Candidate Services

The Counter Offer

We want to make sure that we have clearly stated our thoughts on “counter-offers” before we move forward with you as a candidate. If accepting a counter-offer is a possibility on your part, then we need to know early in the interview process so that we can discuss and resolve before moving forward. As we move forward in this process, we expect you to give your “word of honor” that a decision on your part to accept an offer from our client is final.

Accepting a counter-offer will be detrimental to your career and relationships for several reasons:

  • It would represent a very significant breach of faith between you and the recruiter, and place each of you in a very unprofessional light with the client.
  • It means either that the recruiter has done a poor job of probing relative to your reasons pursuing a career change, or you have not been forthright with him or her during the process - or both!
  • A counter-offer is typically financial, which does not address the typical reasons why most people consider leaving their job in the first place. If your reason for changing jobs is financial, ask your employer for more money now before taking a recruiter and potential employer’s time – and running the risk of severely damaging your career and relationships.
  • Over 50% of those who accept counter-offers end up leaving their job within a 6 to 8 month timeframe for reasons totally unrelated to compensation – and in some cases the cause is involuntary.
  • Employers, especially bosses pressed for results, almost always view a subordinate’s acceptance of a new position with another company, as an act of betrayal and things are never quite the same after acceptance of a counter-offer.

This is a fundamental integrity and honesty issue which we address on a very basic level as follows: “let your yes be yes, and your no be no.” It’s quite okay to say “no” to an offer or opportunity – we have no issue with that, but agreeing to an offer and then later changing your mind – especially in the context of a counter-offer – is unprofessional and is a sure formula for permanently damaging relationships as well as your career.