5 Reasons Counter Offers Can Ruin You – Part 2

In a previous blog post Titled 5 Reasons Counter Offers Can Ruin You, I shared a tale of a friend of mine name Wendall.  It was back in November 2009 that Wendall consulted me about a great opportunity at hand.  He had been passively looking to make a career move (80% of people actually are looking by the way) and received an offer.  In my opinion it was a very good offer that he should take.  Wendall agreed however when he put in notice to leave…dun dun dunnnn…the counter offer came creeping back on his desk.  Just when he thought he had made a great choice by landing an exciting career move, he was back in the same boat having to make a decision on what to do.

So what would any friend of the Interview Guru do?  He asked my opinion, which he chose to do the opposite, accepted the counter offer from his current employer and now fast forward almost 8 months later and we have an update.  Two of the 5 points that I shared with him were clearly answered…

  1. The vast majority of accepted counteroffers do not work out well. Statistics show that 85% of those who accept a counteroffer end up leaving, voluntarily or involuntarily, within one year.
  2. Entertaining a counteroffer after accepting another job can appear threatening. The hiring company may feel their back is against a wall and a level of trust breaks down.

Wendall violated an implied level of trust 8 months ago.  The employer was never able to expose Wendall to proprietary things and this led to continued stress on behalf of my friend.  The excitement of the increased salary only lasted long.  The same frustrations continued in his day to day.  Lesson to be learned: Money does not satisfy.

  • Wendall is no longer employed by the same employer
  • A significant amount of undue stress was placed in his life, especially while looking for a job in today’s economy
  • His previous employer has now hired 2 people to replace Wendall
  • Wendall took a new job for less money

Another lesson to be learned: DO NOT ACCEPT a counter offer.

Much Success.

Darrin – The Interview Guru

@darringrella

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 21st, 2010 at 5:19 am and is filed under Career Suicide, Counter Offer, Economy, Interview Magic. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.