Counter-offer?

Hey guys,

So I was offered a position at a company recently that would yield about a 25% raise along with a slightly better 401k match and benefits. I have a great relationship with my boss and current teammates though, so when they asked me if I would consider a counter-offer, I said yes. After a few days, my boss came back and said that the most that they could offer would be about 10%, thus leaving the other 15 on the table.

Now I really do love my boss and most of the people I work with, so I'm almost tempted to take the offer. But I kind of feel selfish leaving all of that money on the table (I have a wife and two kids), as well as the potential career progression that this new job would afford.

Has anyone else been in a similar situation? For what its worth, I have a few friends who are recruiters and they both advised not to take the offer.

Thank you

Find more posts tagged with

Free for TechExams community: Cybersecurity salary guide

Compare cert salaries and plan your next career move

Button

Comments

dave330i

pevangel wrote: »

What if you weren't looking? What if you're happy at your current company but a recruiter approached you with an offer that was too good to pass up?

Would it be wise to consider the counter offer?

Figure out which offer better aligns with your long term goals.

kiki162

It's hard not to think about, what if I stay. At the end of the day you need to always think about your family and what path you want to take with your career. You were offered a position because you want to do better, something different, or more with your career. Taking a counter offer would only be a step back, and not a step forward. Listen to those recruiters, and to the others on this post, do NOT take the counter. Instead take the new job, and take any opportunity to progress and move yourself forward in your career.

dave330i

kiki162 wrote: »

It's hard not to think about, what if I stay. At the end of the day you need to always think about your family and what path you want to take with your career. You were offered a position because you want to do better, something different, or more with your career. Taking a counter offer would only be a step back, and not a step forward. Listen to those recruiters, and to the others on this post, do NOT take the counter. Instead take the new job, and take any opportunity to progress and move yourself forward in your career.

No. Rejecting the counter w/out serious consideration is a mistake.

If the counter is monetary only, then rejecting it is usually the correct move. If the counter includes career growth possibilities (promotion, new responsibilities, different environments, etc), then both offers should be examined and you should choose the one that better aligns with your longterm goals.

SteveLord

More often than not, it is monetary only.

philz1982

dave330i wrote: »

No. Rejecting the counter w/out serious consideration is a mistake.

If the counter is monetary only, then rejecting it is usually the correct move. If the counter includes career growth possibilities (promotion, new responsibilities, different environments, etc), then both offers should be examined and you should choose the one that better aligns with your longterm goals.

Very true,

Recruiters have their own goals in mind and provide biased advice. No one but yourself can tell if it is a good or bad decision. This is for the folks looking to make a decision like this. I used to keep my opinions to myself and never talk about career growth or salary.

Then something changed in me. I now talk at least 2 times a month with my boss about salary and career growth. I ask him every other week:

What could I be doing better?
What do I need to stop doing?
What do I need to do more of?
How will you rate me at the end of the year based on the year so far?
What do I need to do to earn a 5/5 rating?

I ask this twice a month, and its annoying for sure, but you know what, I take the feedback and deliver. Most people sit around, asking for praise and no criticism or they argue with criticism. Then they wonder why they are being replaced by a guy from India.

Most folks have no career plan, and don't know how to plan a career in the first place. I plan to change this by starting a site dedicated to helping folks develop career plans.

-Phil

dave330i

SteveLord wrote: »

More often than not, it is monetary only.

Nothing preventing you from countering a counter.

Khaos1911

dave330i wrote: »

Nothing preventing you from countering a counter.

Is that you Mayweather?

GreaterNinja

If you take a counter-offer you will likely not get another raise for a while. You will also be looked at by management as a potential flight risk. They may start to ask you to perform knowledge transfer, documentation and training more often in case they do have to replace you.

If the other job is better and it pays 25% more, then put in your 2 weeks notice and leave. If the job does not work out you can probably come back and work the previous job.

To sum it up, you should just jump ship because they are making it rain like bad grandpa.

dave330i

GreaterNinja wrote: »

If you take a counter-offer you will likely not get another raise for a while. You will also be looked at by management as a potential flight risk. They may start to ask you to perform knowledge transfer, documentation and training more often in case they do have to replace you.

If the other job is better and it pays 25% more, then put in your 2 weeks notice and leave. If the job does not work out you can probably come back and work the previous job.

To sum it up, you should just jump ship because they are making it rain like bad grandpa.

By your reasoning, management is offering a counter offer to get rid of you later?

junaid375

Brother, in this IT Market, you must move up when it comes to salary.
25% raise means you will have new 'baseline' for future jobs.

Its good that you took the offer, I know managers are important but sometimes they cant help you with good raises, so you have to switch

Khaos1911

Need some advice, everyone. I'm in a similar situation....

New job offer:

19.95% salary increase
commute time goes from 30 mins each way to 10 mins each way
decent benefits, 401k match is less than current job ( dollar match up to 3%, as oppose to 8% at current, but I don't contribute that much)
Senior position title
2nd Shift (not sure how I feel about this)
Doesnt appear to be much paid training like SANS or whatever.
Tuition reimbursement seems to not have a cap (Huge advantage since I want to pursue my Masters)
Opportunity to learn new skills and technologies, but the fear is that they expect me to already be an "expert" in these new technologies.
Have the skills they are looking for, but I just don't feel that I have the depth in those skills that they are looking for.
I personally don't feel that I'm ready to be the "go to expert" in my career just yet.

Current job:

Very cool boss
can come and go as you please just about, which is huge because I like going to the gym on my lunch break which along with actually grabbing some food makes my lunch break long as hell
8am-5pm, but more like whenever I get there before 9am to about 4:15pm
Paid training like SANS every other year, some less expensive training annually (I spent 8K of company dollars for my GSEC training/exam)
30 min commute each way
being the second in command for certain technologies, but doing all the grunt work for those technologies, which is not bad because I like "learning by doing."
4K is the max tuition reimbursement offered per year, but they pay it on the front end, which is almost unheard of.
Awesome team members that I really enjoy working with.
I'm needed because I back up and admin two major items and one of those items...looks like a senior guy on our team may be leaving soon and if we are both gone they are fugged. Which Is why I think I'm going to get a counter offer.

The more I look at what I wrote the more I think I will take the new offer. Better pay, closer commute, exposure to new technologies, a senior role, and being able to finish my masters in a reasonable amount of time(hopefully, really need to get them to sign off on paying for my school). Again, my only fear is the unknown and being expected to know certain technologies inside out. *gets back to labbing and reading up on the technologies they utilize*

Deathmage

the_Grinch wrote: »

So say you appreciate the counter offer and move on. For the rest of your time there they will keep that in their hat and use it any time you speak your mind about anything. Also, liking the people you work with should never be your reason to stay. I have plenty of friends who were coworkers who I talk to still. So stay friends and in contact, but move along.

Completely agree, I had the same mentality with my last job of 4 year. I loved the co-workers and made tons of friends. However it's been nearly 7 months and I STILL talk to those friends on Facebook and at gathering daily/weekly. Friends won't let business boundaries be the delimiting factor of a friendship, if they do they weren't ever a true friend.

philz1982

GreaterNinja wrote: »

If you take a counter-offer you will likely not get another raise for a while. You will also be looked at by management as a potential flight risk. They may start to ask you to perform knowledge transfer, documentation and training more often in case they do have to replace you.

If the other job is better and it pays 25% more, then put in your 2 weeks notice and leave. If the job does not work out you can probably come back and work the previous job.

To sum it up, you should just jump ship because they are making it rain like bad grandpa.

Not true based on my experiences and other's I've talked to. Really this all comes down to not being either/or. You should simply tell your boss you don't make what you are worth. You do X and it's worth Z in the market but you make Y and you need a plan to close that gap. If you can't have a convo like this with your boss then either:

A) You're to introverted and need to develop people skills

Have a terrible boss and need to leave
C) You work for the govt/military.

Jasiono

Something happened to me in that sense, only it was for a job that I wanted.

I worked for a company for a couple years, got my degree, and went out for a network technician job. I was interviewed for 6 hours that day and did not get the job, although I was highly commended for my knowledge in networking and impressed quite a few people, including the director of the department and the CIO. The reason I did not get the job is because I had an AAS degree and the person who got it had two masters degrees.

Fast forward to about 2 months later.

A systems operator job came open. I went for it and got it. It's basically a high level help desk support job. I worked for a year and my buddy was talking about a company he applied to, so I followed along and got an interview. This was for a software testing job. That interview lasted 35 minutes and I got kicked out basically, but 6 hours later I had an official letter stating that they were going to make me an offer that afternoon. I got my official letter via pdf via email and I put in my two weeks.

During my "meeting", the manager said that she was going to open up a network tech job and wanted me to go out for it, hinting that she wanted me to slide right in, and she said she is going to open it up in a month.

I told her that I was still with the company (I applied to a home based part time position for them), and that when I saw the job open up I would go ahead and go for it, possibly, and she said "keep your eyes open".

Guess what

She opened that job in a year and a half later.

Case in point, like others have said, if you have to basically threaten to leave to the point you have an offer from another company just to get a raise now, I don't think they will keep your pay competitive. One day they will say "just go"

TerminalB

twodogs62 wrote: »

Look at overall offer.
benefits, match 401, travel, opportunity, type of business, do they pay for training?
is travel required?

Factoring in total compensation, I would be looking at about 20k which is very hard to turn down. No travel required for either.