Understand and Manage Job Offer Deadlines

Congratulations! You've received your first job offer and, like most offers of employment, it probably has a deadline attached. When making an offer, most employers will give candidates a date by which they must either accept or decline the offer. While the date you've been given can sometimes seem like it's been chosen at random, there are many different reasons for offer expiration dates.

Top Reasons for Offer Deadlines:

• Recruiters have a limited number of positions to fill, and you were selected to be in their first round of offers. At the same time, they realize that some of their top choices will accept offers from other companies, leaving them with positions that still need to be filled. So they need to know early on if you're not interested while there is still time to make offers to their next round of selections.
• In a competitive hiring market, each company is looking to gain an edge in securing top talent; locking a potential hire into an offer early on is one way to achieve this. They want to get to you before another company does and think an early acceptance deadline will force you to make a decision. Deadlines create a sense of urgency around an offer and ensure that their company and offer is in the forefront of your mind.
• College recruiting follows a specific hiring life cycle and human resources professionals have timelines for their own hiring needs. The deadline you have been given factors into their full-cycle recruiting plans as the "new-hire" process usually operates on a pre-determined timeline and is coordinated across several different lines of business. The employer wants to make sure that there is enough time to complete all the steps in the process, such as background checks and education verification before the start date.
• The recruiter wants to get you off their "outstanding offer" list. Until you accept the offer, you are still unfinished business and require time, attention, and frequent contact.

Managing Offer Deadlines:

If you have interviewed with multiple companies and are in different stages of the hiring process with each one, you can anticipate different offer deadlines. Thank the company for the offer and express your continued interest in the position and the company. You may decide to request a deadline extension (refer to the ECS Job Blog “Requesting a Deadline Extension” for more details) in hopes of getting more time to make a decision.

If you ask for an extension, be specific about how much time you will need and try not to make the timeline too long. The ECS Offer Guidelines policy advises that students should have a minimum of 3 weeks to make a decision. Review the guidelines to determine how much time might be reasonable given the time of year your offer was made. Before asking for an extension, contact the other companies you are interested in and ask where you stand in their process. Inquire about their timeline so you can map out your strategy. For more information, check out the “Managing Offer Deadlines” video.

“One of the things I learned the hard way was that it doesn’t pay to get discouraged. Keeping busy and making optimism a way of life can restore your faith in yourself.” — Lucille Ball