You’ve accepted a job offer and you’ve just given notice that you’ll be leaving
your company.
Then you receive a counter offer from your current employer.
Now what do you do?
In this video I’m going to tell you the things you need to consider before you accept
a counter offer.
Hi, I’m Jeri Walker with Your Best Designed Career.
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One of the things that takes many job searchers by surprise is that as soon as they have accepted
a new job offer and let their manager know that they’re leaving, their current company
extends to them a counter offer, usually to increase their salary in order to persuade
them to stay at the company.
As flattering as this may feel in the moment, accepting a counter offer in most cases is
not a good idea.
Think about it, by the time you’ve made the decision to quit a job, you’ve already
put a lot of thought into the things that you don’t like about it.
Is a higher salary going to change these things and fix everything?
Probably not for you.
And this is going to sound really pessimistic, but in most cases your manager extends a counter
offer not for you, but for them, it’s to make their life easier.
Losing an employee is expensive—it can reflect badly on the manager, and hiring your replacement,
training them, and getting them up to speed is both time consuming and expensive.
Replacing staff is inconvenient and employers who want to avoid this are highly motivated
to keep you around.
A counter offer is usually not about them wanting to meet your needs necessarily as
much as it is about them wanting you to stay there so you can meet their needs.
Don’t misinterpret their motivation for wanting to keep you.
Now your motivation is to make the best decision you can for your career.
So before you accept a counter offer ask yourself a few questions.
First of all, is money the main reason why you decided to leave?
A counteroffer is almost always about giving you more money but the reason most people
leave their company is rarely just about money but about other issues.
Unless the company is going to fix these “other issues”, accepting a counter offer will
just mean that you’re going to get paid more money to put up with the same headaches
that persuaded you to quit this job to begin with.
So be honest with yourself about why you’re unhappy with your current company and whether
a higher paycheck really addresses your frustrations and concerns.
Next, ask yourself, would you have received this raise or promotion had you not quit?
Why did it take you quitting your job to get some attention from your company?
It’s not until your employer is backed into a corner that they can suddenly pay you more
or give you that promotion that you’ve been trying to get for months?
What does that say about their true interest and appreciation of you?
If you accept the counter offer, are you going to feel resentful that this is what had to
happen in order for you to get a raise?
And will your employer feel resentful that they were for all intents and purposes, forced
to increase your pay?
The next thing you want to ask yourself is If I were to start all over at this company
knowing then what I know now would I accept this position?
Forget about your saved up vacation and sick time, your seniority, the nerves that come
with starting a new job, your fear that quitting may be a mistake.
Forget all these things that have kept you in this job up to this point.
At face value, is staying at this job the best decision for you?
Also, consider whether or not your fear is dictating your decisions.
Sometimes it does just feel better to stay put.
In the short term, it’s easier—you already know the job, your colleagues, the company
culture, you know for the most part, what each day will bring.
Starting a new job feels awkward, you have new things to learn, you need to get to know
your new coworkers, and figure out really where you fit in at
this new company.
But this is all temporary so don’t accept a counter offer based on the very temporary
situation of a little discomfort you’ll have when you start a new job.
Finally, think about how accepting the counter offer might impact your career.
In many cases, accepting a counter offer will hurt your career in the long run.
For one thing your loyalty will be questioned.
Your boss is not going to forget that you had one foot out the door.
That trust has been broken which could have an impact on future raises or promotions.
Also, the company that you had accepted the position from won’t forget that you reversed
your decision after you accepted their offer.
Should another opportunity arise there, you’ve broken your trust with them as well, and they’ll
most likely be hesitant about extending you an offer in the future.
It sounds like I am advising against accepting a counter offer.
Maybe, but only you can make this decision.
The best thing to do is before you even start looking for a job, be sure that you are 100%
clear as to why you want to quit your job.
If it’s just about money, it’s better for you to approach your manager about additional
opportunities in your department and see if you can resolve the money issue.
If it can’t be resolved, then you know that you should probably start searching for better
opportunities.
And if there are more underlying reasons you have for quitting this job, commit to your
decision to leave and don’t let a counter offer distract you.
Keep moving forward.
Be sure to keep all of these things in mind should you ever be faced with a counter offer,
and if you want to learn more things you should be doing in your career or job search, consider
subscribing and click on the bell notification so you don’t miss a thing.
Thanks for watching, I’ll see you next time.