I interviewed for a more senior position than one I am in now.
They seemed to really like me and gave me ‘an offer I can’t refuse’ basically. The pay/perks are more than I asked for.
My current company said they can’t match it, they were honest and I believe them. They offered a small increase but offered work in a different area of the business which excites me. I would prefer to do that, than take a pay increase and move to a new company.
I have been honest with both companies, I didn’t inflate any salary figures to either party. I also intended on telling the prospective company that I would decline their offer not for financial reasons but because I got offered a different role which was more exciting.
But I was advised against this from a few people saying that the prospective new company may get upset that I leveraged their offer to get an even better offer regardless of whether it’s financially related or not. Get potentially black-flagged in their system from future applications ( it’s a MUCH bigger company )
They said it would be better to use something in the contract conditions that I didn’t like to get out of it.
My concern is that if I did this, they may just amend the terms, and then what excuse do I have? I also feel that if I didn’t tell them the real reason, then I might send some poor hiring manager and HR person down a pointless path of rectifying something on their end that they didn’t need to be doing anyway.
Thoughts?
Update 04/06/22 : I got a formal counter-offer letter a few days ago with the new position. An increase in salary is effective immediately, but I will transition to the new role over 3 months