Career Cafe

Decisions and Destinations: Navigating How to Accept & Decline Opportunities with Poise

Episode Summary

Hypothetically, what if your luck is through the roof, and you’ve been offered multiple positions but have to decline some? Or what if you just got rejected, and you don’t know how to respond to the employer professionally? Brandon, Jerry, Clara, and McKinley tackle these issues in the final episode of Career Cafe. Thank you for stopping by—stay until the end for a Career Center dad joke, and make sure to share the podcast with your friends on your way out.

Episode Transcription

00;00;06;11 - 00;00;36;10

McKinley Hatch

Welcome listeners to our podcast, Career Cafe. Today we're going to talk about decisions and destinations, how to accept and decline opportunities with poise. So today we have Brandon Street, Jerry Ross and Clara Webster joining us and myself, McKinley Hatch. I will be the moderator in this session. So we're going to dive deep into this topic. So tell us a little bit about how you are experts in this area.

 

00;00;36;13 - 00;00;55;25

Jerry Ross

You know, I've done a significant amount of job negotiation and over the years, whether it was acceptance, denial, and I have a lot of experiences on both sides of this. People successfully accepting people, rejecting the offer positively and all of the other ways that it can go right, wrong and sideways. Yeah.

 

00;00;55;26 - 00;01;21;20

Brandon Street

Thanks, Jerry. And I'm Brandon and I've spent 20 years and career services filled working with individuals to get them jobs, learning how to properly accept those jobs. And we'll talk today about how to to do that in a way that ensures that you that you're able to get the things that you negotiated as as you you know, you got that you went through the application process and also accept that job professionally.

 

00;01;21;22 - 00;01;37;22

Clara Webster

Yeah, I'm Clara I've been working here in the career Center for about a year and a half now and, you know, have helped a lot of students kind of navigate this process, you know, have them come in and say, okay, I have these different job offers, you know, how do I negotiate these, negotiate pay, that kind of stuff.

 

00;01;37;22 - 00;02;02;24

Clara Webster

And also have spent some time, you know, on the hiring side here at SUU. And so, yeah, I've seen all the different aspects from, you know, negotiating these types of things to rejecting or accepting different offers. Who doesn't want to like, learn about this topic, you know, like super interesting and very valuable for all of us as we navigate through our careers and everything.

 

00;02;02;24 - 00;02;18;16

Clara Webster

So let's talk about it more in depth. Let's talk about the first thing when you are given an offer. Right. Let's evaluate that. Right. Let's talk about what makes you decide yes or no?

 

00;02;18;18 - 00;02;41;17

Brandon Street

Well, that hopefully that started way before you got the job offer. You know, if we're going into a an interview even and we haven't really looked into this company much, I think, you know, we're doing ourselves a disservice at this point. We should know already what their culture is, who I'd be working with, what my core responsibilities would be, why I'm important, why they're hiring for this position.

 

00;02;41;17 - 00;03;01;13

Brandon Street

All these things should be answered. So as I go through that interview process, I already know, right? And hopefully through the interview process I've been evaluating, I’ve asked the right questions at the end of interviews to ensure I know who they are, what they value, and again, what my role would be there. Right? And so when we interview, we're kind of going through this process already of evaluation.

 

00;03;01;13 - 00;03;08;00

Brandon Street

So excuse me, I think it begins long before we are given the job offer.

 

00;03;08;02 - 00;03;23;08

Clara Webster

Yeah. And with that too, I mean, there are kind of some outside factors. You of course, want to take into account, you know, where are you going to be living, Right. If you're having to relocate, what is what is the cost of living there? Right. You know, maybe it's a hire offer, but it costs way more to live there.

 

00;03;23;08 - 00;03;47;03

McKinley Hatch

So it's not really that much of a raise or something, you know? So it's good to look at outside factors like that. Your what what's the work life balance going to be like? You know, there's tons, tons of different factors, you know, that would go into whether or not I want this opportunity. But like Brandon said, hopefully, you know, before you get this call telling you you've gotten the job, hopefully you've already put a lot of, you know, real thought into this type of decision.

 

00;03;47;05 - 00;04;07;01

Jerry Ross

You know, I've had some of these in my personal experience where we posted a wage for a position with the listing, so it wasn't necessarily negotiable. They knew what they were going to make and we made it down through a set of finalists and we get our number one, and that number one was going to have to relocate into that position.

 

00;04;07;03 - 00;04;31;22

Jerry Ross

And when we offered that position, I'm sorry, I've looked into it and I can't work in that area at that wage. And nothing had changed since the time they applied to the position, to the time that we actually offered them position. So it's kind of a bummer for us to then have to go back to the drawing board and figure out who was our next best options when they could have just done some homework and figured out I can't work for that wage in that area and it's honest.

 

00;04;31;22 - 00;04;42;13

Jerry Ross

Like, if you can't, that's perfectly fine. But realize those things before you waste people's time working them through to the end of the offer to just decline it when there's no new facts given.

 

00;04;42;16 - 00;04;45;10

Brandon Street

Right. Because if they were to come back to apply again, what would happen?

 

00;04;45;12 - 00;04;45;26

Jerry Ross

Nope.

 

00;04;45;28 - 00;05;02;04

Brandon Street

Yeah, exactly right. And that's my point, is that what we're trying to teach today is how to leave a door open. Right. And if if they were to I've told you early on in this, Hey, you know what? I was I'm really excited about this job and the company and everything. But as I look into this, I'm not sure that I could live on this wage.

 

00;05;02;04 - 00;05;06;29

Brandon Street

Well, before you got to that point where you were offering the job, it'd probably be a different story, right?

 

00;05;07;05 - 00;05;15;28

Jerry Ross

Absolutely. No hard feelings with honesty. Right. Right. But when they don't do their research, that's hard to continue on if another opportunity rose up later on in time.

 

00;05;16;01 - 00;05;37;08

McKinley Hatch

Yeah, I love that story. You mentioned offering a job. Let's talk about as a candidate. You've done your research. You have applied for this job. You've gone through the interview process and you've been given the job offer. Let's talk about acceptance etiquette. How do you accept a job offer professionally?

 

00;05;37;11 - 00;05;44;07

Clara Webster

Yeah, I mean, obviously, one of the first things I always say start out with is, you know, be gracious and and grateful.

 

00;05;44;07 - 00;06;02;24

Clara Webster

Right. You know, thank them for for letting you know and for, you know, letting you know about this, that you've, you know, been selected for the opportunity. But definitely don't rush and just say, yes, I'm in. Right. Because there's a lot of other factors now that you've got to look into, you know, if there's going to be any negotiating.

 

00;06;02;24 - 00;06;21;17

Clara Webster

And also, you know, it's good to take, you know, even a day and just kind of think about it sometimes. You know, if you've got family, you've got to talk to about it. Right. Like, don't feel like when they offer you the job, you immediately just have to say, yes, I've been let's do it. And so so it's good to, you know, say, thank you so much.

 

00;06;21;17 - 00;06;40;10

Clara Webster

You know, thanks for letting me know. I'm really excited about, you know, potentially coming in, working for you. I did want to take some time to think about it. So is there a good time frame of when I should let you know my final decision? Right. You know, just just ask them, you know, in a professional manner, you know, when when can I get back to you?

 

00;06;40;13 - 00;06;44;11

McKinley Hatch

Don't feel like you need to immediately jump in right there.

 

00;06;44;13 - 00;07;00;08

Brandon Street

I mean, that's real good advice, Claire. And one thing I would suggest is it's okay to say, hey, this, this is going to be an impact on my family, right? And so could I take a day? Could I take 48 hours? Would that be okay if I, you know, took that to speak with my family? But let them know when you'll get back to them?

 

00;07;00;11 - 00;07;18;29

Brandon Street

I mean, it's really important to make sure they understand when you'll be getting back to them. Don't ever not get back to them. I mean, at that point, you've really, you know, burned a bridge with that company if you just do not if you ghost them right. If you don't get back to him and so as for that time and you know and and take the time that you need I.

 

00;07;19;01 - 00;07;36;29

Brandon Street

I don't think if a company is rushing you to make a decision right then you have to reevaluate if that's a company you want to work for, in my opinion, because again, this doesn't just affect you. If you have a family, it could affect a family as well. And I think it's okay to take a day or even two and let them know, hey, is it okay if I.

 

00;07;36;29 - 00;07;50;24

Brandon Street

But but as you said, make sure you're excited about that offer, too. One thing you don't want, I've called people. You're like, Are you even excited that I just offered you a job? You know, make sure you say, oh I'm so excited. Thank you so much for this opportunity. Spent a pleasure going through this process with you. I am really excited.

 

00;07;50;24 - 00;07;57;15

Brandon Street

But again, this is going to affect my family. I'd like to just take a day or two to talk to them if you're okay with that.

 

00;07;57;17 - 00;08;14;29

Jerry Ross

And also, I remember I've been on the receiving end of a few job denials and letting them know why helps them possibly modify their job to be more competitive. And a lot of times the person that you're directly interacting with, the recruiter, they're not the one that sets the wage. They're not the one that sets that this or that, that or the reason.

 

00;08;14;29 - 00;08;34;09

Jerry Ross

Maybe you chose another job over this one, but sometimes giving them that information helps them go back to decision makers and say, we've had three offers and all of them have declined us for this reason. We need to adjust that as a company. And you help them grow sometimes by those denials, if we're honest enough with them.

 

00;08;34;11 - 00;08;55;08

McKinley Hatch

Yeah. Brandon, you mentioned exploding offers a bit, which we'll dive into when they don't give you time to think about it if you ask for it and everything. But I did want to ask what is an appropriate timeline to say. You had mentioned 48 hours or a day to think about it or to what is the longest you can say?

 

00;08;55;15 - 00;09;14;00

Brandon Street

Well, that's a good question. I mean, you've got to be careful not taking too long, right, to get back to them. I typically, you know, my personal opinion is I think there can be different opinions depending on the employer, too. Right. But I think 48 hours is a good time to say, do you mind if I have time to do this and get back to you within 48 hours?

 

00;09;14;00 - 00;09;27;23

Brandon Street

I, I think if you take much longer that they're thinking, are you serious about this or not? Right. And a week definitely just leaves me as an employer just out there too long wondering, are you within this week just going to stop talking? I mean, are you still interested I don’t know what's going on? Right.

 

00;09;27;26 - 00;09;49;13

Jerry Ross

I think we also have to consider there's other candidates in the pool, right, where if you take two days and you take the full two days and then the next person takes a full two days and then the next person, it drags people's anxiety out longer than we need to. If you know it's going to be a no, just call them back and say, no, don't wait for the 48 hour, you know, take a stopwatch to go off before you call them back.

 

00;09;49;13 - 00;09;55;27

Jerry Ross

If you've made your decision, call them back. Let them know what it is so they can move on. And you don't keep the other people waiting.

 

00;09;55;29 - 00;10;21;02

McKinley Hatch

Yeah, we've talked a lot about accepting offers and how to handle that and asking for time. How? This is the tricky one, right? How to handle rejection when you know how to handle rejection gracefully at that. Right. Just tell us some strategies behind that and what why you'd encourage our listeners to do when they're rejected an offer.

 

00;10;21;04 - 00;10;34;28

Brandon Street

Yeah this is this is a good one. I personally I've been on that end. I've been where there were I was down to two candidates and I received a phone call that said, Hey, you know, we really, really loved you. This other person just had a little more experience than you had, right? As I was a younger professional.

 

00;10;35;01 - 00;10;51;08

Brandon Street

And what I tried to do at that point is just let them know how appreciative was that they took the time they did with me and that we got an opportunity to meet them and how, you know, if there was ever an opportunity again with them, I'd love to apply. What I wanted to do is leave the door open.

 

00;10;51;08 - 00;11;05;21

Brandon Street

So when they left, they go man. Should we have hired that guy right? Like and and I felt like they said that when they got off is like, man, we really just we really did like you. You know what I mean? And I wanted to just leave that open and them excited. If I did apply again they go, yeah, that we, we loved him, right.

 

00;11;05;23 - 00;11;26;07

Jerry Ross

Yeah. I like feedback too to where if you get that denial, can you say, can you tell me some things that I can improve some skills, I could build, some experiences I could have and then really take that personally to where the next time you're interviewing for this position, they would look foolish not choosing you. You've improved yourself and you've taken their words to heart and proving yourself as an applicant.

 

00;11;26;09 - 00;11;45;13

Clara Webster

Yeah. And one other thing I like to remind students of is it's not always you know, it's obviously not fun usually to get the call, so you didn't get a job. But it's also not fun to be the one to have to call people and tell them you didn't get a job. And so, you know, what they're looking for is, you know, they they're just hoping that it goes smoothly.

 

00;11;45;14 - 00;12;03;10

Clara Webster

Right. And that you're able to kind of just gracefully say, you know what, thank you for letting me know. And, you know, I appreciate just getting the time. They're taking the time to get to know me. And, you know, just just know that no one's excited telling you that you didn't get a job. So it's good to just handle that with grace and just say, you know, thanks for letting me know.

 

00;12;03;12 - 00;12;05;15

Clara Webster

Really liked getting to know you guys well.

 

00;12;05;15 - 00;12;25;00

Brandon Street

And I think that's on us as the receiver of that call to make sure that we are positive. Right Again I as you said, I didn't like making those calls when I had to as an employer. And so so be positive. Let them know again. And you were enthusiastic just the chance to to to work with them and go through the interview process and and let them know.

 

00;12;25;00 - 00;12;30;22

Brandon Street

I hope there's another opportunity that I get a chance to talk to you again. Right. And and that makes it easy for them.

 

00;12;30;24 - 00;12;45;23

McKinley Hatch

Yeah. We've talked about accepting a job offer and now rejecting or being rejected. Right. Well, let's talk about how to manage when you're offered multiple jobs at the same time.

 

00;12;45;26 - 00;13;07;27

Jerry Ross

This one's tough because the employers don't want to come in second. They want to think that they're the one that you've been dying to work at. You said, yes, everything is magical. And we run on the yellow brick road towards career success. And sometimes it's not like that and you have multiple things. So time is honesty. Personally, this is just my personal opinion.

 

00;13;07;27 - 00;13;25;19

Jerry Ross

I don't know that I'm saying I've got multiple offers coming in. I think I'm saying I need some more time to make sure this is the correct decision for myself and my family. And then I'm hanging up the phone and I'm calling the place where I really want to work and saying, Hey, this is where I want to be.

 

00;13;25;22 - 00;13;43;08

Jerry Ross

This is the job I really want to have. Where are we at? Can you give me a finish line of when is it going to be until we make the decision with them and just reinforce with them that they're really the place that you want to work and see what you can do to rush them on that decision so that you can also, you know, have some honesty and integrity.

 

00;13;43;08 - 00;13;46;14

Jerry Ross

Getting back to the other person, if that one works out to be the same.

 

00;13;46;16 - 00;14;08;26

Brandon Street

I think it's good advice. I mean, again, we have to be gracious through this process, you know, and and while you're trying to to rush them through, not be too pushy through that process. Right. I mean, so there's a nice balancing act we've got to do there. But but for sure, I'm with you don't don't tell the employer that, you know, you applied for jobs and have other offers out there especially don't be the person who uses as leverage against an employer.

 

00;14;08;26 - 00;14;26;21

Brandon Street

I think, you know, at that point there may be where the employer just says, you know what, good luck with the other opportunity. Right. And then hopefully the other opportunity does pan out of that. So, you know, I've sat down with students here and said, okay, we need to make some decisions here. You just got an offer. I understand you're waiting on this, but how do you know you're even going to get that other job?

 

00;14;26;21 - 00;14;42;16

Brandon Street

You don't. And if you give this a one up now, you may be out two jobs. So you just need to evaluate. Is this a job that could help you get where your career goals are? Is it something that's going to help you grow as a professional, doesn't meet the goals you have for yourself If it does, and what are you waiting for?

 

00;14;42;16 - 00;14;50;00

Brandon Street

Right. There may be an opportunity in the future with that other company when you've had some experience to apply again there. But there's no guarantee with the other jobs.

 

00;14;50;00 - 00;15;12;16

Jerry Ross

And I found when people have used that leverage and we buckled, they just used the leverage again later, you know, it just becomes a habit at that point to where salary and things are always in negotiation with them. When you buckle on the first thing, there's nothing wrong with negotiation. But when you directly leverage one versus another, it's not good.

 

00;15;12;18 - 00;15;26;00

McKinley Hatch

Awesome. Thanks for touching on that. Last thing I want to ask about was exploding job offers. So an exploding job offer is an offer with a short deadline, right for you to accept if any deadline.

 

00;15;26;00 - 00;15;26;09

Brandon Street

Right.

 

00;15;26;09 - 00;15;53;13

McKinley Hatch

If any. Right. Tell me now, yes or no. This is usually what some employers will use to pressure candidates. You know, into making a decision quickly, because either they're in a competitive market and they're looking for people now. Right. Or whatever that looks like. So what? Yeah, I guess. Tell us why exploding offers exist, you know, and how to navigate those as as the person getting that exploding offer.

 

00;15;53;13 - 00;15;59;06

McKinley Hatch

How do you handle an exploding offer when you truly don't know? Yeah, you need to talk to your family and you need to make those decisions.

 

00;15;59;08 - 00;16;20;26

Brandon Street

Well, first of all, can I just I'll just say this. Employers please avoid doing that to candidates. I mean that these are individuals who are again, they have lives, they have families. And these and job changes aren't a small decision in life. They're not you don't you want them to be there for a while and they're making a big decision in their life what they what they're going to do with the majority their week.

 

00;16;20;26 - 00;16;40;27

Brandon Street

Right. Let them enjoy their life over the next year or two. And and so please, you know, give them the grace to have that at least 24 to 48 hours to make a decision with their family. That's all I I'd ask, number one. But in these cases where I know there's been times I've worked with students who've had exploding offers, I sat down with them and just said, Is is this something you've dream for?

 

00;16;40;27 - 00;16;59;29

Brandon Street

Is there something you want it right? If it if it's not necessarily that I ask myself, with these type of tactics, is this the type of employer you want to work for? Meaning, you know, if they're offering if they're giving you an exploding offer and they're not budging at all for you to allow you some grace to talk to your family and that do you really want to work for a company like that?

 

00;16;59;29 - 00;17;16;18

Brandon Street

Right. Or a business that doesn't allow you Grace To least these things in your life to work life balance we talk about. Right? And in this case, I'm trying to do that by at least talking to my family. So we've had some honest conversation, though sometimes students have accepted it with that because that's what they wanted to do, which is great.

 

00;17;16;21 - 00;17;23;07

Brandon Street

Other times they've reevaluated and said, I don't know if I want to have that. This is, you know, right off the bat how that what I'm getting from the employer.

 

00;17;23;07 - 00;17;40;23

Jerry Ross

So, yeah, I think these are dominant in sales and high pressure positions. Yeah. So right. So it's kind of when you are expected to get people to give you an instant. Yes. Those salespeople will come back with, Hey, I'd like a day to think about this. To think about what? What are the questions you have? I'll answer them right now.

 

00;17;40;26 - 00;17;55;24

Jerry Ross

Well, I'd like to talk to my wife. What's her number? Let's get her on the phone. You know, they really push to get that. Yes. Out of you right now when maybe the honest answer is you need to take a walk on it and you need to evaluate the multiple things that it may impact. What's the upward movement?

 

00;17;55;24 - 00;18;07;14

Jerry Ross

What's a lot of the different things that you couldn't evaluate until this moment? So you should be doing your homework. But if you're here and this is just it, you know, the exploding offer is typically not a positive thing, right?

 

00;18;07;17 - 00;18;08;10

Brandon Street

Yeah.

 

00;18;08;13 - 00;18;24;09

McKinley Hatch

Well, thanks listeners for tuning in today on our podcast episode Decisions and Destinations navigating how to accept and decline opportunities with poise and of course, grace. Like we talked about. Jerry, why don’t you wrap this one up.

 

00;18;24;16 - 00;18;32;17

Jerry Ross

You guys know that before this I was studying to be a doctor, but I didn't have any patients.

 

00;18;32;20 - 00;18;33;05

McKinley Hatch

yes.

 

00;18;33;07 - 00;18;36;19

Brandon Street

I can see why you did’t make it.

 

00;18;36;22 - 00;18;40;01

McKinley Hatch

Thanks listeners, we'll see you next week.