More job offers = more moolah
It’s the dream of any job seeker: two companies declaring their professional love for you and offering you a job.
Not only does this feel good, but it can also lead to more money in your pocket. In my last job search before Beamjobs my salary went from $62K to $95K because I had two competing offers.
To all my introverts, this does not require being a good negotiator. As a people pleaser, negotiation is my nightmare. All I did was relay the facts about one company’s offer to the other company and vice-versa.
The hard work here is getting multiple offers. After today, I hope you’ll have a better idea of how to do that.
The value of multiple offers
Before we get to the “how,” let’s talk about the “why” of multiple job offers. Simply put, more offers means more negotiating leverage which means higher compensation for you in your next role.
Your salary tends to increase throughout your career. A slight difference in your pay from role to role can significantly impact your career earnings (the total money you’ve earned throughout your career).
The more you can increase your salary from job to job; the more your earnings will compound throughout your career.
Let’s look at an example of two 30-year-olds who are creepily identical and looking for a new job:
- Person A (what her friends call her) had one job offer and accepted a salary offer of $50,000.
- Person B had the same years of experience, credentials, and work experience. They, however, got two job offers and the companies outbid each other to get her salary to $65,000.
From here on out, Person A and B had identical careers and yearly salary increases of 4%.
Let’s take a look at their total career earnings over time.
Person A had $3.9M in career earnings, while Person B had $5.0M. Over a million dollar difference! Every salary negotiation you do matters, so better to have more leverage each time you do it.
Tip 1: Schedule your interviews strategically
Job searching is nothing if not unpredictable. One company takes two weeks to respond to emails, and another company wants five rounds of interviews done in that amount of time.
Lining up multiple offers is more art than science. Still, the best thing you can do to get simultaneous offers is to buy yourself time.
Push your later stage interviews as long as possible (if they give you three dates, choose the latest). Conversely, complete your early-stage interviews as quickly as possible (choose the earliest dates you can).
Companies don’t want to wait more than a week (on average) after they give you an offer to hear back. You have to maximize your offers within that one-week period which starts the second you get your first offer.
To that end, tell the other companies you’re interviewing with if you get an offer you’re willing to accept. You have nothing to lose here. Either:
- They’ll speed up your interview process because they’re excited about you, which might lead to another offer.
- They won’t speed up your interview process, and you still have one offer.
Strategic interviewing example
Nolan applied to a ton of jobs and, as these things go, was not having any success until he was.
Suddenly, he was invited for a 3rd (and final) interview for Company A, and a 1st round for Company B all on a Friday.
- Monday: Scheduled 1st round interview for Company B
- Thursday: Found out Company B wanted 2nd interview
- Friday: Scheduled 3rd (and final) interview for Company A
- Next Monday: Scheduled 2nd round interview for Company B.
- Next Wednesday: Offer from Company A & told Company B about offer from Company A.
- Next Friday: Scheduled 3rd (and final) interview for Company B.
- Following Monday: Offer from Company B
As a result of this strategic scheduling, Nolan got his offers on Monday and Wednesday of the same week, plenty of time to weigh each option and tell each employer about the other offer.
Tip 2: Once you’re in, go all in
If you’re like most people, job searching is something you treasure. If I had to choose, my favorite activities would be:
- Moving
- Job searching
- Going to the dentist
Stretching out your job search means more time searching for jobs. Wow, I’m so deep.
A job hunt that spans more time leads to more misery. It’s the 5th law of thermodynamics. Not only that but the more concentrated your job search, the more likely you are to get multiple offers.
If you have two choices:
- Spend 2 hours a day searching and applying for jobs for 15 days.
- Spend 1 hour a day searching and applying for jobs for a month.
Go with the first choice. The more stacked your applications, the more likely the interviews for those companies will overlap.
Applying for jobs is draining. These numbers were just used to illustrate a point if you have these, or similar, choices. In reality, any progress is progress on the job application front.
Tip 3: Try to get an “offer” from your current employer
They say you want what you can’t have. That 100% applies to employers.
They’ll often underpay you for YEARS, but when you threaten to leave, they’ll do anything to keep you.
If you’re in a situation where you’re not all out on your job, you should try to get a “second offer” from your current employer. Present them with your offer and see if they’ll increase your compensation.
When should you talk to your current employer about a new offer?
- I recommend you tell them once you get a written offer you’re willing to accept.
- If you’re more risk-averse, wait until you sign the contract and have a start date with your new employer.
I recommend the first option because companies can still revoke your offer even after you accept (and sign). This has happened recently with Crunchbase, for example! I believe there is not much additional risk when choosing option 1 versus option 2.
However, there is a potential downside risk with option 2. If you sign an offer and back out of that job, you may risk burning a bridge with that company. All things said, this risk is small but still worth noting.
What to say?
Just be honest. Try to do it in person (or Zoom) instead of by email. An example of an employee working at Snorlax Corp:
“Hey boss, I recently received a job offer for $X. I like working at Snorlax Corp and would like to try to stay. Is there anything you can do to be more competitive with this offer?”
Internet advice on this topic acts as if the words you choose in this conversation matter much. They don’t. Just don’t be offensive and be as confident as you can. Your boss will understand and either give you more money or not.
