Weekly Newsletter Vol. 9 - November 1, 2023

Generating your Lead Story…

Why You Shouldn’t Accept Counteroffers

You work your hardest day in and day out, which often gets overlooked by your co-workers and, more importantly, upper management. Sometimes you get the odd head nod or “good job” when something gets done, but it is rare that a mid-season bonus comes your way. It’s not just your place of work — everyday millions of people are looking up to see if they will get that salary raise they were promised or the promotion another co-worker got for doing the same work.

It’s not until you’re almost gone that people start to recognize you.

Companies typically offer employees a 3-5% pay increase on average at the end of each year. It’s pretty standard across the board and can increase or decrease depending on the revenue of the company you’re at. Most sizeable companies offer a standard 5-10% raise, as well. But what happens when you start to look elsewhere? How much might that salary increase be?

By switching jobs after a long tenure, you can expect to see a sizeable increase. Once you’ve interviewed and that offer comes, however, you have a choice. You can either accept it or take it back to your current employer to see if they will match with a counteroffer.

What is a counteroffer?

A counteroffer is an offer made to an employee by their current employer in response to an initial offer they received from a new, potential employer. This is an attempt by the current employer to keep the employee from resigning by making a competing offer that they hope is more attractive.

If you’re presented with a counteroffer, you won’t have an easy decision on your hands. It’ll be tempting to stay with your current employer for reasons such as loyalty and comfortability from your long tenure, or because of the work friends and professional life you don’t want to leave behind.

However, there are reasons to consider why you should not accept the counteroffer.

Here are 3 reasons not to accept the counteroffer:

1. The salary increase is a bandaid that covers up the underlying issues that got you to this point. Your employer knows you aren’t happy now and might view you as someone who is thinking about leaving. It’s also more than likely they will now try to justify giving you more work with the wage increase that you were already working towards.

2. On average, over 75% of those who accept counteroffers start their job search again within 3 months. This is because at the end of the day you weren’t just leaving for the money. While lack of recognition and promotion often starts the process, the money was just the icing on the cake.

3. You were getting underpaid and if the company wanted to give you a sizeable raise then they would have. These are things you shouldn’t have to ask for, especially if you’re in a position that generates actual revenue for the company.

In the end, it is your decision and you must do what’s best for you and your career.

If you do decide to accept the counteroffer, my advice is to get everything you want in writing from your current employer. Lastly, it’s also important to be professional and end things gracefully with your potential future employer and recruiter that worked with you on the new job opportunity – it’s a small industry, you never know when you will cross paths again.

Shortlisted Tips & Trends

Top 3 Ways to use AI in your Job Search:

1. Use OpenAI to write your resume: Writing a resume is no easy task and making sure you articulate your job history and accomplishments can be even tougher if written communication skills is not one of your biggest strengths. Using ChatGPT for example, you can transform your job title from a prompt to a fully written resume.

2. Using AI Job Matching: Knowing what you’re good at and finding the right job to match that are not always so simple. There are AI tools now that will help match your skills with open positions that would be most suitable to you. It helps ensure an almost perfect pairing and gets even better as you add more details, like salary and benefits.

3. Interview Preparation: A lot of people struggle with interviews and that’s because all the variables change every time you do it. You can get better at talking to people but you will likely be talking to a different type of person as you go from company to company. AI Interview tools allow you to ask questions that can reframe your experience in difference ways based on how a question is asked. Or, it can help you explain how your skills are transferable from one industry to another.

You can’t make this stuff up

_{(*Disclaimer: these are real experiences provided by RME's community of job seekers and hiring managers)}

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