Skillfully asking for more time after an offer
Signs point to getting an offer next week (references contacted & recruiter said to expect to hear by Tuesday). I’m still interviewing at other places. How do I tactfully ask for more time for the offer? The job market is awful and I’ve been unemployed for 5 months. I don’t want it to get pulled. I know I need to express enthusiasm if called about it, but a specific talk track of why I need more time would be great. Any advice? TC: 0
It’s two parts. 1) tell other companies you are interviewing with that you have an offer coming and need to make a decision on it by Friday (this makes you seem desirable and interesting) 2) tell company making an offer that you are flattered and “super interested” but you will need at least until Friday to make a decision. Any company that tries to pressure you into not finishing your interviews is full of shit. If your other opportunities are at “onsite phase” you should be good. If you are just fielding your first calls with them and expect it to take weeks. You will likely have to turn down the current offer as most companies get bored after a week of waiting
Take the job and continue interviewing. You have no income man
I feel a little scummy doing that. Is there a tactful way to ask for more time? I’ve put TC info in another comment, which is a factor
You can ask for more time, but I’m being honest with you, you will probably lose the offer and maybe sour the relationship. They have no loyalty to you. You should have no loyalty to them.
take it, keep interviewing, if found good one renege the old one. you are jobless right now, what r u even thinking
Meditate on what at-will employment means and act accordingly.
I’m in a similar situation where I’ve been unemployed for about the same time. I received an offer, but they only gave me 48 hours to decide. I ended up accepting cause I’ve heard (although unlikely) that they might pull the offer if I asked for too much time. I just finished up the final interview at another company and I’m expecting an offer, but who knows in this market if I will get it. If I get this offer with more TC, better company, and benefits I’m going to reneg. I’m going to tell them that I already completed my interviews prior to accepting and that they just came back to me with an offer. I also made sure I pushed my start date, so I’m not telling them a week before I’m about to start. There’s potential to maybe burn bridges, but I think that risk is more tolerable then asking for more time and them taking the offer away when you aren’t sure you are going to get these other offers and your unemployed.
you should renege only when u start at a good company, not too early. since it is not rare for company to rescind written offers too: you worked for coinbase, you know 1st hand what i mean reneging one month before, one day before your start date, hardly makes a difference. they are both much better than join then leave though so it is correct to push start date further to give more room, but for you not the company
Do what’s the best for you not for the company. You are just one of the candidates. If they know you have other interviews and want to wait till then, they are more likely to consider you as “most likely won’t take the offer”. What I did was tactically try to schedule every call with recruiter a day or two later for any call. You can also ask to talk to manager one more time after they verbally mention about the offer. Then try to schedule those call 3-4 days after. You need to remember that in this market, most candidates don’t have bargain power ( especially for junior people), so try to secure offer first. It’s fine to renege the offer, because company will do that to you when they need to.
Do you have other interviews in the pipeline where you expect an offer to be forthcoming? Is the offer an improvement over your last TC? It has already been 5 months so I feel like I'd be getting desperate at that point. If you have other offers in the pipeline I'd just be honest about it -- I'm still wrapping up a couple of other interviews and want to make this decision with all information. I'll need a bit of time to consider. You can probably drag it out that way for at least a few weeks. If you try to wait months then they're going to end up giving the job to someone else.
Yes, desperation is kicking in. Previous TC: 175k Job 1 TC: ~ 120k PM Job 2 interviews can likely be finished this week. TC: ~ 180k (but this company seems like a shitshow and the role is PgM) Job 3 interviews will take 1.5-2 weeks. TC ~ 200k
The other option if it comes down to it is to accept an offer with a start date a few weeks out, then reneg. I'd think they could wait 2 weeks though.