Read This Before You Accept A Counter Offer

In this issue:

• Why you need to objectively consider counter offers

• The questions you need to ask yourself (and your current employer) before making a decision

• Realize most don’t work out (from mine and other recruiters experience), but some do work out very well

• Only you can truly decide what’s right

Counter offers are easily one of the most controversial topics when it comes to your career.

A counter offer is when you hand in your resignation, and your employer suddenly decides to promote you or give you that raise (and in some cases you get both) to match whatever offer you brought them to the table.

Why it matters: Chances are at some point of your career you’ll receive a counter offer.

• Especially right now in Q1, many of you reading this are planning on waiting until you receive your bonus to hand in your resignation.

• Or you’re using the new year to find a new gig to start the year fresh.

Here’s the thing: there’s so much contradictory advice online that will pull you in one direction or the other.

You, and only you, can make the decision if taking a counter offer is the right move.

That being said, there are a few concerns you’ll want to address before you make your decision.

Let’s dive in 👇

1: Did you address these concerns up front?

Assuming you like where you work (outside of wanting that raise/promotion), you should definitely discuss your goals with your manager.

There’s a solid chance they’ll find a way to make you happy - whether it’s giving you what you want, compromising in the middle, or putting you on a path that eventually gets you there.

You’ve already put in the sweat equity - why start from zero if you don’t have to?

If you don’t like where you work, that’s obviously another story.

But if you do, you should give them a chance to get you what you need to make you happy before the fact.

2: Why are they giving you this counter offer now?

You have to ask this question regardless if you addressed the concerns up front.

The reason is because you have to determine whether or not this counter offer is a bandaid solution.

Are they giving you what you want now to bide time while they work on their Plan B?

In many cases, it’s cheaper for the employer to give in to your counter offer in the short term while they work on their Plan B for the long term.

So you need to really dig in and ask them - and yourself - why they are giving you this counter offer so you don’t get yourself screwed over.

A: If you tried addressing these concerns already - and they said no - why are they suddenly giving you what you wanted?

Would you rather work for someone who gave you what you wanted when you deserved it, or for someone who gave it to you “when they had to”?

B: If they were in the process of getting you what you wanted and you still went out and found another job, you can use the same question and logic from above.

Why were they taking so long, and why didn’t they give it to you faster? Is their logic and reasoning sound?

C: If you didn’t address these concerns with them, why not?

If you truly enjoyed working there or had a good relationship with your manager in the first place, this should have been the first option.

Regardless, why would they wait until you brought them a counter offer, threaten to quit, to get you that raise/promotion instead of giving it to you when you deserved it?

Do you want to work a place where that’s the standard?

3: Will Your Relationship Change With Your Employer?

This is one of the big questions to ask and really only you can answer this.

Some companies will take counter offers extremely personally.

There could be trust issues or a belief that you're no longer fully committed to the company. Think about how this might affect your future at the company.

They’ll give you what you want, but remember, there is no such thing as a free lunch. Everything comes at a price.

Maybe they start excluding you from the “inner circle”.

Maybe the relationship with your manager stays the same, but the people above him now look at you differently, or vise versa.

Maybe management still respects you, but now your co-workers don’t.

Will this effect future raises or promotions?

Will they trust you putting you on high visibility projects?

Will they always think you have your foot out the door every time there’s a disagreement, or whenever you don’t get what you want?

There’s a lot of emotional dynamics at play here that will stick for the long term and you have to decide if that’s worth dealing with vs. just moving onto the other company.

4: Why did I want to leave in the first place?

You have to really dig down and take a look at yourself in the mirror and ask yourself this question.

Remember, if they’re giving you a raise, more money only solves money problems.

If they give you a promotion, is it an actual promotion that moves you up the ladder and gives you real responsibility, or is it just fluff that they’re putting on paper just to make you happy.

Everyone wants more money and a promotion, but if your main pain points weren’t related to either of the two, chances are they will continue to persist, and you’ll end up leaving down the road anyways.

5: Finally, how does it compare to the new offer?

Take a step back remove the emotional aspects of it.

You’re going to be pulled into two directions by both companies so it’s important you look at things objectively.

Compare the counteroffer with the new job offer.

Consider all factors and how each aligns with your goals:

• Compensation

• Benefits

• Work culture

• Career growth

• The role itself

Bonus: Get a third party opinion

Both companies have skin in the game and have something to lose if you take the other offer.

Although internal recruiters don’t make commission - they don’t want to waste their time and start their search from scratch. Plus they still get graded on this type of stuff.

Agency recruiters obviously work off of commission so you really have to have your guard up and make sure they don’t oversell you. That being said, some (like me) look out for your best interest so they don’t burn bridges so still listen to what they have to say.

In an ideal world - you get the opinion of someone who doesn’t have any skin in the game. They don’t have a dog in the fight. It doesn’t matter if you go one way or the other so they’ll truly give you an honest opinion.

Real Life Examples:

Most of the candidates I’ve worked with that ended up taking a counter ended up leaving within a year.

This isn’t exact data - but going off memory - I’d definitely say at least 2/3’s being pretty conservative (it’s likely more than that).

The main reasoning is that the underlying problems still exist OR employer loses trust in you and new problems around that start to bubble up, causing you to keep looking and eventually leave.

That being said, 2 examples where it did work out that may relate to you:

1: Sales Rep at our own company

Back in 2017, our company changed up the commission plan.

This proved to be temporary as one of our rising stars ended up giving his resignation.

He was only 2 years into the business, but this dude was a rocket ship. By his second year, he billed $1M and broke into a massive new line of business where he partnered with a giant creative team to create exclusive SOWs.

We would either fill the roles, or if they filled the roles, they still payrolled the contractor through our company so we still made some $$$.

Anyways this new comp plan would really effect him.

He gave in his resignation and our manager & president started to panic, and keep in mind, other members in the company quit earlier because of the new comp plan.

It ended up working out for him - but only because he was a top performer - with the potential to be THE top performer in the company. He also had an extremely good relationship with our sales boss and solid relationship with our president - similar to me. Our company was smaller at the time, so not much room for politics to get in the way.

2: My Dad

As some of you know by now, my father was an IT Director back in the day. Did database work his whole career, went into a director role, and also eventually oversaw the global infrastructure for one of the largest pharma companies in the world.

(PS. I’m not book smart enough to get a comp sci degree, hence why I ended up as a recruiter 😂)

He was at his company for about 7 years when he put in his resignation. Essentially he wanted more work/life balance so he can spend time with me, my mom, and my brother.

Since he was so high up, he reported directly into the CIO. He had a good relationship with him and I even remember meeting him as a kid a few times.

It ended up working out for my dad, he was there another ~5 years (but eventually took a package before a layoff). If I had to guess, it was his relationship plus the fact the CIO met our family a few times that helped make his counter offer successful.

Conclusion:

Reflecting on these questions will help you make a well-informed decision that aligns with your career aspirations and personal needs. Remember, it's not just about the immediate benefits but also about where you see yourself in the long run.

If you need help deciphering a counter offer, or anything else related to your career, you can book a call with me here:

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