In contrast to what i expected my last round of portfolio submission went surprisingly well and as i result i was invited for many interviews(most of the 1st rounds are completed and now i am moving to the 2nd round). However, out of the 4 companies i talk with, there are 1-2 that i favour. The thing is that for my No1 choice, i need to wait for few days for my first interview… (they were the last ones to conatct me) but for the other companies in the forthcoming days i will have to start talking numbers and in general to move into details.
What is happening is that i would like to somehow “freeze” the whole process or at least to slow it down for the other companies unti i have my interview with my No1 company and know how thinngs will progress with them. An interview is most likely to happen next week (got no idea what day though… i guess from Wednesday and on…). Do you have any idea how i could that, what i should say to the rest 3 companies?
I do not want to turn down any offer by waiting the other company and in case they do not respond to loose a potential job offer.
Also, i read quite many letters on how to reject in the end a job offer, but as most of them are a kind copy/paste i was wondering if for the design industry there are any key phrases or “excuses” that i could use.
Right now i do not have a final offer by any of the companies but in case i start having any job offer i would like to react fast.
If you have multiple companies interested it’s a rare and a good thing.
You should be able to request that you have some time to think about their offer and let them know that you will get back to them in a week or so. If they say “we need to know by tomorrow” and the offer/job isn’t what you want then you can simply state that inflexibility on their part as your reason to not go with them. You can also say once you hear back from one or more companies that you have competing offers - that will generally mean they’ll have to either improve their offer (you might find out the job you want ends up giving you the lowest offer, or no offer at all).
Simply asking for time should be something you can do. Once you know where you want to go you can tell the other companies that you recieved a better offer at a job you felt was a better “fit” and thats the end of it.
I’ve been in the same situation several times and I’ve found the best thing is to be open and honest. When I left consulting 8 years ago to go to footwear, I interviewed with 6 major footwear companies over two weeks. The first two I interviewed with made me offers within a couple of days. I let them know that I still had interviews scheduled, and that I wanted to make the most informed decision possible because I wanted to stay at the company I decided on for at least 5 years, wanted to minimize second guessing later, and wanted to really dedicate to the work once I signed on… I ended up going with Nike, which was my last interview and not the highest monetary offer, but the best fit.
This is business, they should understand, and how they take it is an indication of what kind of company it is, and how they treat their people.
Thank you very much both for sharing your experiences. The good thing is that all the companies with whome i have already interviewed aksed me if i have contacts with other companies (that is a rather strange question for me to tell you the truth…) and i let them know that indeed i am in touch with other companies as well.
So, taking your advice and be really open i think makes sense.
Really appreciated! Thnx
All good points. Our industry is remarkably small so stay on good terms with the places you decline. Chances are very high that you’ll bump into them again, especially if they’re consultancies. This becomes really important after your first couple jobs where your reputation will precede you into any new venture.
Hey Brett, exactly this is my point… as you say i would like to stay in good terms with the offices that i may decline as you never know how things turn…
I had a dilemma like that earlier this year when I got an internship offer from a super prestigious interaction firm after I had already accepted an offer from Kodak. I spent 2 days running around campus talking to faculty and staff, trying to find out what the best course of action to take was. Of course, the two jobs were in diff fields (ID vs IxD), but I also felt like I should uphold my first agreement. I ended up talking with the PR person from the interaction firm for 30 minutes explaining my situation, and stated that I would very much like the opportunity to work with them in the future when I graduate the following year. Hopefully they still remember me next year when I apply.
tarngerine, congratz… well, i guess once the PR from the interaction form was talking to you for 30 minutes i guess that they had a strong interest in you and that will remember you next year… . Good luck with your internship and future plans!
Hopefully your timing works out well and things will sort of “space themselves out” a little bit better to allow you to deal with it easier. I was torn between 2 different job opportunities last time I was looking for work and for the most part they were at about parallel with each other in terms of the interviewing process. Unfortunately for me I could sort of “feel the heat” at the place I was employed at then because I could sense they were struggling quite a bit financially. I didn’t want to foil myself out of a job at both places and eventually face a layoff.
In the end Company A made an offer and company B didn’t appear ready to make a decisive move at the time. I decided that I didn’t want to lose one opportunity while waiting for some action on the part of company B. So I told Company A I would like to think about the offer for a few days and I emailed company B and said that I had an offer on the table but I was still very interested in working for them and asked that if they were interested in moving forward with me and were prepared to make an offer that I would like to talk to them at their earliest convenience. They replied and said that they still had candidates to interview at the time and were also very busy so they couldn’t make a decision at the moment. At least I felt like I took that as far as I could and I accepted company A’s offer.
I would say you could try and legitimately stall things by pushing back your next meetings or discussions by a few days, and if it comes down to it tell them that you are still very interested in the employment opportunity but you have some other interviews set up and would like to give it your due diligence to talk to them as well. Good luck! I wish I had the same problem right now…
JLdesign, i really do hope that you face the same problem… thanks for your input… especially this:
“So I told Company A I would like to think about the offer for a few days and I emailed company B and said that I had an offer on the table but I was still very interested in working for them and asked that if they were interested in moving forward with me and were prepared to make an offer that I would like to talk to them at their earliest convenience.”
. Good luck with your internship and future plans!