Attending interviews and declining offers

[Wd40]

Hey guys,

Just curious to know, if you are attending interviews and then finally an offer is made and then you politely decline it, what are the ramifications?
1)Does the company get pissed off and wont consider you for future positions?
2)Do recruiters get pissed off? Especially if you do this quite often?


Singapore job market is very small and very illiquid so to speak and there are really very few companies and recruiters here, especially if you narrow down to your own technology/domain/industry, so I dont want to pissing off anyone.

I have heard experience from colleagues that they were chased quite a lot into accepting offers, by bodyshop type companies, and when you dont accept the offer, they kind of block you for any future roles.

There are couple of bodyshop companies here that do banking IT jobs and they have kind of monopoly, these are the ones that I want to be careful about.

[Sergei82]

If they get pissed off each time somebody declines an offer, they potentially lose quite significant amount of income.

[AngMoG]

I think as long as you are polite in declining the offer, and give a good reason for it (e.g., offered salary/perks are insufficient) that you are willing to follow through on (e.g., accepting if offered a high-enough salary), you should be fine.

The question you have to ask yourself is also if you want to work for a company that blocks you if you politely decline? What does that say about the work culture and how they treat their employees? And if you are pushed hard into accepting an offer, that often means they have something to hide.

[Sergei82]

There is no work or work culture in vendors. You work for client on vendor's payroll and adopt client's work culture (not salary and perks though).

[Wd40]

Agree with Sergei, you interact with the vendor only during the recruitment process and relieving process. In between its only you and the employer, vendor just keeps the hefty commission.

Vendors get pissed off when you reject an offer, because they lost potential revenue. They keep bugging you with 100$ hike everyday until they cannot raise anymore and then they get pissed off and potentially wont send your CV again to another client.

Anyways thats with the vendors. How about big recruiters like Robert Walters, Hays etc? Again there are only 2-3 big recruiters that have close relationship with hiring managers and you dont want to piss them off either.

The ideal scenario is ofcourse you apply only for positions and salary budgets which you arent going to decline, if offered.

But there is currently uncertainty with my current job and I love this job and salary and want to stay here as long as it lasts. But the trick is I dont know how long it will last. So I am applying for even half decent roles, which I would otherwise never apply and I am most likely going to decline them even if I get offered. The reason I am still applying is because if I wait till the very end, then I may not get even half decent offers for months.The other reason I am still applying is because its good practice and I can stay abreast with the market.

Tricky situation and the 1st of its kind in my career ever.

[Sergei82]

For big recruiters it is not an issue at all. Can decline, they'll be happy to work with you in the future.

How about another situation I had: you are given an offer and it states that if you don't accept it within next 2 hours, it will be considered automatically as decline!?

[Wd40]

Haha, thats interesting "Your time starts now"

[sundaymorningstaple]

So I am applying for even half decent roles, which I would otherwise never apply and I am most likely going to decline them even if I get offered.

That will defo get you a bad rep and it would serve you right for wasting their time and costs.

[AngMoG]

Now I know why I have never worked for vendors...

I can only say in general, apply if it is a role you can see yourself doing and would be ready to accept an offer from them in a reasonable starting time frame, and don't if this is not the case. Applying for roles you are not going to accept anyway is a waste of everyone's time, including yours.

There are many factors for you to decide whether to hold on to your current job until they terminate you or not, but I would say recruiters prefer candidates that can commit... And in my case, I would not wait for that to happen if I can see the writing on the wall.

For the $100 increase bargaining... dunno, but if it were me, I would clearly state my salary and other requirements, and tell them to call me if they can meet them.

Those are my $0.02 that I can contribute here.

[Sergei82]

...I would say recruiters prefer...

No, they don't. They need to work with what they have and it is part of their job to get over those candidates who decline offers. Other part of their job is to try to negotiate a better offer with the employer in case the candidate is not satisfied.

[Wd40]

Thanks everybody for your valuable inputs.

The thing is in my case, most things happen completely unplanned. In fact, even coming over to Singapore was completely unplanned. I got a call out of the blue from a recruiter for my current job and I thought whatever, let me give it a try. At the point of even 2nd round I wasnt serious. Its only after I got the offer, I started thinking seriously, did a lot of analysis, rejected the offer, the guy kept pestering me and finally offered me something I couldnt refuse and here I am 4 years into my role and its been the best time of my career.

I believe, that the best things in life come when you dont want them. You get the best bargains, when you are in a position of strength.

When you are really desperate for something, you often get a raw deal and you settle for stuff that you dont like.

I said in my comment earlier that "Most likely I wont join", "Most Likely" is the key word there. So its not a waste of anyone's time. There is a chance that during the recruitment process the company grows on me and the reverse can be true as well.

[AngMoG]

...I would say recruiters prefer...

No, they don't. They need to work with what they have and it is part of their job to get over those candidates who decline offers. Other part of their job is to try to negotiate a better offer with the employer in case the candidate is not satisfied.

Cannot say you're wrong. However, some recruiters I have interacted with here....

[kookaburrah]

This may be industry dependant as well.

In my industry - pharmaceuticals R&D - I see about 1 every 2 job offers being refused. Sometimes higher, for more junior roles. It seems people apply for jobs simply to see if they can get them.

Apart from the initial disappointment, no one takes it personally, and I've never heard of no-go lists of names from either the recruiting or the recruiter sides.