Receiving more than one job offer can be an exciting time for job hunters. Congratulations!
All your hard work in your job search has finally paid off. However, the impending decision over which job offer to accept can be fraught with stress and doubt. How can you make sure that you’re making the right choice and you won’t regret it later?
Don’t panic. To help you out, here are six tips for comparing your various job offers so you can choose the one that is the best fit for you and your future career.
-
Gather as Much Information as Possible
Before you can make the choice between multiple organisations, you need to make sure you’re equipped with the necessary information required to make an informed decision. It will make the task of choosing which is most preferable option much simpler.
If you don’t have answers to everything you need, contact the employer to fill in the blanks regarding what you can expect from the job, any benefits, career progression and the workplace culture.
Write a list for each company detailing what their job is offering you. Seeing it written down on paper should be able to help you decide where you’d be best suited.
-
Assess Where the Most Progression Is
When accepting a new job, you should be thinking about the future and where you’d like to end up one day. Consider the job offers on the table, which company can you see yourself progressing with to get where you need to be? If one of the roles isn’t offering you as high a salary as another, but you know that there are lots more opportunities to learn new skills there that will help you down the line, maybe that role could be more suitable.
Assess where you want to be in five years, which company is best equipped to take you where you need to be? And could you see yourself staying there and being happy? Take these things into consideration when weighing up your choices.
-
Prioritise Your Needs
What do you want to get out of your next role? Are you looking for a salary increase? Somewhere you can progress quickly? A job where you can learn new skills? A company that aligns with your values? Thinking about what matters the most to you will help you make the right decision.
Consider what each job can offer you, and which of those benefits are the most important. Do you value your time outside of work to pursue other interests? Maybe you would be better suited to the role that offers the most flexibility. Are you hoping to earn enough money to save a significant amount? Perhaps the position that offers commission would give you what you need.
Write down your goals and cross-reference them with the list you made earlier about each role and see which ones align.
And remember, the job itself isn’t the complete package. You should also consider external factors, like commuting time. One job might only be a short walk from home, another might be an hour train ride. A preferable commute might not be a priority, but it could be a consideration.
-
Consider Negotiating
If one role seems almost perfect, but another role offers one element that the first one is lacking, you could consider asking for a change to the role before you accept. Whether it’s a salary increase, more flexibility or more personal days, multiple job offers can give you ideas for what to negotiate for before you accept a job. Negotiating could help turn that near-perfect role into the ideal job for you.
-
Compare the Workplace Cultures
Getting to know the culture of a workplace that you have visited once is difficult, especially if you only spoke to one or two potential colleagues during the interview. However, it is possible to tell whether the people you met were genuinely pleased to meet you, and actively seemed like they wanted you to be part of the team.
When you work so closely with people for most of the week, you want to make sure you’re going to gel with them and feel happy working together. In your heart of hearts, you probably know which group of people you would feel more content working with over another.
-
Trust Your Gut Feeling
If comparing your list of pros and cons for each company against your priorities just isn’t working, it might be time to rely on intuition alone. Visualise your new role at each company. Try to imagine going there each day, working in those spaces, interacting with your co-workers, the daily commute and the rest of it. Which one do you feel better about? Where do you think you could really progress and do well?
You should find yourself steering towards one offer over another. You should feel excited to make that call to accept the offer. Sometimes the best way to know what we want is to follow our gut instincts.
Ultimately, it’s down to you. But make sure you have all the information needed to get a clear idea of the big picture so you can make an informed decision that’s right for you. And if you’re just starting your job-hunting journey, PurpleCV can craft you an individualised CV from scratch.
About the author
Andrew Arkley is the Founder of PurpleCV, one of the UK’s leading CV writing providers. He has over 15 years’ experience of the HR and recruitment industry and has personally reviewed over 10,000 CVs.
