Postponing job offer acceptance to conduct other interviews? (apply, alternative, interview)

[Further North]

Hi Everyone,

I’m not sure if it’s due to the economy or a better market for my industry in the area I relocated to, but for the first time in my professional career I’m actually facing a large number of opportunities for me in my job search. In the past I have juggled no more then 2 competing opportunities at once, and right now I will probably have 8 or 10 interviews under my belt by the end of next week. This may sound pretty “normal” but because my career field and the industries I’ve worked in are so niche this is highly unusual to me. Because this is all uncharted territory for me I could use some advice.

I’m guessing that it’s possible that by next Friday I will have completed 2nd interviews with at least 2 of these companies and both of the 1st interviews went well. I am for sure flying out to do a face to face interview next Tuesday with one company. I am also slated to do at least 5 new interviews in the next 3 business days.

So here’s my concern, I don’t want to turn down company A and B (or any of them for that matter) without having attended all of my interviews.

Here’s where I could use some advice from an HR and/or Hiring Manager perspective:

If I were to receive an offer before I complete all of me scheduled interviews and say “Thank you for the offer and I am very interested but I still have interviews scheduled in the coming week. Can I get back to you next Monday?” how would that likely be received?

Is this a pretty common situation?

And if so from an HR or Hiring Manager perspective how long are you willing to wait to hear back from a candidate before you move on to someone else?

The other thing on my mind is if, and how much, it’s appropriate to negotiate offers against each other.

If for instance I end up with 3 on the table and I like all of the companies equally is it expected or appropriate to make a counter offer on my salary or vacation time?

Or should I let them come back to me and say “What’s it going to take to get you to work with us instead of them?”

I definitely don’t want to negotiate myself out of a job, and I’m well aware of the risk of that because I had essentially done that once early on in my career.

EDIT: as I was finishing typing this I got an email from the person I interviewed with earlier this afternoon saying that HR will be contacting me to extend an offer. I could definitely use some advice on handling this.

[selhars]

If I were to receive an offer before I complete all of me scheduled interviews and say “Thank you for the offer and I am very interested but I still have interviews scheduled in the coming week. Can I get back to you next Monday?” how would that likely be received?

I'm not in HR but I'm weighing in anyway....

It won't be received well.
1) HR people/bosses/interviewers seem to take it personally when they are not your first choice.
So, unless you think they'll wait for you to choose them -- I wouldn't mention other interviews at this stage.

That doesn't mean I wouldn't try to hold off giving a yes or no answer to an offer for as long as I could -- WITHOUT ticking off the person making the offer. The bottom line is once a firm written offer is made I'd say you'll have 48 hours -- or over a weekend -- to think it over. (depending on the day of the week you get the offer)

Many times a person just has to say "yes" and if a second, or third -- better -- offer comes through then just leave the first place. Most people would prefer not to have to do that. But sometimes that's just how it is.

I'd say you can't really play them off against each other until you get firm, written offers in hand from at least one of them.

(And then be ready to do some quick negotiating. Think about it. If firm written offer from job A comes in on Monday and you have 48 hrs to give and answer. Then realistically, the offer from company B needs to come in either that same day -- or no later than Tuesday, because you have to give company A an answer on Wednesday.

WITH company A's offer in hand you'll know what salary and benefits to get company B to pony-up. But if company B's offer on Tuesday is less than that. Then you need to get in touch with the Company B person ASAP, to ask for more. Suppose you can't get a hold of Company B person...they left early, they're sick -- whatever......heck they could be in the office but in a meeting for half a day. Meanwhile the clock is ticking on Company A's offer.....

And after all this, sometimes it just comes down to playing it by ear the best you can.....

[fishbrains]

As a hiring manager, my opinion will be different based upon what kind of candidate pool I have.

If you are the only viable candidate, I would be willing to wait a week. I would also repost the job immediately to start gathering applications for the possibility that you accept a different position.

If I have a good second place candidate, I would probably rescind my offer to you and extend an offer to my second choice.

You have to look out for your interests, I have to look out for mine. Hearing that you need a week or so, then you are going to weigh my offer with severL others, doesn’t give me great confidence and I would not be inclined to cater to you very much.

ETA. Selhars is largely correct. You can play with a two week notice period, but that is about the limit of my patience. Typically I want an acceptance within 48 hours of extending the offer.

[eastcoastguyz]

TLDR;

Just because someone gives you an offer, it doesn't mean you have to take it. 8-10 interviews is way too many. You need to be more selectively in what jobs you go after and what interviews you go on.

This is what you do. Create a spreadsheet and list each job along with their positive and negative attributes. Not just salary, but travel time, and whatever else is actually important to you. This is personal, if 3 of the jobs are walking distance from the park and you like that, then put that down. Doesn't matter if anyone else thinks it is important, it is important to you.

Then go through filling this out for each job prospect and rank them according to what is most important to you.

That should reveal who you are truly interested in pursuing. If I took every inquiry seriously, I'd be doing nothing but interviewing. Be selective. Pass on the other ones.

[Further North]

Thanks Selhars,

Yes, I certainly can't play this off forever.

My interviewer did ask where I was in the process and I did say that I have other interviews scheduled for this week.

I feel that gives me a little bit of rope here, but to your point I can't take too long.

I was already told that I'll be receiving an offer from HR tomorrow for my newest interview today and I didn't expect that to come up so fast.

So far, I will probably only have one offer on paper tomorrow.

[Further North]

Originally Posted by fishbrains

As a hiring manager, my opinion will be different based upon what kind of candidate pool I have.

If you are the only viable candidate, I would be willing to wait a week. I would also repost the job immediately to start gathering applications for the possibility that you accept a different position.

If I have a good second place candidate, I would probably rescind my offer to you and extend an offer to my second choice.

You have to look out for your interests, I have to look out for mine. Hearing that you need a week or so, then you are going to weigh my offer with severL others, doesn’t give me great confidence and I would not be inclined to cater to you very much.

ETA. Selhars is largely correct. You can play with a two week notice period, but that is about the limit of my patience. Typically I want an acceptance within 48 hours of extending the offer.

Appreciate the perspective from your POV. This is definitely helpful.

I don't want to string them along for too long, but I do want to consider the other opportunities as well.

[Further North]

Originally Posted by eastcoastguyz

TLDR;

Just because someone gives you an offer, it doesn't mean you have to take it. 8-10 interviews is way too many. You need to be more selectively in what jobs you go after and what interviews you go on.

Thanks for the reply.

You're right. It is getting kind of out of hand. All of this is coming together a lot quicker then I'm accustomed to as well if that makes any sense.

I got laid off 2 weeks ago and just since Monday I've scheduled 5 of these interviews.

1 is a second interview as a follow up to one I had last Thurs.
1 was a referral from my most recent boss.
1 was from a resume submission.
2 are through a local recruiter.

In light of the result of today's success I probably would not have accepted 2 of these, but the one tomorrow and another potential company the recruiter wants to get me in front of are very relevant to my career experience and would possibly open up some future doorways in my career. They are companies that do work in adjacent industries I might want to pursue someday. I AM going to contact the recruiter tomorrow though when I have some firm numbers and say "Any place else at least needs to beat X offer and I'm going to insist on some more thorough up front info from him. You're right, I can't afford to be a dog chasing cars.

As Selhars was talking about, sometimes it's entirely up to how you react in the moment. To get the job I just got laid off from I actually had an offer in hand with a low salary number that was local, and I called up my recruiter that same afternoon and said "Look, I really like this company but I'm unemployed and I'm in no position to turn down work. I'm going to have to accept this job in a few days if nothing else presents itself. Can you give them a call today and find out where they are at with me and see if they want to move forward?" He went to bat for me and 2 days later I was on a flight for a face to face interview and they offered me a job.

[Hemlock140]

I'm a hiring manager and have seen this a lot lately, for some reason. They never give such an hones response, however. They either ask for a few days to decide (without a reason), or will delay giving the references, which we only ask for when making the offer. When there is only one really good candidate I will be patient and hope that we come out as the best alternative. I may even ask HR to up the pay offer a bit, and to go over some of our better and more rare benefits, and talk about our work-life balance to help tip the scales. When I have at least 2-3 other qualified candidates I will not let it go more than 2-3 days, so instruct HR to give the deadline, then move on to the next person. Just a few years ago we would get 100 candidates of which 20 or more were well qualified and we would interview the "best" 15. Now we get 20-30 applicants of which only 3-4 are at all qualified. For my last opening in May there were only 3 that we invited to be interviewed, and two dropped out before the interviews. Fortunately the 3rd has worked out well.

[goodlife36]

Originally Posted by Further North

Hi Everyone,

I’m not sure if it’s due to the economy or a better market for my industry in the area I relocated to, but for the first time in my professional career I’m actually facing a large number of opportunities for me in my job search. In the past I have juggled no more then 2 competing opportunities at once, and right now I will probably have 8 or 10 interviews under my belt by the end of next week. This may sound pretty “normal” but because my career field and the industries I’ve worked in are so niche this is highly unusual to me. Because this is all uncharted territory for me I could use some advice.

I’m guessing that it’s possible that by next Friday I will have completed 2nd interviews with at least 2 of these companies and both of the 1st interviews went well. I am for sure flying out to do a face to face interview next Tuesday with one company. I am also slated to do at least 5 new interviews in the next 3 business days.

So here’s my concern, I don’t want to turn down company A and B (or any of them for that matter) without having attended all of my interviews.

Here’s where I could use some advice from an HR and/or Hiring Manager perspective:

If I were to receive an offer before I complete all of me scheduled interviews and say “Thank you for the offer and I am very interested but I still have interviews scheduled in the coming week. Can I get back to you next Monday?” how would that likely be received?

Is this a pretty common situation?

And if so from an HR or Hiring Manager perspective how long are you willing to wait to hear back from a candidate before you move on to someone else?

The other thing on my mind is if, and how much, it’s appropriate to negotiate offers against each other.

If for instance I end up with 3 on the table and I like all of the companies equally is it expected or appropriate to make a counter offer on my salary or vacation time?

Or should I let them come back to me and say “What’s it going to take to get you to work with us instead of them?”

I definitely don’t want to negotiate myself out of a job, and I’m well aware of the risk of that because I had essentially done that once early on in my career.

EDIT: as I was finishing typing this I got an email from the person I interviewed with earlier this afternoon saying that HR will be contacting me to extend an offer. I could definitely use some advice on handling this.

Congratulations on the offer. I would not tell them anything. Negotiate as if it were your only offer and ask when they need an answer. Remember you have to go through the background check. All of this takes time. If you have to decline before your start date so be it. It is important to be upfront and respectful. Do not ghost them.

I finally got invited to my first in person interview and received a call about a second. The second does not count until I receive an email with date and time. The one I want is still doing first round interviews. Sigh!

Are the 8 to 10 interviews with hiring managers? What is your line of work? Unless you know someone, it is unusual to apply, interview and get hired in two weeks. Good for you.

[joe from dayton]

Depending on the circumstances, I would give you 24-48 hours to make up your mind. Based on the circumstances you gave -- I want to do more interviews -- I would move on to the next person on the list.