| David Dodge, CPC

Comparing Job Offers – How Do You Choose?

Comparing Job Offers

Let’s paint the picture.

You’ve put your time in at the Big Four accounting firm, but it’s not likely you’re going to receive that next promotion to Manager (or Senior Manager or Director or Partner) anytime soon and it’s time for you to make a move.  But not just any move – you want to go to a local midsize firm where the “busy season” isn’t all year long.

Let me first say “good for you”. And then let me tell you it’s a good time to make a move. With the national unemployment rate at 3.7% (and Minnesota’s at 2.8%) you’ll likely start getting offers quickly – possibly multiple offers.  Then you have a new challenge, how do you choose?

I recently worked with a candidate who was about to leave a national firm as a Tax Manager with twelve years of experience.  When we discussed her motivations for making a move, work/life balance was high on the list.  After interviewing for less than a month, she received offers from three different firms.  Despite our earlier discussions, she ended up accepting an offer from another national firm.  The main reasons?  More money and a bigger title.

Don’t misunderstand me, there’s nothing wrong with taking an opportunity that offers an increased salary and a bigger role – except when your main reason for leaving the last position was you didn’t have enough family time. When it has been a while since you last interviewed for a job and offers start coming in, it is easy to get caught up in heat of the moment and make a decision you might regret.

So, how do you choose?

Here’s my advice, and this will work whether you are a CPA, a B2B Sales Executive or an Engineering/Operations professional.  Make a checklist of the job variables that are important to you; salary, benefits, career growth potential, autonomy, office environment, commute time, expected hours/workload, company culture and reputation, etc. Prioritize the top five to ten factors by what’s most important to you. You may have some that are very close (expected hours and salary, for example), but try to get a top to bottom ranking.

Once you have them ranked in order of importance, rate each one on a scale of 1-10 for your current job, with one being least favorable, and ten being great. Use graphics to make it easier to see the big picture. Like this:

So, if the example above represents your current job; you make an average salary, have solid benefits, but you’re stuck in your current position with little potential for promotion and are working crazy hours. However, you’ve got an easy commute, and enjoy a great office environment (but these are less important to you).

With this checklist of job variables that represents your preferences and priorities, you can more easily compare offers to determine what matters the most to you by simply ranking each one in order.  This exercise also helps reinforce what factors are truly important to you, and ensures you thoroughly explore them during your search and interview process.

Lastly, this tool can serve as a reality check even when you are not actively in the job market.  When an exciting opportunity comes along, you’ll be able to take a step back and confirm that a decision to make a move would be consistent with your long-term career objectives.

To your success!

                                                                                                                                                         

David Dodge, CPC, is a twenty-year veteran of the executive search and staffing industry.  He is the Founder of Headwaters Search, an executive search firm specializing in placing B2B Sales, Engineering & Operations, and Finance & Accounting Professionals in the Twin Cities.  He also serves as Director of the Talent Resource Group, a division of Peterson Whitaker & Bjork, CPAs.
                                                                                                                                                         

Back to Blog

David Dodge, CPC

With over twenty years of executive search and thirty years of business leadership experience in public and private companies, David Dodge has filled positions with many financial industry leaders and forerunners.

Schedule Call

David Dodge, CPC

David is the Twin Cities-based accounting, finance talent, and C-suite level leadership recruiter focusing on small and mid-size businesses. He and his team find impactful candidates—those experienced CEOs, CFOs, and VPs of Finance & Accounting—who can successfully lead organizations and help his client partners realize each one’s professional mission.

David has spent more than 20 years in executive search and has 30 years of business leadership experience in public and private companies. He understands the fundamental importance of filling key positions in a timely manner and has used his deep knowledge of his industry and his community to develop client relationships with multiple firms that depend on him and his team’s bespoke recruitment services to deliver consistent, positive results.

“I gain great satisfaction from seeing the impact a top candidate can have on a mid-size company. Equally satisfying for me is to see an individual’s life positively affected by making a timely and smart career move.”