Should You Still Be Looking for Work if You Have a Job Offer on the Line?

Perhaps this comes as no surprise, but our answer is no, you shouldn’t stop looking for work just because you think you’ve landed something. In fact, we think you should keep actively job hunting even after you’ve accepted an offer. Post-offer job hunting is something that we won’t get into right now, but website Ask the Headhunter has a great article about this if you’re interested in learning more.

For now, we’re going to focus on that period where you’re pretty confident that you’ve got the offer, but it’s not yet official. So without further ado, here are three big reasons you should still be looking for work while fielding solid offers:

Nothing is set in stone

Sometimes, things fall through. In fact, job offers fall through for myriad reasons. Sometimes you’ve absolutely nailed an interview, only to have someone with twice as much experience come in for an interview the following day. Sometimes you misinterpreted the hiring manager’s vagueness for optimism, and it turns out they had already decided you weren’t the right fit for the job but were trying to be polite. And sometimes, a company has a sudden budget shift that requires them to freeze hiring, even though they’re in the middle of the hiring process.

As you can see, there are all sorts of things that can happen between that phenomenal interview and the actual job offer. Things change all the time, and you should always have a backup plan – especially when it comes to your career.

Until you’ve signed a contract, you should never treat an offer like it’s a done deal.

You might hate your new job

Sometimes you start a new position, and by the end of your first week, you realize you’ve gotten yourself into something you’re going to absolutely hate. Perhaps your new boss runs the place like a tyrant. Maybe you find yourself unable to get along with your coworkers. Maybe the actual day-to-day function of the job is nothing like what was promised. Or maybe you just found yourself neck-deep in a toxic company culture that you want to get out of as soon as possible.

If your first week is full of red flags, it’s best to get out of that situation before it becomes a permanent part of your life. If you have additional offers waiting a response, you have a backup plan in case things go awry. And, as unfortunate as this is, things often do go awry.

You can use additional offers as leverage

If you’ve got an offer on the line, you might be able to hit back with a counteroffer. If you can say, “I currently have a pending offer from such and such for this salary,” you can often force the company to react with a better offer. You’d be surprised at how fast offers can change once you’ve made it clear that you’re fielding other offers.

Of course, you can always bluff and say that you’ve got another offer when you don’t. We want to be clear that we don’t want to encourage this; if a hiring manager calls your bluff, you’ll be in a position to either take their initial offer (which shows right away that you were bluffing) or turning it down without a backup plan. If that happens, you could be shooting yourself in the foot. We don’t recommend bluffing – it’s always preferable to be able to back up your negotiation with real-world offers rather than imaginary ones.

If you’re getting multiple job offers, use that as leverage to get a better salary or better benefits. You absolutely deserve it.

Conclusion

The bottom line is that you shouldn’t put an end to your job hunt until you’re absolutely certain you’ve got the job, it’s a good fit, and you’ve negotiated for the salary and benefits you hoped for. Before that, you should be actively seeking additional opportunities.

If you’re currently looking for work in healthcare – or audiology specifically – get in touch with Staffing Proxy right away. Even if you’re already fielding other offers, we can help match you with additional employers that are looking for people just like you.