2

I work at a community college in America. I'm pretty happy with my job all things considered but applied for a position at the local university. The interview revealed some red flags with this particular position, but I went to my current boss and she gave a pretty generous counter offer. I think I want to stay at my community college for now, but I will probably still want to work at the university within the next year or two.

If I turn down this offer, will that ruin my chances of working another position there in the future?

Improve this question
2

4 Answers 4

Reset to default
6

No, in fact it would be extremely helpful in applying in the future. For one, people turn down offers all the time for various reasons, a hiring manager knows this, as long as you keep your response professional, short, and don't offer a lot of information, you actually have built a good contact to use in the future. An example: "While there are several things I really like about this position, I have personal conflicts with my current school schedule and personal life that won't allow me to take this position. This is a great school, I really hope that I can work with you in another capacity in the future."

Secondly, you can reference the manger in future interviews. You can mention you interviewed and got offered a position, and mention the manager by name so they can reference that person. This is actually a good thing.

Improve this answer
4

No. It won't ruin your chance to work for that university in the future.

They may not hire you right away next week or next month for this same position. But, they may consider other positions for you in about 1 year or more provided that you do not act unprofessionally in any way when you reject their offer.

As long as you don't say anything negative about their university or about the position or about the red flags when you reject the offer, they will still likely accept your application in the future.

People reject job offers all the time when they have better offers elsewhere from other employers.

If you give them a simple, general, and positive rejection reason, then you can reapply for the jobs at that university in the future. For example, you can simply say:

"I've got an offer from my employer that better fits my career goals at this point. So, I decide to take that offer. Thank you very much for your considerations. Best Regards."

PS: My answer assumes that you do not work as a professor, and only work in other positions such as software programmer, administrator, librarian, secretary, etc...

Improve this answer
2

Will turning down an offer hurt your chances in the future?

Maybe.

It depends on how you turn them down. It depends on if they felt you were stringing them along, by negotiating with them but then ultimately rejecting them.

The interview revealed some red flags with this particular position, but I went to my current boss and she gave a pretty generous counter offer. I think I want to stay at my community college for now, but I will probably still want to work at the university within the next year or two.

Don't tell them you used their offer, even with the red flags, to get a better deal at you current employer. They don't want to know this fact. You also don't want them to know this fact.

Also using their offer has told your current employer that you were looking. But don't let them know that you still expect to leave soon. Leaving in a year after accepting the counter offer isn't unusual. This happens frequently if the counter offer has promises that next semester X will happen, or next year Y will happen.

You don't have to tell the university any details about why you are rejecting their offer. Just thank them for the offer, and say that it will not work out at this time. The more details you give, the higher the risk they will remember your rejecting them. Also, the more details you give the more it seems like you are expecting them to up their offer.

Improve this answer
1

If I turn down this offer, will that ruin my chances of working another position there in the future?

It might not ruin your chances, but it will certainly make things harder for you.

If the future hiring manager knows that you turned down an offer in order accept a counter offer and stay where you are, they would rightly question your motives in applying at the university again. Certainly they will wonder if you are just doing this in order to extract yet another counter offer from your employer, and might be unwilling to invest interview time in you again.

The interview revealed some red flags with this particular position

So if you decline the offer for this position, don't indicate that you got a generous counter offer that you will accept. Instead indicate that this particular position isn't a good fit for you at this time.

That approach will help minimize future problems if you apply for a different position that hopefully is a better fit.

Improve this answer

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .