Gaining more time for a job offer decision

Question

I am currently applying for a new job in IT. I have an offer in city far away from where I currently live. The boss in the other city gave me a job offer a week ago. I told him that I need some time to think about it and will get back to him today.

I later had another talk about a more interesting job opportunity in my home town, but I don't have an offer yet.

How should I deal with this? My plan is to call the first boss (far away) to send me a contract. And ask about the progress of the application at the company in the city where I currently live.

I don't want to make a decision now, if I can avoid it. Do you have any recommendations to gain more time without losing the job offer?

Answer 1

I have told him, that i need some time to think about it and will get back to him today.

To me, this implies you will get back within the day with either an acceptance or refusal. Therefore, if you didn't do this, and dragged the process on, I would immediately have doubts about you and whether I wanted you to join the company.

My plan is to call the first boss (far away) to send me the contract.

By all means review your contract, but bear in mind they will still want a response promptly - so it's unlikely you'll be allowed a few weeks to peruse at your leisure.

Given your situation, I would contact the second company and basically inform them of the first company's offer. Explain to them that you would prefer to work for them (it certainly sounds that way) and ask if there is any way to advance the interview process. If the company wants you enough, they'll do it. If they don't, they won't.

You need to decide how important/necessary the first job is to you. You've a firm offer already - is it worth rejecting this on the glimmer of hope a second company offers? I think your actions thus far are fine, but you've a short time window. Get in touch with the second company, determine what they're willing to do and if they don't get back to you take the job with the first company.

By all means ask to review the contract with the first company, but the longer you put off getting back to them, the more unprofessional it appears if you refuse them. Of course, given their distant geographical location, you may not care about this - but I would never advise burning bridges with any company.

Be professional, be polite, be courteous and be sensible. Try and get a response on the second job offer, but don't forget you've a company who have shown you clear interest and are obviously keen to hear back from you - which sounds like a very promising start for a new role.

Answer 2

Call the manager in your city and tell the manager that you received a job offer and that you would like the review process speeded up, as you expect that you will be put under pressure to give a quick response.

I was sort of in your situation once but I never got the answer I needed, even though I was asking only for a "yes" or a "no" Eventually, I took a guess that this refusal to provide the answer amounted to a "no" and acted accordingly. Needless to say, I wasn't fond of this particular prospective employer.

Asking the prospective employer in the faraway city for the employment contract to review - that's appropriate because you need to review he employment contract regardless of what you ultimately decide to do. And the employment contract will most likely show a tentative start date. That tentative start date gives you a fix on how many days you have. You might call and have the start date pushed back by say a week for personal reasons - you need to get your affairs in order, just don't disclose that one of these personal affairs is a potential job offer in your city - but probably not much more than that.

Answer 3

"I later had another talk about a more interesting job opportunity in my home town, but I don't have an offer yet."

This is the part that stands out to me. It already seems like you have doubts about the company you are going to join. I feel like the worst thing you could do would be to accept the offer with the company and then find out within a year that you are dissatisfied with your decision.