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Job offers often come with a deadline attached. If you are interviewing with multiple companies, you can find it stressful working your way through these deadlines. Of course, you need enough time to think through the job offers you got, and negotiate their terms as well. In this blog post, you will learn some tips on how to swiftly ask for an extension to consider a job offer.
Before we proceed, let’s take a look at the various reasons why companies attach deadlines to their job offers.
Job Offer Deadline: The Reason Why
● They urgently need to hire: Hiring takes time, and often by the time you’re getting an offer, the role you’re applying for has been an active need for weeks or months.
● To get you to prematurely accept their offer: Hiring managers or recruiters know that when you don’t accept their job offers immediately, chances are you are waiting for something “better”. In order to preempt that, they can put you in a position where you either accept their offer or risk not getting better offers in the future. This tactic is often used by hiring managers or recruiters with short-term incentives (e.g. they get paid per placement, have a hiring target they have to hit, etc).
● To “avoid losing momentum”: This might sound silly, but any person who has hired candidates (or worked in a sales role) knows that the longer things drag on, the less likely an offer is to be accepted. That visceral feeling of excitement of a new job (and the package that comes with it) will naturally fade, and so the “first offer on the table” loses advantage as time passes.
● Other candidates and limited head count: This is probably the most valid reason for offering deadlines. A hiring manager or recruiter may have a limited number of people they can hire for a role (sometimes just one), and if they’ve done their job well, several candidates are in the process. If you’re the top choice but aren’t going to join, they want to know as early as possible so that they don’t lose out on other candidates. If you are going to join, they also probably don’t want to drag things along with other candidates only to let them down.
How To Ask For An Extension
● Ask early: The worst thing you can do is ask for an extension the day after your deadline (actually, the worst is surfacing a day or two after your deadline to ask for an extension). It signals a lack of seriousness or conscientiousness. So ask early. If you forecast that you will need more time, ask for it as early as you can. Some recruiters might then delay their timeline and hold back their offers a little longer, but that’s fine—you want your offers arriving close anyway.
● Show seriousness: For instance, offer to hop on a quick call to explain your timeline. This shows that you are serious about the offer, but still committed to your own timeline, and will allay any fears on their side that you’re just “collecting offers”.
● Be reasonable: Most of the time, asking for a few extra days should be fine. In fact, for most of the valid reasons listed above for offer deadlines, we’d say a day or two (or even a week) should always be negotiable. A hiring manager would rather wait a couple of days to get someone who’s really committed and excited to join, even if it sets the team back a couple of days.
● Be transparent (but not revealing): Explain why you need more time. This is a big decision for you, and there are multiple variables. You want to accept an offer without any doubt in your mind, and you’re looking for a long-term commitment. This will help build trust (especially if the person hiring you is a hiring manager you might report to). That said, do not reveal any information that can be used against you. Don’t give out, for instance, the names of the other companies you’re talking to or compensation you are offered from other companies.
It gets difficult to be at a crossroads, trying to figure out the best job offer for you. Take your time, reach out to your hiring managers and make the best decision. You’ve got this!