Career Survival Guide: Part 11 - Consider the Offer
You did good. You made it past the gatekeepers, the recruiters, the initial interview, the final interview, and the other assorted hurdles. But should you take the offer? My suggestion is to go beyond knee-jerk reaction and objectify the decision.
The following is one method to use to map out what is important to you in your next job, and weigh the job offer you have received against it. There is more than one method, and process to weigh out your job offer – this one is simple and straight forward.
First list out up to ten areas, or items that are important to you in your next job. Some criteria could be salary, vacation time, ability to work from home, performance bonus, or other. But remember this list is for you – so these are only suggestions.
Once you have up to ten items start ranking them in one of three categories – High Importance, Medium Importance, and low importance. Once you have all your criteria ranked, create a table or matrix. You can create a table in your favorite word processer, or use a spreadsheet program, or even create a table with pen and paper.
In the table/spreadsheet label the first column “Criteria”. Under criteria list your items starting with the most important first. Leave one row blank, and now list the items of medium importance. When you have finished with the items of medium importance, leave a row blank, then list any items you have that are of low importance.
Next in the column to the right of “Criteria” label a column “Acceptable”. Now go through your list of criteria and plug in values that you would accept. For example, if your criteria/row is “Vacation Time” the value could be “2 weeks a year”, or whatever would be acceptable to you for expected vacation time. If another criterion is work from home, you could plug in “work 1 day a week from home”, or whatever would be the minimum you could accept for your criteria.
Once you have populated the column labeled “Acceptable”, create a column to the right of Acceptable, and label it “Job Offer”. For each criterion plug in the values that are part of the actual job offer. You may need to touch base with the company recruiter if you don’t have all the information you need to complete the “Job Offer” column.
Finally, you are ready to do some color highlighting. Starting at the top of the table, with those items that are most important to you, color highlight each row as follows: If the actual job offer exceeds your expectation, color this GREEN, if it only meets your acceptable expectation color it YELLOW, if it fails to meet your acceptable value highlight the row in RED.
Are you color blind? If so here is an alternative method for this step: create a column to the right of “Job Offer” and label it “Score”. Starting with the items that are most important, make a judgment if the actual job offer meets the acceptable value you have captured. In this final column there will be three possible values “Exceeds”, “Meets”, or “Fail”.
Now you have a completed table. You have laid out what is important to you, in your next job, and measured your job offer against it. How do you know if you should accept the offer? This all depends, but here is a quick rule of thumb. Look to the rows toward the top – the categories that are most important to you. Do you see mainly GREEN? If so things are looking good, and you most likely should accept the position. Alternatively, if you look at the rows that represent the most important items, and you see mainly RED. You are better off to decline.
Let’s say you are sitting on the fence – this is where you use the categories of medium, and low importance. Again, if you are on the fence, but your medium and low categories show mainly as YELLOW, and GREEN, you most likely should accept the offer. But if the medium, and low categories show RED you probably need to decline the offer.
An even simpler method is to color high light your table, print it out, lay it on the floor and walk 8 feet back from the table. Looking at the matrix from 8 feet back do you see manly GREEN, and YELLOW? If so, consider accepting the positon. Do you see mainly RED and some YELLOW? If so, consider declining the offer.
So the process I have described is a way to capture what is important to you in your next job, and weigh your job offer against this. If possible separate out what criteria is of high importance, medium importance, and low importance. Once you have completed your matrix, or table, you can use color highlighting to identify if your expectations will fall short, meet or exceed your expectations. It is wise to have a process in place to evaluate a job offer before you receive the job offer. This process will help you identify what is important to you in your career, and lay the foundation to improving your business quality of life (BQL).
You did good. You made it past the gatekeepers, the recruiters, the initial interview, the final interview, and the other assorted hurdles. But should you take the offer? My suggestion is to go beyond knee-jerk reaction and objectify the decision.
The following is one method to use to map out what is important to you in your next job, and weigh the job offer you have received against it. There is more than one method, and process to weigh out your job offer – this one is simple and straight forward.
First list out up to ten areas, or items that are important to you in your next job. Some criteria could be salary, vacation time, ability to work from home, performance bonus, or other. But remember this list is for you – so these are only suggestions.
Once you have up to ten items start ranking them in one of three categories – High Importance, Medium Importance, and low importance. Once you have all your criteria ranked, create a table or matrix. You can create a table in your favorite word processer, or use a spreadsheet program, or even create a table with pen and paper.
In the table/spreadsheet label the first column “Criteria”. Under criteria list your items starting with the most important first. Leave one row blank, and now list the items of medium importance. When you have finished with the items of medium importance, leave a row blank, then list any items you have that are of low importance.
Next in the column to the right of “Criteria” label a column “Acceptable”. Now go through your list of criteria and plug in values that you would accept. For example, if your criteria/row is “Vacation Time” the value could be “2 weeks a year”, or whatever would be acceptable to you for expected vacation time. If another criterion is work from home, you could plug in “work 1 day a week from home”, or whatever would be the minimum you could accept for your criteria.
Once you have populated the column labeled “Acceptable”, create a column to the right of Acceptable, and label it “Job Offer”. For each criterion plug in the values that are part of the actual job offer. You may need to touch base with the company recruiter if you don’t have all the information you need to complete the “Job Offer” column.
Finally, you are ready to do some color highlighting. Starting at the top of the table, with those items that are most important to you, color highlight each row as follows: If the actual job offer exceeds your expectation, color this GREEN, if it only meets your acceptable expectation color it YELLOW, if it fails to meet your acceptable value highlight the row in RED.
Are you color blind? If so here is an alternative method for this step: create a column to the right of “Job Offer” and label it “Score”. Starting with the items that are most important, make a judgment if the actual job offer meets the acceptable value you have captured. In this final column there will be three possible values “Exceeds”, “Meets”, or “Fail”.
Now you have a completed table. You have laid out what is important to you, in your next job, and measured your job offer against it. How do you know if you should accept the offer? This all depends, but here is a quick rule of thumb. Look to the rows toward the top – the categories that are most important to you. Do you see mainly GREEN? If so things are looking good, and you most likely should accept the position. Alternatively, if you look at the rows that represent the most important items, and you see mainly RED. You are better off to decline.
Let’s say you are sitting on the fence – this is where you use the categories of medium, and low importance. Again, if you are on the fence, but your medium and low categories show mainly as YELLOW, and GREEN, you most likely should accept the offer. But if the medium, and low categories show RED you probably need to decline the offer.
An even simpler method is to color high light your table, print it out, lay it on the floor and walk 8 feet back from the table. Looking at the matrix from 8 feet back do you see manly GREEN, and YELLOW? If so, consider accepting the positon. Do you see mainly RED and some YELLOW? If so, consider declining the offer.
So the process I have described is a way to capture what is important to you in your next job, and weigh your job offer against this. If possible separate out what criteria is of high importance, medium importance, and low importance. Once you have completed your matrix, or table, you can use color highlighting to identify if your expectations will fall short, meet or exceed your expectations. It is wise to have a process in place to evaluate a job offer before you receive the job offer. This process will help you identify what is important to you in your career, and lay the foundation to improving your business quality of life (BQL).
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