Introduction
My advice is to always apply to as many interviews as possible, and to complete them until the final stage. This way you will have a wide view of what is waiting for you out there, and also you will have multiple options to choose from.
Let's suppose you got some positive feedbacks after passing some successful interviews, and you have to decide between the few options you got. I know deciding might be confusing and a tough task for you.
Despite the fact of most of us are looking for better financial offers, you should consider other facts too. When it comes to picking one job out of the many you have, think first of yourself and how much comfort and joy will this job bring you.
I am going to share with you some tips which will help take a good decision with no regrets.
Facts to consider before accepting a job offer:
Generally, you can be in one of these two situations:
This is your first time being hired:
This is the hardest situation because you don't have experience, and you might even be not sure what you are looking for in the first place. This is because you haven't met past situations that you want to avoid, or mistakes to learn from.
From my personal perspective, when you are at your first hire, unless you have restraints,you should do sacrifices and give up on some expectations and focus more on learning and gaining experience. Even if the job is well paid or the company has a good reputation, or any other reason you consider, just don't go for it.
Instead, focus more on the job that will help you develop your career , your abilities and your skills better and gain more experience. This will help later in the future whenever you will be changing the job. The more experience you gain, the more valuable you become, and being valuable can get you later other things you wished for like better salary, a relaxed job, etc....
For example, you have to choose between 2 options:
- Option 1 : call center with higher salary, answering only calls and solving basic customer issues with with an application, and the company is next door.
- Option 2 : Lower salary, more stressful, doing profound troubleshooting, and opportunities to get professional training on different technologies but is far from your home.
I would choose option 2 because I can see the benefits I am getting out of it in the long term.
When you are changing your job:
Before changing your job, you should ask yourself these 2 questions: Do I have strong reasons for changing the job? Is it worth the change?
There can be many reasons when you will change your job:
- You don't like your team
- Your assigned tasks are too boring
- Too much routine
- Bad team and task organization
- Unfair treatment with regard to other colleagues
- Low salary
- Company location
- Company reputation
- Bad management
- Company policies
- etc...
Unless you have strong reasons, don't bother changing the job. Instead, seek alternatives or solutions in the current job.
For example, when you get a counteroffer, from another employer. Talk to your management and check their willingness to raise your salary. Negotiate and explain why you deserve a higher salary and give a strong reason for your decision.
Another example, let's say when you feel you are given too much work in comparison to other colleagues. Take a moment to sit with your team and discuss the topic professionally,and reassign the workload and put in order the future tasks.
Taking the right decision
Let's assume that you have already gone through the above, and you have made your exclusion list, but you were still left with more than one option to choose. In my case, this is the method I used to decide which job to take when I have many options.
Make a list of factors you based your job research on.
Add them in a cross table as the example below and add a column for each company depending on what is more important to you in that stage of your career or life.
If the factor is rated positively in a company, then give a 1, otherwise give it a 0.
Do the math, calculate the total for each company and go for the one with higher score.
Company 1 | Company 2 | Company x | |
Permanent or temporary contract | 1 | 0 | 1 |
Trial period | 0 | 1 | 0 |
Benefits | 1 | 0 | 1 |
Time spent to reach the office | 0 | 1 | 1 |
Number of day allowed to work remotly | 1 | 0 | 1 |
Do I have the technical skills | 1 | 1 | 1 |
Salaries | 1 | 1 | 0 |
Company reputation | ... | ... | ... |
Training opportunities | ... | ... | ... |
Number of employees | ... | ... | ... |
... | ... | ... | ... |
... | ... | ... | ... |
Total | 20 | 16 | 5 |
Note that this list is just an example, which includes the very common factors most of the people would consider when looking and picking a job. You can make your own list of factors!
Conclusion
This was simply a personal method I used for myself when I was in this situation, and I had to decide between 3 jobs. I had to consider many factors, although the jobs I have picked weren't a better match for my profile. That is because I got a low score for the job I really wanted, so I said no.
Do not feel sorry for rejecting an offer at a late stage of the hiring process. A company can interrupt your hiring process at any moment without giving a real reason for that, also you will have a trial period anyway where you can leave without prior notice.
I learned from this lesson that I can’t have everything I want, but I can have anything I want, or at least I can have some of it. I wanted a better salary, I wanted to get a job related to my field of expertise, in a good location, easy to access but not all these can be offered by one company at once. So, I had to give up on some expectations.
