8 Questions to Ask Yourself Before Accepting an Offer

By Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter
Ideally, you want to ask yourself these questions BEFORE you receive an offer because it is harder to figure out when the pressure from a job offer starts pulling you in one direction or another.

These questions will help you make an informed decision and ensure that the job is an above-average fit for you.

00:00 Introduction
01:22 First question
01:45 Second question
02:05 Third question
02:34 Fourth question
02:44 Fifth question
02:55 Sixth question
03:21 Seventh and eighth questions
04:08 Summary
05:02 Outro

Is It Important to Receive a Hard Copy of an Offer Letter?

Eight questions you should ask before accepting a job offer. I’m Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter. People hire me for no BS coaching and career advice globally, because I make things so much easier for people. I worked in recruiting for a long time and help more than 1200 people find full-time positions and even more find consulting assignments. And one thing I learned over the course of my career doing recruiting, which I don’t do anymore, by the way, is I helped people make quality decisions that . . . it avoided some of the mishires that occurred. And I want to give you a number of different questions that you might ask, that are going to help you identify will give you a greater probability this is going to be a good fit for you, when you accept an offer. Why do I say greater Job offerprobability? Well, in much the same way is you’re putting a good face on and trying to show off well for them, they’re doing the same thing for you. So you’ll see in the way I post some of these, it works with the assumption that they may not be completely truthful, and you have to dig in deeper.

So the first question I want you to ask is, and this is really about asking yourself, what’s your ideal company culture going to be like? What should the firm be like to work in? And what might you ask them in order to draw that out of them so you’re not guessing? You’re hearing from them what their culture is like?

The second one is, “What kind of boss do you want to have? What will they be like that is going to allow you to want to work for them? And what might you ask he or she, that’s going to help you figure out whether or not they are that person? “

The third is “What’s going to cause you to walk away from an offer or from interviewing with them? What are the things that you just can’t tolerate that’re going to make you say no?” Now that could be something as they’re not talking about the right money, or the hours are off, or the commute is too far. It’s anything that you would consider a deal breaker, something that you just couldn’t accept, that’s going to cause you to walk away.

What are your absolute requirements? What are the things that you must have from this firm that are going to cause you to want this job?

And then from there, what are the pluses that you might want to have?

 Next is, in terms of your work environment, “What is it physically going to be like? Is it going to be private offices, a cube? Is it working in close proximity to people? Is it hybrid? Is it working remote? What kind of work environment is best for you? Are these requirements for you or do they fall into nice-to-have categories?

The next two, the last two here are extremely important. What are your career goals? What is your career path? What is that firm need to provide you with to help you satisfy your goals? Now, I know they’re all always going to hedge and say, well, it’s going to depend on your performance as to whether or not we can help you along these lines. So concede that point in your own thinking, because there are no guarantees. But starting off knowing what your goals are professionally, what you want to achieve, and what kind of career path is necessary for you from this particular employer to help you get set to accomplish those goals.

These are absolute things that you need to invest time and to think through now. I want to encourage you to really spend time with this because it gets confusing. As  ayou start to talk to more firms. This firm says this. This firm says that. It sounds great. Oh, she’s wonderful. He’s not so good. But the work is terrific. It gets confusing. Write down everything. Write down your impressions of managers, the people that you meet with the firm, real-time. Don’t wait until you have an offer to start doing the pros and cons. Start working on these questions before you get the offer. Because this is going to help take away some of the pressure from you. That’s going to allow you to make as good a choice, a great choice for yourself.

I hope you found this helpful. I’m Jeff Altman. Visit my website, TheBigGameHunter.us. There’s a ton in the blog to help you. Plus, if you have questions, you can schedule time for a trusted advisor call or a salary negotiation call if we’re at that stage. I’d love to help you.

Also, I want to mention at the  site, there’s information about my video courses, books and guides. Again, there’s a lot there now. Lastly, connect with me on LinkedIn at linkedin.com/in/TheBigGameHunter. Have a terrific day and most importantly, be great!

The Counteroffer You Shouldn’t Accept

ABOUT JEFF ALTMAN, THE BIG GAME HUNTER

People hire Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter to provide No BS Career Advice globally because he makes many things in peoples’ career easier. Those things can involve job search, hiring more effectively, managing and leading better, career transition, as well as advice about resolving workplace issues.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter
Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter

Schedule a discovery call at my website, www.TheBigGameHunter.us

He is the host of “No BS Job Search Advice Radio,” the #1 podcast in iTunes for job search with over 2600 episodes.

Website: https://www.TheBigGameHunter.us (schedule a paid coaching session, a free discovery call or ask questions using my Trusted Adviser Services)

 

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