You accepted a new job starting in three weeks with a 25% salary increase for a similar position, but with a potential promotion in a year. You handed in your resignation to your current employer on a Friday and gave them a two-week notice. Then the unexpected happened: Your current employer said they didn’t want to lose you and offered a salary increase of 15% above your current rate, with a performance review in 6 months. With the growth of the company, the chance of a promotion down the road is positive. What do you do?
Do not make a quick decision. Answer some probing questions before deciding your future direction. Here are a few:
- If your decision is solely based on the critical need for higher pay immediately, take the new job.
- However, don’t forget relocation or commuting cost; state and local taxes; overtime; remote, office or hybrid requirements; percent of travel and family considerations.
There are other issues to be considered if your decision is for a longer-term career:
- Is the new industry one of growth or retrenchment? Moving from a high-tech high growth company to the mining industry needs careful scrutiny.
- Is the new company’s culture compatible with your needs and expectations? If your current company is participative and engaging and the new company is internally competitive with a more autocratic management style, think twice.
- Can you better grow professionally with one job offer over the other, especially given your current or future boss? You don’t want to become stale.
- Where do you have the best opportunity to gain more skills and responsibility? Some variables: The growth of the organization, company sponsored training and development programs, outside seminars, professional conferences, and the like
- If your decision is largely due to your unhappiness with your current position, be careful not to accept a new job that could be worse. You could be quickly on the market again.
- If you’re in a wrong job for your skill sets, wrong industry or level, then plan out a strategy to not only get back to where you need to be, but define what the next two or three steps must be to accelerate your career.
- Your relationship with both organizations is important:
- If you’re staying put, the other organization won’t be happy. It happens all the time. Just explain the circumstances
- Make sure your relationship with your current organization is solid if you decide to stay. Some companies are taken by surprise, ask you to stay, then find a replacement for you because they question your loyalty.
- If you leave your current organization, depart on a mutually good relationship. Ask if you can return at a later date, potentially at a higher level?
The marketplace currently favors the employee who has the skills and experiences for which companies are looking for candidates. That may change in a few years. When the market tightens you want to be on the best terms with your employer and boss.
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