Deadline’s Impact on a Job Opportunity

Posted on | May 1, 2009 |

One of our seminar attendees was recently laid-off and has interviewed with several potential employers. He received an offer from one, but it came with a 24-hour deadline. While it wasn’t his top choice, he hasn’t heard from the other companies yet.

First, let’s discuss why his potential employer included a short deadline with its offer:

Urgency impact–deadlines often create a sense of urgency and pressure, especially for those with weak leverage who have a bad Plan B. Because we are currently in an employer’s market (relatively few companies looking to hire and lots of potential employees), short deadlines increase the desperation level of job seekers and will likely push them even more to accept an offer even if it’s not ideal.

Leverage impact–the passage of time may help or hurt you leverage-wise. Here, a short deadline limits the job seeker’s ability to strengthen his leverage by further exploring his Plan Bs (other possible employers).

What should he do?

Find out and evaluate the flexibility of the deadline and, if necessary, try to negotiate an extension. Either way, immediately contact the other companies he interviewed and let them know he has an offer with a short deadline (this creates a deadline for them and will hopefully expedite their process). If he can get another offer before his deadline hits, it may also give him the leverage to negotiate an extension and a little more time to evaluate his alternatives.

Of course, at the end of the day, he needs to complete his due diligence and ultimately decide whether to counter, accept or reject the offer. And if it’s a hard deadline, he must evaluate if it’s better to accept the job or keep looking.

Marty Latz is the founder of Latz Negotiation Institute, a national negotiation training and consulting company, and ExpertNegotiator, a Web-based software company that helps managers and negotiators more effectively negotiate and implement best practices based on the experts’ proven research. He is also the author of Gain the Edge: Negotiating to Get What You Want. He can be reached at 480-951-3222 or Latz@ExpertNegotiator.com.

Comments