Dealing With Multiple Possibilities of Salary Negotiation

Since you have been prospecting and interviewing continually throughout your search, an offer is likely to arrive from one or more organizations while you are still interviewing or negotiating with others. If these other possibilities still appeal, you will want time to pursue them further. What do you do, however, if the organization that made you an offer wants a reply before the other possibilities ripen? First, try to get an extended time out. Greet the offer with enthusiasm and acknowledge the organization's eagerness to take you on. But add that it is important at this point in your career to make a sound decision and that you would like a couple of weeks to consider it. Sometimes your request will be granted, sometimes it won't.

You will usually be able to buy some time but often not as much as you would like.

Use whatever time you can get to work on moving those other possibilities toward definite offers. Explain to your contacts in other organizations that you have received an offer and must make a decision by __Ask their help in moving the selection process along. You must, of course, communicate the sense that you are very interested in working for them and would very likely accept an offer, if one were made. If this fails and you are caught between the demand for a decision from one organization and another's inability to move forward its decision, you face a difficult choice. You have basically four options:

1. Say yes to the firm offer and withdraw from consideration at other organizations.
   
   
2. Go back to the first organization and explain your situation in hopes that they will extend the decision deadline.
   
   
3. Stall for time with the first organization; let the deadline pass silently and wait with fingers crossed for them to badger you.
   
   
4. Say yes to the offer but continue to pursue other possibilities and be prepared to quit the job if you get a more attractive offer.
   

Option 1 presents no problems as long as you feel good about the organization, the work, and the offer. On the other hand, you have little to lose by trying 2 and 3 before making your decision.

Option 2 asking for more time may annoy the first organization, and your request may simply not be granted, but you are not likely to lose the offer merely because you asked for more time, providing you have not already exceeded the time limit.

Option 3 stalling is usually safe, if not entirely nice or professional; an organization will generally get in touch with you before making an offer to someone else or withdrawing the offer to you. If and when the organization does get in touch, however, you will have to provide an answer at once.

Option 4 is not the best move in terms of public relations, especially if an organization has made a significant investment in you before you leave. On the other hand, if you told them before accepting their offer that you wanted more time and they pushed you to make a decision, they are as responsible as you for the losses. Organizations feel less and less loyal to their employees in these days of cutbacks and payoff, and most have demonstrated a readiness to let people go whenever doing so is in their best interests. You should not feel obligated to stay, therefore, if it is in your best interests to go. If you decide on option 4 and do leave, try to make your departure as painless as possible for the organization by offering to help find and train a successor and to bring pending projects to a satisfactory conclusion before going. You have nothing to gain by creating an excess of ill will.

DECLINING GRACEFULLY AND PRODUCTIVELY

If you follow the advice given so far, I'm certain you will have the happy problem of declining offers and withdrawing candidacies gracefully and productively. The following tips should help you:

1. Withdraw from consideration at other organizations as soon as you have accepted an offer. My advice is to let them know both by phone and by letter. This courtesy will enable you to maintain friendly contacts with people who will be valuable for future career moves and often for current business as well.
   
   
2. Over the phone, you will likely have to leave a message. In letters, explain your decision succinctly, thank interviewers for the time they have spent with you, and give your new tide and business address not necessarily in that order.
   
   
3. Go through your contacts file and create a mailing list of people you want to inform of your career or job change. Create standard paragraphs to convey the information suggested in step 2: your career decision and the reason for it, a word of thanks for help, and your current title, address, and phone number for business transactions. Make your correspondence personal by adding opening or closing paragraphs that are unique to your receiver. These short paragraphs can be handwritten.
   
   
4. Keep your contacts file active. Go through it periodically; make phone calls and write letters as needed to maintain productive communication throughout the network you have created.
   

IN CLOSING

Enjoy your new job or career choice. But be prepared for change: organizational loyalties are loosening, and people are changing both jobs and careers more and more frequently. A modern work life often consists of 7 to 10 jobs along 2 or 3 career paths. Vocational decision making is a lifetime activity. Use time, between occupations to communicate and to improve your communication skills; and use it to re explore yourself and adjust your career accordingly.

Have fun and aim for happiness.