Reply to: Accepting an offer before being able to weigh other options?

[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.

[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

[Eirikur]

Always accept, you can reject later anyway

[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.

[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?

[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.

[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.

[GhostofTarbera]

Do both

No brainer


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[ladymuck]

Use the contract review time to weigh up your options.

I did this once, I had a contract 'in the bag' which became my Plan B after something more interesting came along. I opened up a 5 day review period and... the better prospect didn't amount to anything. I took the plan B and it went on forever.

Remember; short contracts extend just as often as long contracts have notice served upon them to finish early there is no shame in taking a 'bird in the hand' over two in the bush.

Remember you also have one option now while everything is 100% remote - do both! You'll need to be firm about unavailable time when you're double booked.

This is much easier to achieve if both clients are deliverables focussed, not time focussed.

[SimonMac]

You only have one offer at the moment, so there is no decision to be made

[PerfectStorm]

Use the contract review time to weigh up your options.

I did this once, I had a contract 'in the bag' which became my Plan B after something more interesting came along. I opened up a 5 day review period and... the better prospect didn't amount to anything. I took the plan B and it went on forever.

Remember; short contracts extend just as often as long contracts have notice served upon them to finish early there is no shame in taking a 'bird in the hand' over two in the bush.

Remember you also have one option now while everything is 100% remote - do both! You'll need to be firm about unavailable time when you're double booked.

[cyborg1337]

Pivot:

Push the 6 weeks offer to start tomorrow, tell the 6 month one (if it comes in a week or so) that you have 2 weeks holiday scheduled. That, with the 3-4 weeks it takes to get things up and running, leaves you with a 6 week gap to complete the 1st!

Cake + eat it.

M

Interesting suggestions guys.

With a bit of good negoationing ang managing timelines this would indeed be the ideal scenario.

[LondonManc]

I've been in this situation before.

I've done option 2. before. Yes, its not good especially if not done well. So try to be upfront as much as you can so you can avoid burning bridges.

Personally, I'd go with option 4. just say you are awaiting for another offer from your 6 month contract so you can weigh up your options. If your agent is understanding then he/she should allow that, of course, normally companies/agents would give you no longer than 1 - 2 days to think things through. At the same time, tell your 6 month contract opportunity that you already have an offer so hopefully that will give them a nudge to speed things up. This trick will 90% of time work well. I've recently done it a few months back when I was in this exact position. This relies on your part to carefully coordinate the timeline of events. Stressful & time consuming & demanding I know but once you to stage of multiple offers - its a nice problem to have!

I certainly wouldn't take option 1. As well as that being high risk, you're banking on/preconceive idea that your 6 month contract is the ideal one. And if you don't get that then you are *£$% having already rejecedt first offer (unless that offer is so bad anyway such that no point in pursuing further).

Option 3 is practically not feasible tbh, given that contracting work is unlike traditional freelance jobs. Contracts are expected of contractors to give their 100% effort & time in doing a 9-5 job.

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.

[mjcp]

Pivot:

Push the 6 weeks offer to start tomorrow, tell the 6 month one (if it comes in a week or so) that you have 2 weeks holiday scheduled. That, with the 3-4 weeks it takes to get things up and running, leaves you with a 6 week gap to complete the 1st!

Cake + eat it.

M

[BritishLad88]

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 contract offer soon, the recruiter is going to be on my case about getting the offer accepted ASAP; However you would certainly want to be able to weigh all options before accepting espeically when you could land a 6 month one.

I guess the options would be:

1. Reject the current offer (6 week contract) and hope you land the second offer (6 month+ contract). You've done the first stage and it's now the second-stage but This is a gamble!.

2. Verbally accept the offer and decline it, if the second offer came through. You will be burning bridges.

3. Take on both contracts! Doable, but would be so hard to mange if the workload is high and meetings clash. This could be chaotic!

I've been in this situation before.

I've done option 2. before. Yes, its not good especially if not done well. So try to be upfront as much as you can so you can avoid burning bridges.

Personally, I'd go with option 4. just say you are awaiting for another offer from your 6 month contract so you can weigh up your options. If your agent is understanding then he/she should allow that, of course, normally companies/agents would give you no longer than 1 - 2 days to think things through. At the same time, tell your 6 month contract opportunity that you already have an offer so hopefully that will give them a nudge to speed things up. This trick will 90% of time work well. I've recently done it a few months back when I was in this exact position. This relies on your part to carefully coordinate the timeline of events. Stressful & time consuming & demanding I know but once you to stage of multiple offers - its a nice problem to have!

I certainly wouldn't take option 1. As well as that being high risk, you're banking on/preconceive idea that your 6 month contract is the ideal one. And if you don't get that then you are *£$% having already rejecedt first offer (unless that offer is so bad anyway such that no point in pursuing further).

Option 3 is practically not feasible tbh, given that contracting work is unlike traditional freelance jobs. Contracts are expected of contractors to give their 100% effort & time in doing a 9-5 job.