When it comes to dealing with multiple job offers and which road to take, many applicants immediately go the money route – that is, the company offering the highest salary. And while money is definitely a factor, especially depending on where one may live and the expenses that locale demands, it’s important to point out that if the company offering the best salary doesn’t provide great growth opportunity, the pay may not be worth it in the long run.
While this blog is going to cover the specifics regarding how to handle multiple job offers, in a nutshell it is recommended that you look at the benefits package after considering the cultural fit of a company; this may not seem that important to recent grads, but if you happen to be searching for solid longevity, a strong benefits package will be a bigger draw down the road.
What’s more, if you prefer to do some due diligence, using resources like Glassdoor, LinkedIn and Google Reviewscan provide a good overview – but, still, you should take any reviews you read about a company with a grain of salt. Happy former and current employees many not always take the time to provide thoughts about their company, so it is usually believed that these types of reviews skew toward the negative side.
At any rate, the following are suggestions you can consider when balancing multiple job offers.
• Get the Facts About Each Position
Ideally, you want to learn all there is to know about each position so that a comparative analysis can be made based on total information. You will also want to be careful not to turn off any of the employers or lead them to believe that you don’t place a high value on their offer.
• Don't Necessarily Say "Yes" While Expressing Enthusiasm
Whenever you are privy to a magnetic offer, it's okay to express your heightened level of appreciation and excitement – but resist the temptation to accept the job on the spot if you are considering other equally attractive options.
• Develop a “Decision Matrix”
What do we mean by this? Create a system by which you can weigh each job option. For example:
- List the seven to 10 factors that you value most in a job (such as benefits, salary, stress level, learning curve, advancement opportunity, work/life balance, flexibility, etc.).
- Assign a “weight” based on a scale of one to 10 reflecting the importance of each element to you.
- Assign a value from one to 10 indicating how much of that factor each job provides you.
• Negotiate the Decision Time Frame
If you aren’t comfortable accepting a certain company’s offer when you believe another opportunity may be around the corner, you should attempt to bring together the “time windows” for decision-making – one way to do this is to create a reasonable delay with the first employer who has made the offer.
Once you have made a decision on which offer you’d like to accept, always let the recruiters/hiring managers know that you have decided to pursue another opportunity. This can't be stressed enough, as far too many good candidates have succumbed to it: You never want to burn any bridges, and handling this process with professional maturity will go a long way.
In the end, it’s all about finding the company that offers the best fit for the long-term.
