Years back, there was a movie starring Robert Redford called The Candidate. Redford played a young idealist who is induced by a seasoned and jaded political campaigner to run for senator. The young candidate pulls a major upset and wins the election. But in the movie's last scene, as he is being driven to the victory celebration, the candidate turns to the campaign manager and says: "Now, what do I do?"
Now it's time to think about what you do when you've won the ultimate prize in the job search game: the job offer. In some respects, of course, you can relax. The pressure's off. But don't relax too much. You still have some work to do. You've got to weigh the offer to make sure you're making the right move. And once you've made up your mind, you then have to negotiate an arrangement that makes you happy and gets you and your employer off on the right track together.
It sounds easier than it is.
How Solid Is the Offer?
I've seen it hundreds of time: wishful thinking interfering with good judgment. "I've been offered a job," someone will tell me. "Great," I say. "When do you start?" "Well," they say "I'm not really sure." "Is the money good?" I ask. "Well," they say, "we haven't really talked money. The fact is, they haven't really offered me the job yet-not officially anyway. But it's in the bag."
Sure it is! Make sure the offer you get is an offer. An offer means that someone has said to you: "We want you for this job. When can you start?" An offer isn't any of the following:
"We like the way you look."
"We think you could do well here."
"We're very interested in you."
"You're the front runner. It looks good."
I've known candidates who, on the basis of these statements, have retired from the job search game. They avoid other inter-views. They give notice. I've known a few people who've celebrated the new "offer" by going on vacation. Then, wham mo, they get back, make a call, and are told, politely, that something went wrong. A misunderstanding. "I'm very sorry. Somebody else came along who looked a little better than you. Of course, we'll keep your resum6 on file."
So, beware the non-offer offer.
Do You Really Want the Job?
Nobody can answer this question but you, and your answer, of course, will depend upon any number of considerations, not the least of which is how badly you need the job.
If you've been following the guidelines set down for you, you should have a pretty good idea of how much you really want a particular job before the offer is made. This isn't to say that you've absolutely made up your mind (being offered a job can sometimes make that job seem more attractive or less attractive to you, depending on your state of mind and state of finances). But you should be aware of how closely this job meets your needs and wants.
If you're convinced that the job being offered you is the right one for you at this time, don't agonize over a decision. Concentrate, instead, on negotiating the best possible terms. And even if the job is lacking in certain respects, don't be in a hurry to turn it down, especially if you're out of work.
To repeat, nobody but you can make the decision whether or not to take a job that's been offered you. But here are three questions you should be asking yourself in order to help you make the decision that's best for you.
1. How badly do you need a job? There is a point in every job search campaign-and it varies from person to person- when common sense dictates that you take any job you're offered that comes even close to the things you're looking for. In most instances, the main consideration is financial: how quickly you're sinking. In the event that finances are becoming a serious problem-serious enough, for instance, that they're causing tension in your home and making you lose sleep at night-don't be cavalier. Ignore the negatives in the job. See it as an opportunity to stabilize yourself. Recognize the reality of your situation. Subordinate your reservations about the job to the priorities of your present situation.
On the other hand, if you're currently working in a job that's paying you enough to live on and isn't causing you grief, don't accept the new job simply for the sake of a change. The beauty of looking for a job while you're already working, remember, is that it affords you the luxury of being independent and choosy. Do not feel an obligation to take any job simply because it has been offered to you. People turn down job offers all the time. But make sure you think through all the possibilities. Try to project ahead. Ask yourself if perhaps three or four months down the road, you might not regret your decision to turn the job down.
2. How does this job fit into your long-term career picture? Now that you're considering a job offer, it might be a good time to offer a few comments. By and large, the most successful top executives are those men and women who had a clear and well-thought-out idea of what their long-term goals were, and who made each career decision not only on the strength of what a job may have offered in the way of money or responsibility at a particular time, but how that job fit into their long-term plans. It is easier than you think to get sidetracked: to lose sight of what's going to bring you satisfaction in the long run because a job suddenly offers you the prospect of making considerably more money than you're making now.
I'm not saying discount the importance of money. But as difficult as it is, try to weigh the short-term advantages of taking a job that offers you a sizeable jump in pay against the long-term advantages of pursuing a career plan that offers you a somewhat surer if longer route to long-term career goals.
Weigh the offer, yes. But use it, too, as an opportunity to examine what you want to do with your life and career. Project five years down the road, both in your present job, if you're still working, and in the job you've just been offered. Write down on a sheet of paper the various things you like about your current job and the things you don't like. Then make up a similar list (projecting, of course) for the job you've been offered. All I'm asking, really, is that you view your situation as objectively as you can.
Disregard the understandable excitement you feel as a result of the new offer. Forget the ego boost. Do your best to see yourself in the job you've been offered-not the exciting and romantic parts, but the pressure and the drudgery of it. If you can imagine yourself handling the worst that the job has to offer, and you still think you'll like it, you've done all a reasonable person can do in the way of answering the basic question of how happy you're going to be in that job.
3. Are you and the company on the same wavelength? Let's call it chemistry-the feeling you get when you walk into the company's offices. Is the place friendly enough for you? Is the company's philosophy of doing business one you can comfortably live with? You know yourself and your attitude toward work. How much will you have to alter it in order to fit into the company's mold?
Checking Up on the Company
Let's assume you're not so desperate that you're forced to take just about any reasonable job that's offered you. Let's also assume you've been offered a job that seems to offer you what you want, but you want to be fairly certain that you're making the right move. In this case, I say do unto the company that gave you the offer what the company did unto you: find out as much as you can about them. As long as you don't take too much time doing it, and as long as you're not unpleasant about it, most employers won't mind a little probing on your part. And if they do mind it, you probably have reason to be suspicious.
Here's how to set about it:
1. The interview revisited. The first step is to call the person who made the offer. Say how delighted about the offer you are and ask if the two of you can meet again to talk about the job. You shouldn't run into any resistance.
This time when you go to the interview, keep an eye open for cues you may have missed in your previous visits. Chat with the receptionist. Ask casually how long the receptionist has been with the firm. You might ask off-handedly what sort of a person the department head (your would-be boss) is to work for. You could find out from this little discussion that the firm is a revolving door.
At the meeting itself, start out with basic questions, about pension and benefits, but eventually ask the person you're speaking with to describe for you some of the problems that your predecessor may have had in the job. In the event that the person who had your job is still with the company (perhaps he or she has been promoted), see if you can sit down and talk with this person.
2. Where's the company heading? Assuming you haven't already done so in preparing for the interview, learn as much as you can about the company's financial position. If it's a public company, get its annual and interim reports. If it's a private company, find out who its banker is and the partner in charge of the company audit at its CPA firm. (I'm assuming here that you're being hired for a middle- or senior-level management position. If you're being hired for a lower-level position and you start asking these kinds of questions, you'll look foolish.)
Be low-key. Impress upon your would-be employers that your current position is not desperate, and that you want to feel secure about this offer. If your efforts to get this kind of information run into a stone wall, try at least to get a business plan out of them. These plans tend to be overly optimistic, but you'll have an idea about the projected return on investment and the owner's expansion program.
Don't take the company's financial condition for granted. There is a direct correlation between the financial condition of the company and the opportunities for your advancement in that company. The smaller the profits, the fewer the chances for promotions and raises. But with one exception. Sometimes you may have a chance to work for a company that is in a turn-around situation. If the company is indeed on the rebound and you're along for the ride, you're in great shape. But it's a gamble, so take note of the odds. If you have a family, you may not want to run the necessary risk.
3. Getting in on the right track. You'll never really get to know the political nature of a company until you've worked for them for a few months, but it's always good to be hired by somebody who is in a secure and powerful position, and not somebody on the way out. How do you tell? Well, you may have to do some digging. Talk to your colleagues. See how your boss is regarded in the industry. Maybe you have a contact in a competing firm. I'm constantly amazed at how much competing firms know about each other.
Of course, if the person who hires you does happen to be on the wrong side of a company power struggle, you could always ask for a transfer, once you get a clearer picture of the office political scene. So don't let the relatively tenuous position of your would-be boss be the only consideration.
4. Where do you go from there? Each company has its own distinctive career pattern, and you should make it your business to find out whether the executives in the department you're about to work for have a reasonable shot at top management. Read the literature the firm puts out about itself. See if you can get the biographies of the firm's top management people. See how many of the officers came out of your own field.
