Ever declined a good job?

Gaijin said:
It's a natural course of action particularly as you get older. Early on when you have no responsibilities such as a mortgage, kids, care of people or property, you have more flexibility to take risks, travel and spread your wings.

I'd argue it's not about turning the opportunity down, it's moreso how you do it and how you conduct yourself. For instance, applying and going through the process when you have little to no intention of seeing it through, is a lot different from getting increased exposure what the job role actually entails along the process and realising it's a bad fit.
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For me it's opposite.

When I was younger I needed the job I was applying for. So never turned down a job.

Now I'm at Work level where I can say no to offers.
When getting the job I'm at now I had an offer from a company before, I wanted to string it out to past the point I knew I did/didn't have an offer for the company I'm at now.

Time ran out. But they were quibbling over the wage I asked for. It was only 2k..which raise issue of trusting "but you'll get pay rises later".

I think i blew the recruiters mind (and his commission lol) when I said "no". He definitely thought the pressure would make me commit.
It was a hard choice but I had the confidence to say no vs join then leave a week later.

It was the right call.


If that had been pre coivd... I'd never have done that. It's only because I have a financial buffer, more experience and confidence that I turned it down.
 
I turned down an offer for a decently senior position at a Series C tech startup simply because the HR director made me have serious doubts about her commitment to her job. She mentioned how her job at this company was (going to be) her last job that she'd ever have and how she (and others) were going to become wealthy enough to "retire on a yacht in the Mediterranean". This was clearly far from a foregone conclusion at the time. With that said, I turned down their offer to pursue an offer from a Series A startup that seemed like it'd pay less and make me have to work a lot harder.

I ended up loving the work at the Series A startup, had a good boss with a really good work-life balance, and the company ended up being sold to a very large tech company for a huge amount of money about 18 months after I joined. I later found out from the hiring manager at the Series C startup that their company imploded just six months after they gave me their offer.
 
Gimpymoo said:
Been offered a good job but for numerous reasons I am going to decline but feel like such a fraud by saying no. Various personal reasons, none of them to do with the job. If it had came along 3 years ago, would have snatched their hands off but was not to be.
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You're under no more obligation to accept an offer than they are to give you one. There's no issue here.
 
mid_gen said:
You're under no more obligation to accept an offer than they are to give you one. There's no issue here.
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Never declined a job before, seemed odd.

In my younger years, I would never dream of declining a job. Only had 3 jobs though and am in my forties.

As I have gotten older, I am more picky and honest to myself I guess.
 
I only declined a job once before - but that's because my employer at the time agreed to match the offer.

I still left 9 months later, to a much better role- effectively more than doubling my pay in the space of 1 year.
 
rypt said:
I only declined a job once before - but that's because my employer at the time agreed to match the offer.

I still left 9 months later, to a much better role- effectively more than doubling my pay in the space of 1 year.
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This is a great real-world illustration of something that is a bit of a bug-bear of mine:

Recruiters are always tripping over themselves to tell everyone that 80% or 90% of people accepting a counter-offer leave within 6 or 12 months (just randomly pick from those percentages and durations, I don't think even they know what the number is supposed to be).

My response to this argument is always "Why is that a bad thing? They probably got more money than if they took the first offer, because even after getting a pay rise from the counter offer, they've now got yet MORE money from this new offer that they left for!". Essentially, taking a counter-offer and then leaving anyway gets you a double pay rise but only shows as a single move on your employment history, avoiding alarm bells.
 
HangTime said:
My response to this argument is always "Why is that a bad thing? They probably got more money than if they took the first offer, because even after getting a pay rise from the counter offer, they've now got yet MORE money from this new offer that they left for!". Essentially, taking a counter-offer and then leaving anyway gets you a double pay rise but only shows as a single move on your employment history, avoiding alarm bells.
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My last boss had a personal rule that he would never offer anyone a counter-offer because the person will invariably leave in less than 12 months anyway. I think that in his mind, no one is indispensable, so if someone wants to leave, make it as easy as possible for the person to move on.
 
jon86 said:
My last boss had a personal rule that he would never offer anyone a counter-offer because the person will invariably leave in less than 12 months anyway. I think that in his mind, no one is indispensable, so if someone wants to leave, make it as easy as possible for the person to move on.
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Really depends on the company and situation. Sometimes managers would love to correct employee pay but are hamstrung by HR policy. Getting an offer from another company can be a good way to help your boss fix it.
 
Managers seem to forget that the reason people leave is not just because of money - it's also about the culture, and the career progression, etc.

When you counter-offer purely on the money front, you are forgetting the other aspects.

In my case back then - I took the money from the counter-offer, but knew that I would still eventually leave if I didn't see any opportunity for career growth presents itself.

Guess what ... the reason I ultimately left 9 months later was because I still didn't see any opportunity for career progression.
 
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