Is it bad if you take a while to accept an offer?

grapefury:

bankerella:

lonestaffer:

Or do firms expect you to shop around for others...?

Keep it simple. When you get the offer, send an email along these lines:

"Great news. I really enjoyed getting to know you and the team. I'm still in the midst of the recruiting cycle and should be able to make an informed decision in three weeks. Does that work for you?

I really appreciate the time you took to talk to me last week. I've got a couple of follow-up questions; can we set up a quick ten-minute call for next week?

Best,

x"

The followup call might be important if you're worried about the offer slipping away and you want to stay top-of-mind. Just have the call, make it literally ten minutes or less, throw them a couple warm friendly softballs, and reiterate your strong interest. If they grumble about how long you're taking, just underline the fact that you're just finishing the recruiting cycle so that you can accept their offer with the greatest possible confidence.

3 weeks might only work if you are still in school and are indeed in the mist of recruiting. If you are out of school, NOT A CHANCE. You'll be lucky if they even give you 1 full week. These days, it's around half a week.

Interesting. Maybe you're right. But the advice I live by and offer to you guys is this: never, ever bend over when it's your career on the line. I always finish out my interviews and get all the offers on the table before I sign anything, no matter how good an offer looks on the surface. If I'm going to sign my life over to somebody, I need that information.

I've also never lost an offer due to this tactic, though there's obviously no guarantee that your experience will be the same.

Perhaps more importantly, the role I'm currently working in (and which I love) came from a dark-horse offer that came out of nowhere from a group I thought had probably dinged me a while back.

Here's the full text of the email I sent them: "Hey, x, thanks for your time a couple of weeks back. As you might recall, I've got an offer from x exploding tomorrow. I'd rather join you guys, but I'm assuming it's a no-go on your end, so I'm set to sign with x tomorrow at 5 PM. If I'm wrong about that, let me know beforehand. Thanks much."

Turns out they'd just been crazy busy and had forgotten I was sitting on an exploding offer. They had a final round the next morning and got me the offer at 1 PM.

I really didn't enjoy sending that email; it felt lame. But sitting where I am now, looking at the other path my life could have taken, I'm really fucking glad I did.