Handling Multiple Job or Internship Offers
If you have been actively job or internship searching, you may be now facing decisions about multiple offers (or offers that you are hoping will come). Even if you accepted an offer, you may be contacted by employers hoping to make hires.
Here’s some tips to help with this process:
- If you accept an offer, ethically you should not continue to search for opportunities or interview. When you accept an offer, employers tell other candidates that they will not receive an offer. You continuing to search affects others who are still seeking and reflects poorly on you and the College of Business. If you interviewed with other employers before accepting your offer, contact these employers asking to withdraw from their search process as you accepted another offer. If you believe that you have a unique situation that merits continuing to search, visit with the Business Career Center about how to do so professionally.
- If you are anticipating multiple offers, it is acceptable to ask for more time to make the best decision for your future. The University of Nebraska-Lincoln has job offer guidelines to ensure students have time to complete their interviews (see https://business.unl.edu/current-students/business-career-center/documents/Job-Offer-Guidelines.pdf ). Consider not only the financial side of the offers, but also workplace culture, geographic location, and career advancement opportunities. Although the most common situation is choosing between two offers, other scenarios may occur. For example, you have an offer, let’s say from ABC Inc., but are waiting to hear from another organization, we’ll call them XYZ Inc. You could tell ABC Inc that you want to complete all of your scheduled interviews before making a decision. ABC could say “that’s fine” or could say “I need to know in five business days.” You may end up accepting ABC and then get an offer from XYZ. Because you already accepted ABC, you would turn down XYZ. Or you may turn down ABC and not get an offer from XYZ. You could contact ABC and see if they would reopen the offer.
- Whether you accept or decline an offer, you want to be professional and respectful as you may interact with that organization or recruiter in the future. Sometimes the world of recruiting can be pretty small, so you want to leave a positive impression.
If you’d like to talk about your offers, craft messages of acceptance or decline, or practice your verbal negotiation, the Business Career Center is here for you!
More details at: https://business.unl.edu/current-students/business-career-center