Using a job offer to get a promotion or better salary

I've had a more recent experience with this.

For me, its depends on the individual situation and what you're looking for.

In most cases, promotion and better salary desires are a serrogate for increased responsiblity/accountability and/or career development opportunity.

In my case I did have an offer linked to both increase reponsiblity and career development with tangible benefits of Promotion (title) and salary.

I approached my Boss with notice of my offer (not leave notice)with aiming to have a broader discussion of why I even considered another offer as stated above. It was also an opportunity to discuss where I, as a Talent, sat withing the organization or to have view of if I was valuable in the context of risk of FTE loss - Areas of discussion were differentiated than an a year end Review and mid-year Review/IDP.

As I was viewed as high value - my offer triggered a reactive Response of a planned and more develoment path with increased responsiblity/accoutablity and development as part of the "counter-offer" - linked to planned tangible benefits as noted in the title of this post.

So far my organization has held true as discussed and at least their value of me has gone beyond words but to now tangible Actions to my Job.

So my recommendation - be attentive to the context and be constructive and strategic on the approach. There are potentially great benefits to being open to discussion and transparent when an offer is in Hand -than taking a more assertive "I gotta and offer, where is your Counter offer?" Approach.

It is possible that the new opportunity if provided may be Sound in the context of the external offer and be open minded as appropriate.

Same applies to internal offer as well from another Team or function.

I've learned, in all aspects of career, you get more with sugar than with salt.

Of course this is all moot, if one who has the offer has no interest in remaining with their current employer/Boss/Team. Then, that Meeting with the Boss just becomes a notification of leave Meeting with stated non-interest in futher discussion..Point.

Cheers,

DX

I was told several times that you should use a new job offer to negotiate better salary or position. I always found that risky. As Dick says, they can just shrug their shoulders and wish you all the best.
Someone I know, tried that to get better position and it didn't work out, so they ended up very disappointed and left soon after.

MAP, was this in the academic world? I've seen well known, very professional people in academia collect job offers from other institutions like notches on a gun.

Dave

What about when your employer is genuinely distressed at the thought of your leaving and tries their best to retain you?
A colleague of mine received a fantastic job offer from big pharma, right out of the blue. We are in a well-funded academic lab, and the colleague was right in the middle of an extremely successful project. Our PI was literally begging the person to stay, offering the sun, moon and stars. The colleague left for the pharma job, but would it have been wise to have taken what was being offered by the current employer in this case?

In this particular case - the career growth that employee, by virtue of Action taken, was focused on an industry path. Obviously, continued academic endeavor irrespective of your perceived success of the project was not of interest to that employee in the context of an industry offer.

Also be attentive to optics - your view of extremely successfull Project may not have been shared by your colleague. Why would it be wise to stay, if the next opporunity is far better than what he or she already has or more align with the employee's wishes?

When one is considering an offer, the other view one should have is: Business is Business. Enough said there.

In my career, I've jumped companies a number of times - aligned to career opportunity that my Prior employer was not providing, or if counter-offered, not consistent with the benefits of the offer in Hand.

Those benefit are not limited to faster route to achieve a career objective/desire compared to current employer's plan/career IDP Timing - there are others.

In this particular case when the Company is counter-offering and such Counter-offer is not welcomed by the departing employee, the only obiligation of that employee is to express gratitude and communicate early non-receptiveness to continued retntion discussion as a best-behavior practice. Close the door with grace - as one never knows when one may encouter Prior colleagues and bosses again.

Companies can do alot and to the departing employee who is open-minded to a counter-offer, those disucssions are balanced with what the employees knows the next offer will give him or her.

Companies have alot of Retention Tools their sleeves they can Play with, the open-minded departing employee can then start to elucidate those and negotiate well as part of that retention process.

One other Point and it links to what MAP said - if you are the one with an offer, never make an assumption that if you present that to your employer that they will ask you to stay. Have a half-of-a-brain and ask yourself if you're really in spot where an employer wants to Keep you. It could very well be that your Boss and Team want to see you go and happy to wave good bye and possibly Pop open a bottle of champagne when you leave.

Having a Boss or employer wanting to retain you after you've presented witn another offer is earned. It's not a right, so becareful with expectations.

Follow my recommendation in my post above - if you believe if you are of value to your current organization, do it constructively - dont walk into your bosses Office and demand a salary raise because you have another offer. You might find yourself being escorted out the door by security and you desk belongings being mailed to your home.

DX

Some in academia, some at more commercial roles. Once I was at a "How to negotiate" workshop and one person asked the presenter, how to ask for a better salary. The presenter said, get a job offer and go with that to your boss. Guy was left very confused

This points out the problem with career advice, and it has affected us for two decades on the forum. There is such a preponderance of different ideas, that it can be confusing. I have a Salary Negotiation workshop as well, and I give completely the opposite advice. The last thing you want to do is to go to a boss and try to blackmail him or her. You may get what you want, but you're being short-sighted because the boss is only taking that knee-jerk reaction because of the position you've put her in, and she'll remember it the first time that layoffs need to be passed out.

Dave

I think that there is also another side to this. If you have gone through an interview process with another company to the point at which they give you an offer that other company have spent time and resources on this process and this might mean that they have missed other candidates that have moved on to other offers. If you then turn down this offer in a late phase for reasons that they did not see as a potential problem it may complicate your chances with that company (and with the people directly involved) in the future. Biotech is a small world and the probability is high that you will run into the same company and/or people again.

I have been in the situation that I resigned from a position ot go to another company and the company I was currently working for started making counter offers without me asking for them. My decision was to turn those counter offers down and move forward with the new position. Looking back this was the correct decision to make.

I believe workers accepting counteroffers also encourages and enables bad behavior by employers. If the only time they are willing to pay the worker what they are worth is when they have another offer and are walking out the door well too bad. A day late and quite a few dollars short.

Same thing with the perma-temp abuse at the BS/MS level. If workers would simply quit with no notice (frankly if a company won't even make enough of a commitment to you to make you perm and offer benefits they really don't deserve 2 weeks) perhaps it would stop or at least force companies to reconsider especially when they lose all the training they provided and the specific expertise (how to use a particular instrument on a specific analysis and troubleshoot etc).

Hi Steven,

First, employees accepting offers of other companies are a natural part of career pathing. Sometimes, as I alluded to in my previous post - an opportunity presents itself to move faster or gain more responsiblity than would be achievable with a current employer. In my case, a strategic mix of different organizations are a part of my personal development from big biotech to big pharma to medium pharma, late life cycle managment to small speciality pharma from national to international - all putting me towards narrowed but moving target career goals aligned to personal desires and changing life situations and life priorites. So - in summary, i've given my notice quite often - only one did I accept a Counter offer with accepted risks and benefits.

Secondly, companys are completely Aware of this, at least from an HR perspective, and incorpoate such "turnover" into thier planning and KPIs. Obviously they can't Keep all employees but they try to Keep thier place of work attractive within certain thresholds.

A certain Level of turnover is actaully good for an organization - it is an opportunity to get new blood into an organization with a different set of experiences and skills.

Also consider an employees decision to leave a Company is not necessarily directed at the Company - there is a saying the an employee leaves the Boss or Team, not the Company. So there is a personal element. This is why there is alot of Focus on Team-Spirit/Engagement etc. Unfortunately within a Team or function an employee can easily undervalued or taken for granted - leading to often false perceptions that an employee is happy or more often, you can find Managers not willing or capable to meet employee Needs/desires within the career Framework - for a diversity of reasons that go beyond this post. It is what it is.

The other point to consider - in most cases and in the real world - employees who look for another offer or entertain external opportunities have already taken thier decision. And any amount of counter-offer or re-negotiation of package will not Change the employees mind. In most cases, out here in the real world, those who have pursued and secured an offer have a more dominant readiness to leave and take a new Challenge - with a clean start. Its more the rarer case an employee will seek an offer to improve thier chances with a current employee. See my point on leaving with grace in a prior post in this thread. Most times, they close the discussion pretty fast when the Boss asks "what can I do to Keep you?" .

As Dave suggesting, think first about approaching with a Counter offer, even if you do get one and you accept it, you will be put into a bucket and your actions will be remembered by our Boss, for good or for bad.

Good luck,

Dx

While it seemed to work out, I still think he should have taken the other offer to experience life outside of his company.

Hanging on this Point, more an more it is competitively advantageous to incorporate experiences from different comapanies as one moves on in career. Your added value can be bringing in the best practices and Expertise gained from other employers. I'm not advocating jumping from Company year after year, that does damage too - certainly commitment and development with current employer should be prioritized.

However, the time will come when you as employee will want a Change - and external opportunities should be a part of the mix when assessing the next step as an add-on to internal development opportunities.

Balance that with managing tenure as noted with not switching Company every year.

DX