How Flexible On A Job Offer Should You Be?

Leigh Grigaliunas Jobsearch, Jobseeker, Negotiation career tips, jobsearch tips, work-life balance 2 Comments

When it comes to a job offer, how flexible is too flexible?

If you’ve been unemployed for a while, when you finally get a job offer, it can be tempting to simply say yes, even though some aspects of the new arrangement might not be perfect for you. This could be anything from the commute time to the salary or even the job title.

While a tighter employment market can require you to be flexible about some things, some decisions might end up hurting you or your career. Listed below are some questions we hope will help you determine whether a job offer is a keeper or not.

How badly do you need the money? Take a good look at your finances and see if you can afford to let this one go or not. If you’re having problems paying for your day-to-day needs or keeping up with the payments on your house, then you might have no choice but to take it.

Are you going to be miserable? Taking the job because it’s the first offer you’ve had might be tempting, but if the role doesn’t suit you, it might end up being detrimental to your career. If you’re anything less than excited about receiving this job offer, then you should consider continuing your search.

What’s more important? If the position pays less than what you’re used to, take a look beyond the money to see if there is more to the role. It might have the title and authority you’ve always wanted or a shorter commute or the chance to telecommute on some days and it could be worth the trade off.

Will you be able to explain why you’re taking the job? If you take a position with a view to having a job while continuing your job seeking efforts, how will you explain that to future interviewers? Saying there was nothing else available at the time might not be the best option. They may feel you could do that to them.

Will it help you in your career path? Imagine where you’ll be a few years down the road. If this job could help you in your career path, then go for it. Adversely if you see yourself getting stuck here, then you might want to continue looking for something else.

How did you go? If there is any doubt in your mind, taking the role may not be the right decision. To be on the safe side, it might be wise to consult your partner, a family member or friend to see if they can help you. Have you ever been in a position where you’ve been offered a job and you didn’t take it? Let us know why you didn’t. We’d love to hear from you.

Leigh

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Leigh Grigaliunas

Owner at School Hours Pty Ltd

Leigh is an owner and co-founder of School Hours Pty Ltd.Leigh's passion for helping others coupled with his desire to achieve a balance between raising children and earning a living, lead him to create School Hours Pty Ltd with his wife Yasmin.School Hours will be the place to go for Australian parents wanting to connect with progressive thinking, family friendly employers.

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Gillian Hannah

These are valid arguments on this topic. Sometimes an immediate pay cheque is a bad thing. Such as when it harms your long term career objectives. Since I was a toddler I've wanted to work in trauma and emergency medicine. As a result of an extremely traumatic: infancy, childhood and adolescence; followed by being forced into a marriage in my teens and then having to raise 4 babies while supporting a non-compliant bipolar husband with a gambling addiction and a pathological allergy to work of any description; I was forced to consider and "settle for" an immediate income. I got a job as a sales rep for a cosmetics company. Over the following 20 years, while my children needed my income, I continued in this industry. I satiated my passion for learning by constantly up-skilling within the Beauty and Spa industry and by the time my youngest finished school I was one of the most versatile therapists in the industry. I then returned to education to acquire the foundation knowledge that I was going to need in order to complete a medical degree. I applied to the Queensland Ambulance Service Student Paramedic program and successfully achieved a place with QAS as a student paramedic. I was making my life long plan to become an emergency medical practitioner a reality. The: ignorance, prejudice, bullying and harassment that I was subjected to was extreme. No one knows better than a qualified paramedic how to most effectively drive a person to suicide. I have since learned that they use this method frequently to 'get ride of' any that they deem to have "passed through the filter of the selection process" that they deem is there to keep out those of us who aren't: rich, Arian supremeists. Fortunately for me, I also have a passion for psychiatry. My understanding in this field was enough to get me through the damage and trauma done to me by them. But I do often wonder about the damage that their lies and slander have now done to my overall career. All others who were subject to what I was the target of have committed suicide; and I'm not surprised. It was horrific. There is no real complaints process where the victims of this are taken seriously and the union behaved like their only task and obligation was to regularly deduct my union fees. They completely ignored all of my requests for help. I got my first "bad feeling" about that organisation in my first week of induction. In retrospect; I should have listened to this and rerouted. I believe that I would be closer to my career objectives now if I had done so. I'm now unemployed and depressed. They've ruined my: life, career, financial security and my ability to provide for my children and grandchildren. Choosing an employer is as big a decision, if not bigger, than choosing a husband or wife. LISTEN TO YOUR INNER VOICE.