How Long Should I Wait To Accept the Job Offer?
After rounds of interviews, you finally get to the last stage of the job hunting process – the call from HR with the offer. – how long should you wait to accept the job offer?
Well, if it’s a great offer and you only have ONE offer, the next logical action is clear – to accept. However, as in most real-life situations, it’s usually more complicated than that.
For example, what if the role isn’t really something you want to do? What if the pay isn’t ideal? Do you wait it out or take it? What if the offer is only valid for a week and you’re waiting for another interview? How long should you wait before accepting then? How long can you afford to wait?
While it’s challenging to pinpoint a magic number (general consensus seems to be 2-3 days), you can look at the various areas of consideration involved and adjust your estimated waiting time from this baseline.
Here are some of the key areas I would consider.
How quickly do you need the money?
This is an important consideration and is potentially a deal-breaker.
For instance, if you’ve been out of job for a long time and have almost depleted your life savings, there really isn’t much room for waiting around – you need the money NOW. Here, there’s immense pressure to shorten the waiting time.
On the contrary, in case you’re still working while job hunting OR you have some savings to last you while you’re on the hunt, you can lengthen the waiting time.
How much do you like the role?
If your dream is to be a quantitative analyst and you now finally got an offer – would you take it?
Unless practical reasons constrain you e.g. salary is too low, the workplace is too far, or the working hours are too long etc., my guess is a resounding YES. In this case, you may shorten the waiting time.
In contrast, if you are lukewarm to the role at best and hate the role at worst (why did you even apply!?), you may lengthen the waiting time.
How long is the offer is valid for?
This one is easy – the validity period of your offer is the key constraint. If you don’t accept the offer by the end of the validity period, it lapses and is invalidated.
If your offer is valid for a longer time, that lengthens the time you can afford to wait. Conversely, if you offer is valid for a shorter time e.g. 1 day, that shortens the time you can afford to wait.
How many other offers do you have?
This is another easy one – the more offers you have, the better.
If you have many other offers, you have the bargaining power. If one offer expires, you still have another choice. Therefore, if you have more offers, that lengthens the time you can wait, and vice versa.
How rare is this opportunity?
While rarity is not straightforward to measure objectively, you should have a sense of how rare this job opportunity is in the context of the industry and the current job market.
For example, in the financial industry, the quantitative teams in the front office and risk management are generally small and require people with a really specialized skillset. This means if you’re offered a role in this area and don’t take it up, you likely have to wait for some time before the next one comes along.
The moral of the story – the rarer the opportunity, the shorter you should wait before accepting the offer.
What other areas would affect your time to acceptance? What is your answer to “How long should I wait to accept the job offer”?
Leave a comment and let me know what you think!
Risk Manager by Profession, Mentor and Coach by Passion.
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