company, you might actually speed up their decision-making process. Email them to let them know 
that you’ve had a few good offers and you want to know when you can expect a decision from them. If you’re truly one of their top candidates, they’ll start grinding their wheels to make sure they get you.
Get more feedback
Or they might not. If you’re dealing with a large company, they often take their sweet time perusing candidates. They have a lot of red tape to get through and opinions to consider before they make an offer. In other words, your honest plea might not do anything to speed up their process, but the open communication might give you some helpful insight. They might tell you that you’re a top candidate. Or they’ll let you know that you’re not. Either way, you at least have a little more information that can help you decide whether or not to accept the first offer.
A job is a job
You might start worrying that you’ll regret taking that first job offer. Or what if you reject the first one and wait for a better one that never comes along? It’d be nice if job offers arrived in your inbox at the exact same time, and you could make a nice little spreadsheet with pros and cons for each job. Instead, job searches are messy—you get one offer while you’re just starting the interview process with a competing company. Regardless, a job offer is a very good thing to have, especially if you can turn it into a job.
For more tips on how to make sure you get the best job offer you can, check out our website at https://www.chiefofstaffkc.com.
Blog written by Erin Greenhalgh