Hi Adam!

Interview cycles can sometimes take months, which means some may finish long before the other ones do. That's when "push and pull" can be helpful—pushing less-desired opportunities off into the future so you have more time to see what other options might come in, and pulling more-desired opportunities into the present so you have the best chance of finishing those interviews in time to consider resulting offers.

But despite your best efforts, you may end up having to accept a less-desired opportunity earlier than you would like, just so you have something lined up. When that happens, there is a small chance that a more-desired opportunity will come through with an offer after you've accepted that less-desired one.

What should you do when that happens?

This matters because you want to balance your salary and comfort with your professional reputation, which will follow you throughout your career.

So how do you handle this unique situation to get the best result while maintaining your reputation?

The short answer is “It depends!” Here are some questions you can consider as you think about your next steps. Each of these questions may carry a different weight for you personally, so you'll want to consider each question and consider how important each one is for you.

How much is the additional salary relative to the offer and relative to your needs?

Let's say the last-minute offer is for $10,000 more than the offer you already accepted.

Is that a lot? Well, if your initial offer was $100,000, then it's quite a bit and might merit serious consideration and it might be worth making a significant pay jump in exchange for a little short-term discomfort.

But if your initial offer was for $350,000 total compensation, then it's a rounding error and probably shouldn't affect your decision at all.

How far away is your start date for the job you already accepted?

If your start date is tomorrow, then you’ll be leaving that company in a very difficult spot if you pull out now. They’ve probably already done quite a bit of legwork and invested some money to make things ready for you to start your new job.

On the other hand, if you just accepted this offer yesterday, and you won’t start working for a couple of weeks or more, then it will still be inconvenient for them, but they likely haven’t done too many things to prepare for you to start yet.

How does the salary stack up against other attributes for each job?

More money is nice, but pay is only one factor of many when it comes to evaluating a job opportunity. For example, if this new job pays $10,000 more but also adds an hour commute every day, that might make that job less appealing. There could also be differences in the actual work you’ll do, the team you’ll work with, the companies themselves, and several other dimensions that may help you evaluate how valuable that $10,000 really is.

Your long-term reputation is important, but it’s difficult to know how much this might affect it.

In general, a company would prefer you back out of a job offer before starting the job than after starting it. It’s a lot more expensive and difficult for them if you start a job and leave right away, so that would be very frustrating to them.

Backing out shortly before starting your new job would also frustrate them, but not as much.

How much their frustration might impact your reputation is difficult to say, but it depends a lot on the industry you’re in and how well various companies know each other and how often workers move between the companies in that industry.

I spent about 10 years working in a very tight industry where I constantly bumped into old co-workers at new jobs. Everyone knew everyone, so I was careful not to do anything that might harm my reputation.

But if I had been in a bigger industry with more, bigger companies, I would probably have been less sensitive to that sort of thing.

How did your negotiation and offer go? You may still have room to negotiate.

If your negotiation and the offer were very cordial and easy conversations, then you may still have room to continue that discussion. I generally don’t recommend this if you’re starting your new job tomorrow (for the reasons I mentioned above), but if your start date is a ways out in the future, this could be a good tack.

You might ask, “I know I have accepted this job offer, but I unexpectedly got another offer for significantly more than your offer. Is there any room to improve your offer? I know the timing is not great on this, but I feel I need to hear them out as this is a big career and financial decision for me.”

Who knows, maybe they'll improve their offer and make your decision easier!

All the best

Josh