Five Reasons to Turn Down a Job Offer

Yahoo gives us a list of five reasons to turn down a job offer. Their thoughts:

1. The word on "The Street." Is the company's stock price tanking? Or is there talk of a merger? Both of these things could indicate that layoffs loom large, and the position you accept today may not exist in a few months.

2. A revolving "Employees Only" door. High employee turnover should raise a red flag for any potential worker.

3. Money isn't everything; it's the only thing. Depending on your personal financial situation and how much more you'd be earning in a new job, money may not buy you on-the-job happiness or professional fulfillment.

4. All work, no life. Consider the impact your new schedule will have on you and your family. Forfeiting invaluable work-life balance benefits without assessing the consequences can have a devastating impact on your personal life.

5. A bad reputation. Going to work for a company with a reputation that's been sullied by a corporate scandal or that isn't well respected can, in turn, sully your resume.

A few thoughts from me:

1. Based on my experience, this is a pretty good list. In particular, #2 is a real sign that the place is a dead end. If people are jumping ship left and right, then something really, really bad is going on there. Of course, this may present an opportunity for you (if you turn it around, you'll be a hero), but you need to realize when you go in that it's very risky and you may need to put up with a lot (long hours, painful discussions, things getting worse before they get better, etc.) by taking such a job.

2. I've had three jobs in the "all work, no life" category. I wouldn't want to go back to one of those for a ba-zillion dollars a year.

3. Good point on #5. Imagine how hard it is for people from Enron to find good jobs -- even if they had nothing to do with the problems there (and most of them didn't.)

How about you? Anything you'd add to this list?

Comments

[Terry L. Sumerlin]

Very good observations! Thanks!

Terry L. Sumerlin
The Barber-osopher
Author/Motivational Speaker

[Double Journey]

Having just accepted a Job offer, and turned down other ones, I can think of a few reasons to turn down a job offer

1. You have a better one lined up :)
2. The job isn't one that is actually progresses your career
3. You are taking the job to run away from your current job.
4. You can't fully articulate what you will be doing for the new company or what the company does
5. You get a strange vibe from your soon to be new boss
6. You won't be able to explain fully to the next-next job why you took this one and how it helped you grow

Maybe a few more, but that's what I thought off the top of my head. This is a good topic, may have to write a post about it considering how I just accepted a job offer.

[Tim]

I tend to agree with this. I've worked for two companies that were "for sale" but because I didn'y ask that particular golden question, that information was never divulged. Needless to say later, when they got bought, the new company came in with their own people and I was stuck in the unemployment line.

[xshanex]

I agree partially with all of them if its a small/local/regional company in a variety of industries. With much larger national or internation companies there is an amazing difference between different business units or divisions when it comes to all 6 of those. I would tell a recruiter for many companies to get lost or be their best friend for oppurtunities at the same company depending on the divisions, region, and specific location.

In many fields I'm much more worried about the company outsourcing the position so they can pay someone 1/3 the pay. I've known many more people that were affected by that than anything on that list.

[Joy]

One thing that many/most articles fail to mention as a reason not to take the job is when the interviewer or committee makes a bad impression on you. Most people try to make the best impression for the possible future employer during the interview, but what happens when you leave thinking the interview when horrible, not because of you, but because the person or committee interviewing you was unbelievably negative OR worse, trying to pump their own ego's by crushing yours with unreasonable questions (or whatever attribute was overwhelmingly unappealing). Next time you think you had a bad interview, sit down and really think, why? Don't let this be your excuse, but if the people were really that bad, regardless of money, why would you take that job and have to deal with them on a daily basis?!