Should I Back Out of A Job Offer After Accepting?
By Larry Boyer, Career Coach & Personal Branding Strategist
Someone recently came to me with a dilemma:
I just accepted a job offer, but now I have received an offer for a position that I'd rather have. I'm not comfortable turning down the offer I accepted. What should I do?
With the economy starting to pick up in some areas, more and more people may end up in this position as well, especially if you've been out of work for a while.
When I talk with people in this situation one or both of these fears are at play:
- If I back out, I will burn a bridge with this person, company and maybe others in the industry.
- If I back out of this job I will be breaking a promise, and I don't want to be someone who breaks serious commitments.
On-the-other-hand, the person in this situation is facing one or more of this concerns as well:
- If I don't take the other job, I'll be missing out on the opportunity of a lifetime
- I really need the higher pay that comes with the other position
- Will I always be wondering what would have happened if I had taken the other position?
- I took this position just to get work, even though I'll be miserable. Now I'm stuck.
There are plenty of others as well.
The best action, of course, is to avoid getting into this position in the first place because you know your personal brand and you are looking for work that's in alignment with it. And, of course, you have a strategic career plan and have been working with your career coach to explore options and target exactly the right opportunities. Do you know your personal brand and have a career strategy so you avoid being in this position in the future?
Of course, perhaps you have not gotten to that point yet and now you are facing this dilemma. What do you do?
There is no hard and fast rule here, and this is why working with a skilled career coach can help you. Maybe you will burn a bridge. Sometimes that's the right choice to make. What's more important to you, the commitments you make to others or the ones you make to yourself? What could the benefit to the employer be if you back out? If you do back out, what is the best way to handle it?
These are the kinds of questions you have to really ask yourself, and work through with someone who does not have an agenda (you must keep your promises no matter what, you must follow you passion no matter what, etc) other than to help you make the right choice for you. When you work with a career coach, like me, you get move the right decision for you quickly and feel good about it. You'll feel confident you are making the right choice that addresses your concerns, whether you move forward with the offer you accepted or turn it down in favor of the other position. You will also learn more about yourself, what really is important to you and be able to make more confident decisions in the future.
Have you ever been in the situation of wanting to turn down a job offer after accepting it? What did you do? How do you feel about that decision now?