Accepting an offer before being able to weigh other options?

[GhostofTarbera]

Do both

No brainer


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[hairymouse]

Be careful not to make the same mistake I did, which was to start working at contract A while waiting for B to come through. Contract A had a lot of red flags, so after one day I didn't come back. I thought I was safe since B was going to come through any day now. Of course it never did, so I spent another few months on the bench as punishment.

One interesting turn to the story is that contract A was with a major retailer that went bust at the very beginning of the lockdown, and probably wouldn't have paid all my invoices. Not surprising as the place was such a madhouse that I ran away after one day.

[BritishLad88]

Going to have to disagree on that. Agent would just tell the client you've declined but candidate two is available at £x/day lower. Goes to candidate 2, tells them that if they do something on rate, he can get them to first in the queue.

that is only if the agent has another candidate on his books.

and also, i disagree on your disagreement

If I was an agent & have 2 candidates (one at lower & one higher) with the client willing to offer both candidates.. I would wait for the higher rate candidate to make a decision first. Putting on my salesman hat, If there is slight chance (albeit a very low one) of getting more money with a higher candidate I would definite hold out for that candidate until he.she tells me that its a firm no. Only then I would move onto push forward the lower rate candidate to my client.

[LondonManc]

that is only if the agent has another candidate on his books.

and also, i disagree on your disagreement

If I was an agent & have 2 candidates (one at lower & one higher) with the client willing to offer both candidates.. I would wait for the higher rate candidate to make a decision first. Putting on my salesman hat, If there is slight chance (albeit a very low one) of getting more money with a higher candidate I would definite hold out for that candidate until he.she tells me that its a firm no. Only then I would move onto push forward the lower rate candidate to my client.

The agent won't be short of candidates at the moment, there's no doubt about that.

If you've been offered Contract 2 (i.e. the one you don't want) but have not heard from Contract 1, what do you do?
The big simple answer is, "it depends". Can you afford to turn work down at the moment? Is the shorter contract's rate good enough?
Or, if it is six weeks, start on Monday and take the other one slowly so that you only have two weeks of them running side-by-side?

[WTFH]

Had an interview for a 6 week contract; Got another interview a day after for a 6 month contract.

If I get the offer for the 6 week ...
...you could land a 6 month one.

Just wanting to check here - have you got an actual offer for either contract, because your first post implies all you've had is interviews.

IF you get an offer for a contract, you can choose to accept or reject it.
IF you have a good relationship with the intermediary (or client if you're going direct), then you may be able to talk to them - not just fire off emails, but actually speak to them - to see if it is likely you will get an offer on the other contract.
Sometimes they won't bother to tell you that you have been rejected, either because you're one of hundreds of candidates, or because you didn't put the effort in to show you were keen. Or they might be stalling to see if the preferred candidate takes it.

[Eirikur]

Always accept, you can reject later anyway

[hungry_hog]

I was in this situation last year.

Got one offer, not the best rate. Wasn't convinced by client when they arrived at interview 10 mins late and left 5 mins early!
Had been out for 3 months so accepted and started onboarding .

3 days later got another offer, 30% higher rate. Had a much better impression from this client.

Process for rejecting "client 1" was actually ok. Was in process of onboarding and simply said to the admin person I wanted to stop the onboarding.

The client / agency never made further contact. Maybe they had secretly changed their mind.

My mantra: Look after your own interests, but don't deceive people

[LondonManc]

I was in this situation last year.

Got one offer, not the best rate. Wasn't convinced by client when they arrived at interview 10 mins late and left 5 mins early!
Had been out for 3 months so accepted and started onboarding .

3 days later got another offer, 30% higher rate. Had a much better impression from this client.

Process for rejecting "client 1" was actually ok. Was in process of onboarding and simply said to the admin person I wanted to stop the onboarding.

The client / agency never made further contact. Maybe they had secretly changed their mind.

My mantra: Look after your own interests, but don't deceive people

Probably had a stack of candidates available given it was last year.