Seniors: How to Successfully Manage Job Offers

Finally...after much perseverance and persistence in your job search, the offers are coming in. What a great feeling that is! And while this is an extremely exciting time in your career, it can also be somewhat overwhelming as you try, for the first time in your life, to make sense of offer packages and wonder how to professionally manage multiple job offers. Understandably, many seniors have been coming in or emailing me with questions they have about their job offers. In this post I will provide some general guidance, but I highly recommend that you discuss your individual situation with your school's career counselor and keep in touch with that person every step of the way throughout your negotiation process.

1. When you receive the initial offer, always thank the person who is contacting you for the wonderful opportunity, even if you are not interested in the job. Never give an immediate answer either way. It's perfectly fine and professionally appropriate to ask for 24-48 hours to think the offer over.

2. Once you receive the formal, written offer, I would encourage you to show it to your career counselor, especially if you have questions about it. He or she can also help you determine how competitive the package is compared to other students at your college.

3. If you have any questions or concerns about your offer package, also discuss them with the recruiter. You want to make sure your get all of your questions answered before you sign on the dotted line.

4. Once you do sign on the dotted line, you have made a commitment to the company and should end your job search. It is unethical and unprofessional to renege on an offer. Not only does it reflect poorly on you, but it also reflects poorly on your school, and the company may be reluctant to go back there for future recruiting. Also, recruiters can move to other companies and there's a good chance you'll meet the same recruiter during a job interview at another company. This approach will ensure you maintain a clean professional reputation in your industry.

5. Many students have trouble juggling multiple offers. What a problem to have, you might be thinking! Again, I would highly recommend that you speak with your career counselor regarding how to diplomatically and professionally handle these situations. Essentially, you want to try to "buy time" from Employer A while you wait to hear back from Employer B. In all of your interactions with Employer A, you need to continuously thank them for the opportunity and reiterate why you are still very interested in the company and the position.

6. In our office, when seniors decide to accept an offer, they come into the office and get to ring a very loud bell on the wall and everyone in the office comes out to congratulate them! Your college might not have a bell to ring, but I'm sure that your counselor will be delighted to share in your good news. I personally love hearing these stories and seeing how the student's hard work paid off.

7. Your school most likely tracks employment statistics so make sure to fill out their employment survey. By doing this, you'll be helping to improve your college's rankings, reputation and brand. It will also benefit you as an alum when you see the value of your school's brand steadily rising.

8.  Decline the offer you don't want professionally and gracefully.  Always start out by thanking the employer for the wonderful opportunity and ending with the open-ended possibility that your career paths will cross in the future.  In the middle, I would recommend stating simply that you have decided to accept another opportunity that is a better fit with your career plans.  Don't feel obliged to provide details.  I think it's also a great idea to say something like "it was a difficult decision for me because both offers are good opportunities." You can decline your offer through email or a phone call, but I would recommend a phone call as it demonstrates a certain degree of confidence and professionalism.

It's not who you know, but who knows you

There's an old saying about finding a job, particularly when it comes to new college grads, that goes, "It's not what you know, but who you know," meaning that your connections in the workplace are more important than your education. While this adage is certainly true, as evidenced by the high percentages of people finding jobs through networking (according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 70 percent of jobs are found through networking), a better measure of your networking success these days can be found in the amount of people who know you.

Many of my students have told me about the amazing opportunities that came their way as the result of reaching out to people at the companies they want to work at and conducting informational interviews, particularly with alumni. The alums will be quite impressed that you took the initiative, and you’ll most likely be one of the first people they contact when an internship or job opening occurs in their company. It is almost becoming a career necessity for students to network, as more and more companies adopt the practice of obtaining internal referrals from current employees when seeking to fill vacancies.

Understandably, some students find this process to be intimidating and overwhelming. They usually think, "Why would an industry professional want to talk with me, a lowly student. What can I offer them?" Well, in fact, most alumni do want to help and give back to students at their alma mater. It wasn't so long ago that they were in your shoes. A word of advice: it’s better to reach out to alums that are in entry-level positions, as opposed to alums farther along in their career path, because they can more easily relate to where you are right now. One way to demystify this scary process called informational interviewing is to think of it as “having a conversation,” as one of my students so simply described it. And just think about this…you’ll be providing the alum with the opportunity to reminisce about his or her college days, and pretty soon you’ll find yourself bonding over mutual team projects, professor preferences and dining hall disasters.

Other students have had tremendous success by attending company information sessions and networking with recruiters. Recruiters love it when students take the initiative to find out more about their company, demonstrate their interest in working there and maintain the relationship with them over the course of their college years. Some students have shared stories with me about recruiters making exceptions for them and allowing them to apply for positions, even when they don’t meet all of the hiring criteria, because of networking.

Another great way to “get known” by people in your industry is to have a robust LinkedIn profile, frequently joining in on group discussions, updating your status regularly and highlighting your industry acumen.  Make it a point to share with your LinkedIn network relevant books or articles you're reading, projects you’re working on, or events you’re attending. 

According to the results of NACE’s 2009 Student Survey, nearly 70 percent of students found networking helpful in finding a job. Shouldn’t you be joining the growing number of students who are taking advantage of this guaranteed approach to career success? Trust me...you’ll be glad you did. Not only will it pay off in terms of short-term results, but you’ll be developing and honing the networking skills that will reap benefits for you throughout your career.

Have you test driven your resume?

Recently, I contacted a student about a position that she might be interested in and asked her to email me her resume.  When I opened her attached resume, her name was nowhere to be found!  Knowing how conscientious this student was, I knew it had to be an oversight.  Intuitively, I realized that I was able to see her name on my version by hitting the backspace key.  But, will recruiters have the time or the inclination to try to figure out why your name isn't on the resume (or for other discrepancies).  Probably not.  When I emailed the student about the problem, she said that her name did appear on her version of the resume.  It turned out that this student's resume also went over onto the second page, another major faux pas for college students' resumes.  Moral of the story?  Always "test drive" your resume by sending it to a few friends or family members and ask them if there are any problems when they open your resume...before you send it to a recruiter.  Better yet, send it as a PDF document.

Do you have good stories for your interview?

If not, you should.  Don't you admire people who can tell a good story?  Well, you want to be "that guy" in your interview.  In preparing for your interviews, think of some good stories that have happened in your life so that you can use them, when appropriate, during your interview.  And no, your stories shouldn't involve anything to do with parties you've attended, people you've dated or quirky family traditions.  Instead, your stories should be about accomplishments you're proud of, successes you've achieved in life, times when you have satisfactorily resolved a problem, times when you used your creativity to think outside the box or times when you took initiatve.

During a recent mock interview with a student, I asked him if he had ever dealt with a difficult customer in his last job at a shoe store.  "Oh, yes," he enthusiastically replied.  "One time there was a woman who was trying on a boot and the zipper got stuck and she couldn't get the boot off.  My manager had warned me that I had to solve these situations on my own and not go to him any more so I had to think quickly.  I went into the back room of the store and Googled, "How to unstick a zipper," on my cell phone. The advice I found was to get some hand soap and a pencil.  Quickly, I ran to the bathroom to get some soap and then found a pencil. Then I went back to the customer, put some soap on the zipper and used the pencil as leverage to unzip the zipper."  "Then, what happened?" I asked.  "Well, the customer ended up buying two pairs of the boot in different colors!"  Wow! Not only was his story interesting but it showed that he would do whatever it took to make the customer happy and that he resolved the situation in an extremely positive manner.

Another student, who was Captain of his track team, was telling me about his greatest achievement during a mock interview.  His team was competing at a meet, and he was in the lead.  Suddenly, he realized that one of his teammates had fallen, and he was trying to decide what to do.  Should he keep going to ensure personal victory or should he stop to help his teammate?  I was on the edge of my chair, wondering what he ended up doing.  Well, you guessed it!  He went back to help his wounded teammate but still was able to break his personal record.  That story demonstrated many qualities about the student:  leadership, compassion, achievement and being a team player.

After you have chosen your stories, practice telling them to your friends and family members so that you can deliver them flawlessly in your interview.  By having several good stories in your back pocket, you can pull them out when needed during your interview, and they may be especially handy when you're stumped with that one question you hadn't prepared for.

By being a good storyteller on your interview, you'll increase your chances of having a happy ending to your interview by landing the job!    

Looking for a summer internship?

If you're looking for a summer internship, check out my recent article on Vault.com http://www.vault.com/wps/portal/usa/vcm/detail/Career-Advice/Internships/How-to-Find-a-Summer-Internship?id=61626