This is the stage you have been working towards, job offers. There still are a number of decisions you need to make before you commit to your new role. However, it is important to remember that this is one of the most important decisions you will make in your lifetime. Hence you will need to make a carefully weighted informed decision. If there are doubts or concerns about the role, they need to be addressed promptly. It’s also important not to make a decision on gut feeling/intuition alone. Our intuition can be very helpful; it can also lead to misplaced assumptions that can have negative repercussions afterwards.
You should carefully weigh up the pros and the cons of staying in your current job to accepting the new job offer. Does the job on offer meet your criteria when you originally started to look for a new job?
Negotiating the salary you deserve
Discussing your financial worth can be an area many people are most uncomfortable and embarrassed by. Others come across as too focused on money, peppering interviewers with questions on salary at any given opportunity. The first step to take is to conduct some research into your worth. This can be done by talking to peers or by looking at salary surveys available online. Talking to a specialist recruitment consultants will also arm you with information on what salaries companies are paying for people with your skills and experience.
It is important to know when to broach the salary question in the job searching process. Approaching it at an early stage can be looked at unfavourably and can lead to loss of negotiating power later down the road. It is always best to leave salary negotiations towards the end of the process. You should also look at the whole package on offer if there is little room for movement on salary such as car allowance, bonus, annual leave,healthcare etc.
You should be allowed and allow yourself appropriate time to think through the job offer and its benefits.
How to Resign
Resigning from a job can be a nerve wracking experience for many people. It is important to go through the resignation process in a professional manner as there is a good chance you will need a reference in the future from your current company.
The best way to resign is to ask for a meeting with your manager and verbally inform him/her of your decision to leave whilst also handing them a formal letter of resignation, signalling the moment your notice period commences. Your resignation letter should be short, simply stating that you wish to leave and not elaborating on the reasons why.
Regardless of how your manager or others within the company react, it is important that you remain professional from the moment you hand in your notice to the time you leave.
Counter-Offers
A counter-offer is an offer from your current employer to convince you to remain in your company. It can come in the guise of a higher salary, a promotion or additional benefits.
If you do receive a counter-offer, it’s important that you understand why an employer would try and convince you to stay. Losing employees is in general very costly for employers and finding replacements is fraught with risks and many additional overheads. In many ways it’s natural for employers to try to induce you to stay, at least for a while, until a suitable replacement can be found.
Accepting counter-offers rarely works out well for the employee. The underlying reasons why you were looking to leave in the first place don’t go away more often than not. The bond between the employee and the employer is broken. The fact you were looking for a job with another company creates doubt in the employer’s mind on your loyalty. You have received a better deal only after forcing your employer’s hand; why did it have to come to this?
Tempting as it is to accept a higher salary or a promotion without having to go through the stress of moving to a new role in a new company, you need to be clear and decisive as to why you were looking for a job in the first place. Accepting a counter-offer is generally a short term solution to a long term problem.
