Having different job options can be a blessing. Still, it can also be stressful, especially when you have no idea handling more offers. You’ll have to strive not to damage your relationship with the company while waiting for a job offer as you hope for an answer from the company you want to work for.
So, it would help if you learned how to navigate between declining an offer and making an informed decision about waiting for a job offer of your dreams. Don’t worry; you’re at the right place. This article covers what it means to respond to a job offer while waiting on other opportunities. It also discusses the tips and strategies to handle and communicate well with your current employer.
What does it mean to respond to an offer while waiting for a Job Offer of your dream?
Responding to an offer while waiting for a job offer opportunity means holding off on accepting an offer on the table while maintaining your candidacy. This might help you get the position you want with the benefits that match your desires than damaging your relationship for the sake of your first offer.
Tips and strategies of stalling an offer while waiting for your dream opportunity
With your career ambitions, skills and experience, you know you’re capable of landing your dream job. You have created a perfect network, and you feel you have done well in the interview.
But now, the hiring responsibility is in the recruiting manager’s hands. You have nothing to do but to wait. Again waiting can sometimes be had, especially when you don’t know what to do next. So, when do you land an offer while still waiting for a job offer of your dream? Consider the following tips.
1. Embrace gratitude
It can be stressful and sometimes confusing to get a job offer while waiting for a job offer. Most job seekers would struggle to make a decision. However, change your mindset and practice gratitude. When waiting for a job offer, show your employer that you’re grateful about the job offer and let them know you value the company and the proposal at the table.
2. Promptly respond to the job offer
Immediately you receive a job offer, ensure to go through it and provide a response within one business day. This would show your communication skills and indicate you value their time. You should do this even if you aren’t ready or will accept the offer.
3. Request for a written job offer
Word of mouth has no evidence or proof. Besides, people can always change their minds. So, when you are still weighing other job opportunities, it would be imperative you request a written job offer from your employer. This would help show proof of consideration even if you come after your dream job has failed.
How to communicate you need to delay an employment offer
While waiting for a jib offer of your dream, with another opportunity on your desk, you would want to be very courteous in addressing your employers’ job offer. Should you tell them you have another offer? Or how best can you address the offer? The guide below would help you remain a top candidate while at the same time maintaining committed professionalism. So:
1. Provide an enthusiastic response
Create a very enthusiastic response to the employer thanking them for the job offer. You can also communicate your interest in the company even if you have your mind somewhere else. Responding to the proposal is significant in giving you adequate time to create a more detailed letter or statement on why you aren’t accepting their offer yet.
2. Get confirmation of the employer decision timeline
Before you decide to stall and delay your response or acceptance to a job offer, you must care to find out what your employer prefers about the response timeline. It may be that they expect your confirmation within a business workday or even after a month.
Knowing the timeline helps you gauge the possibility of landing your other job so that you don’t miss a chance while concentrating on one. So, ensure to share your response portrays your desire to work with the employer. Depending on their expected confirmation period, you can use the remaining time to wait or follow up on your dream job offer.
3. Request for additional time
Sometimes, your employer wants to get a confirmation immediately after they give the offer. If that is the case, you can ask for more time to deliberate on the proposal. If they don’t accept your request, then you should consider if their offer is worth listening to before hearing from your dream company.
4. Show your interest in learning more about the company
While you ask for additional confirmation time to consider the offer, you ask for opportunities to discover more about the company. You can as well ask to meet and tour the company. Doing this gives you time to get back or hear back from your dream job offer. It also gives you a chance to determine if the company you’re touring is best for you.
5. Compare and contrast the different opportunities by the company
Sometimes you’ll be waiting for a job offer for long before the company gets back to you. Take advantage of the long wait time to compare what the companies offer. Here are some of the factors to consider:
The company’s work culture. Organizational culture is a set of shared goals, values, beliefs, and practices or attitudes that characterize a company. It’s how employees feel about their works, the values and goals they believe in and how they see their organization’s future.
So while comparing, ensure you consider what the company offers and determine if the workplace culture fits your lifestyle. For instance, if you’re a casual person, then a company that dictates the dress code and forces for official wear won’t be ideal.
6. Salary expectations and other employee benefits
Salary expectations and employee benefits are very crucial while choosing a job offer. Besides, you know your level of skills and experience. So, you have to choose an opportunity that provides the best salary that would help support your livelihood.
Also, consider various employee benefits provided in every offer and weigh those that suit your desires and needs. Depending on your needs, you can choose an offer that provides benefits like:
- Health and life insurance
- Financial planning and retirement benefits
- Remote or flexible working benefits
- Long and short-term disability insurance, among other benefits
Company work-life balance. Your work-life balance is essential for your general mental and physical health. It’s also effective in ensuring relationships and improving production or ultimate performances. So, consider a company that strictly supports or stresses the benefit of maintaining an effective work-life balance.
7. Let the other company know you have received a job offer
Waiting for long can frustrate you and disorganize your plans. Besides, you may be waiting for a response from a company that might have employed someone and forgot to get back. So, let your dream company know that you got a job offer from another firm.
This would help speed things up or evoke some response, especially if they consider you their best candidate.
Signs that you should take a job offer
After searching for jobs, redesigning your resume to fit specific details and attending several job interviews, here, you finally get an offer. Several of them. While this is an exciting chance, you must, however, choose wisely on the type of offer you take.
Switching between jobs can be intimidating and sometimes a life changer. And so many aspects would be considered when choosing an offer over the other. Of course, we know about the salary and the company culture. But the following signs would help you determines the best offer to choose;
1. Opportunities for growth
Focused employees would always want to learn and acquire new skills. So, if you desire to improve or add a unique experience, check if the company provides various employee development programs.
Some of the opportunities to consider include:
- Employee cross-training that would ensure you develop skills across various areas
- Employee-stretch assignments are tasks beyond employee current knowledge, skills, and experiences. Such offers challenge and force you to learn, grow and spur your confidence.
- Advancement and promotion; consider the company promotion programs to help know your chances of getting promotion advancements.
- Workshops, seminars, online training or retreats such opportunities shows how much the company is willing to support your various professional development
2. Low turnover rates
Low turnover rates would indicate that most of the employees’ needs are catered for or satisfied. The truth is, most employees would leave a company when they feel their needs are not met.
So, companies with low turnover rates would mean their wages, development growths and benefits or compensations are on point. It also represents the company’s value to the extent that no one wants to leave.
3. Finance stability
While waiting for a job offer and before you decide to work with the firms, you have to research the company’s financial status. This is possible mainly with companies that have gone digital or public. If the company is stable, you can be sure of your salary and other advancements.
Also, financial stability may be a sign of faster growth, so you have to decide if you want to be part of any growth pain the company may experience in the future.
4. Align with your career goals
Amongst the reason, people switch their jobs is to find something that directly relates to their career. Of course, you can be handling a task for years as means to survive or either you have some skills and knowledge about it. But that doesn’t mean it aligns with your profession.
However, if this new job offer aligns better with your career goals, then it would be worth giving a trial. So, take time to reflect on your career path and what you want to achieve. Even better, determine if the task on the new job would help you achieve the goals.
5. Exciting projects or works
Closely related to your career goals, learn what type of projects come with the offer and beware of your future responsibilities. If they seem exciting, that is a good sign to consider the proposal.
6. Adequate first impression and you positive feelings
Of course, you can always have time to pre-visit the company or get more information online or during your interviews. So, figure out your first impression when you see the company.
To do that, ask yourself if the employees were friendly and whether the group social dynamics of the company are favorable and well improved. Also, consider if you like the layout or the design and the company’s structure and whether it would make you comfortable.
Closely related to impression is your feelings. After you have thought about your new offer’s features, now, the gut feeling you have about this new job should be your priority. Go ahead and accept the offer if you get some positive emotions.
However, when you’re unsure of what to do, you have to continue researching the company. You can also ask some of the employees about the features and how it feels to work for the company. Employees would give the actual feeling on the ground to help you make a more informed decision when you respond to a job offer.
Sometimes you may get several job offers from different companies, including your dream firm. If that is the case, how best can you deal with the multiple offers, and how do you decline requests?
How to gracefully decline a job offer
You may want to decline a job offer for various reasons. For instance, you may be lucky to have received several offers, or a position may not be suitable for you. Regardless of the reasons, the following tips would help you respectfully decline an offer.
Be sure of the decision you’re making
Before you decide to decline a job offer, you must ensure you’re sure about your decision. To help you make the right decision, you can create a list of advantages and disadvantages to compare and contrast your reasons for the decline.
Choose the right medium that makes you comfortable
Once you’re certain about your decision, it’s now time to choose the best channel you want to use to deliver the message. Of course, various communication channels have their merits and drawbacks.
But to make your work simple, use the same delivery method they use to contact you about the position. For instance, if they left you a voicemail or called you, calling them back would be much more professional, and drop them a mail if they did contact you via an email.
Express your gratitude
The company sending you a job has invested a lot of their energy, time, and resources into sending or hiring process, from the review of applications to screening and interviews.
Therefore, it would just be wise to acknowledge or show gratitude for their efforts in your hiring process. So despite the fact you aren’t accepting their job offer, leave them a thank you note and appreciate their efforts.
Clearly state your reason for turning down their job offer
When it comes to declining a job offer, it would be best to let the company know why you’re passing on the proposal. While giving your reason for the decline, try and keep it simple. You don’t need to go into many details; provide a general explanation.
During your research for the company, you might have had or noticed something you didn’t like. However, you don’t need to be brutal; be clear, and you can let them know you have accepted another offer.
Provide a recommendation
The truth is, you can’t refer someone after you have declined a job. However, you give the details of someone you think would be a good fit for the job, so offer to recommend them. This shows some level of consideration and care. However, you must recommend someone you believe has the same level of qualifications the position requires.
Show them that you would always love to stay connected
New opportunities may always come up. Besides, you might have declined a job offer because it doesn’t favor your salary likings. However, if you show or express your desire to always keep in touch with the company, they can keep you updated on new roles. Only if you develop an effective rapport with them.
So, complete your rejection letter by showing them how much you enjoyed their hiring process and that you’d like to stay updated and connected.
Tips to help you stay calm as you wait for a job offer
Sometimes after job interviews, you’ll already know how things went- you can be confident you did pretty well or be worried you could have done something better.
Unfortunately, until your prospective employer gets back with a rejection or job offer, you’ll have to wait. But waiting for a job offer can sometimes be hard when you don’t exactly know what to do next. Should you continue searching for a job or contact the company?
Here is what you can do when waiting for a job offer:
1. Never leave your current job
If you’re already employed, then you must not do anything that can alert your current boss that you’re looking for a job or waiting for a job offer. Until you receive a new job offer, do your task every day.
When you’re particular about an offer or leaving, then you can let your current boss know and transfer your projects to a colleague.
2. Keep your anxiety in check
The truth here is your duty ended when you applied for the job. The remaining roles are for the hiring department. Of course, it would be hard to stay calm while waiting for a job offer. However, you have to find something to keep you busy to concentrate on whether or not you’ll get the job. Those employed should continue focusing on their current roles.
3. Follow up
If your company did not mention the decision and hearing day, then you should contact the company to find out if the decision had been made or not. Just ensure to maintain the same method and communication they use to contact you for an interview.
Conclusion
Waiting for a job offer can be nerve-cracking. You don’t know whether you’re the right candidate. But, it would help if you never worried. Instead, focus on your current roles, do a little follow-up, and stay calm as you wait for the prospect company to respond to the offer.
