Definition of a Job Offer
First, let's be clear what constitutes a job offer.
Many times, I have caught candidates using the term "job offer" interchangeably with "job opportunity". They are not one and the same.
A job opportunity simply refers to a job opening that you have applied or interviewed for, but has not reached the offer stage.
It does not encompass the receiving of an employment offer.
A job or employment offer, on the other hand, is:
...an invitation for a potential employee to work in a specific position for an employer. Job offers typically contain the details of the employment offer, including salary, benefits, job responsibilities, and the reporting manager's name and title. -The Balance Careers, 2020
As recruiters, we tend to be particular about clarity in communication and the right use of words. This is because we know what trouble misrepresentation of a candidate's sharing can bring into the entire recruitment process.
For example, if one of my choice candidates informs that he has received a job offer with another company, I will likely choose to let him go instead of presenting him as a shortlisted candidate to the hiring manager.
This is especially if the shortlisting on my side has barely begun. From a timeline perspective, it will simply not align as candidate already has an offer on the table waiting for his acceptance.
Now, if he had used the term wrongly and had actually meant to say "job opportunity", he would have totally missed out on the chance to get considered with my company!
Written or verbal offer?
A job offer may sometimes reach you first verbally, shared either by HR or the hiring manager.
The verbal offer is valid. Rest assured that no one will communicate the offer to you without first obtaining the necessary management approvals.
The verbal offer is a commitment that the company is no longer interviewing other candidates, have zero-ed in on you for hire and have finished working on the necessary approvals for the offer communication.
But, a verbal offer should always be followed up eventually in a written format, either via soft or hard copy.
This verbal-first-written-later approach is commonly adopted for various reasons. I use it frequently as a recruiter too, mainly due to time sensitivity and hiring urgency.
Tools
Keep these tools handy even before your job hunt begins! It can help you in figuring out your asking salary as well.
You should use a combination of these tools to ascertain if there is a need for offer negotiation. Do not just rely on one as it's important to minimise data bias possibilities.
Most current salary surveys
One of my greatest professional pet peeves is reasoning with candidates that negotiate using skewed or biased data. It shows a lack of integrity both in the data AND the person presenting it.
#1: Glassdoor
Glassdoor should always be your no. 1 go-to site. You'll find lots of insider information about the company you're keen to work for.
Sometimes if you're lucky, past or present employees may anonymously share their position titles and salary, as well as company benefits there. See if you can find such information.
A word of caution here: As with any public review and feedback platforms, take the comments with some pinch of salt. Know that there will always be that few people who may attempt to skew public opinions by writing untruth or half-truths.
Tips to use Glassdoor effectively:
1. Filter down to your country location. Remember to compare apples to apples!
2. Look for reviews and feedback from employees, ex-employees and past-interviewed candidates. Focus on the most recent ones if available.
3. Look into comments from various angles - i.e. interview process/questioning, company culture, pros and cons of working there, position type and related salary and benefits, etc.
Ideally, whatever you read on Glassdoor should align with your sensing and observation about the company when you attend interviews with them and visit their office.
This exercise should give you a better peace of mind (and hopefully not the opposite) about joining the company. It also helps determine if you should accept the offer as is, or negotiate for more.
#2: LinkedIn
If you have a rough suspicion that your skillset is niche and you're a rare market talent, do a quick search to get a gauge on the number of similar talent profiles you can find in your country, possessing similar range of skillsets, experience and credentials as you.
If you discover that you're 1 out of only 100 similar profiles on LinkedIn, congratulations! You can consider yourself a niche talent and should naturally attempt to hold more bargaining power.
Of course, the success of this exercise is in the assumption that LinkedIn is being widely used in your country, AND that you are capable of capturing and inputting right keywords into the search bar in order to extract accurate data to back your claims.
If you are not well-versed with LinkedIn and data-mining is not your forte, I will suggest that you skip this entirely and just focus on using Glassdoor and the salary survey tools instead.
#3: Salary surveys
Do you know that salary surveys are downloadable for free from many established recruitment firms' websites? Randstad, Michael Page, Robert Half and Hudson, just to name a few.
Just google "2021 Singapore Salary Survey" for example and click on results to visit the respective websites for survey downloads.
The reason why I use plural in "surveys" is because no one survey is best or perfect.
It is my recommendation that you strive to obtain data coming from the average of at least 3 surveys for a more objective glimpse of your present market value.
If the offer falls within range, good for you. If it falls below range, you may consider respectfully sharing your knowledge of your market value with the company, and ask if they can consider increasing the offer to match your expectations.
#4: Starting salary guide for fresh graduates
Again, all you need to do is a simple google search and you will find many insightful sources to glean from.
asiaone guide (2021) looks good with detailed breakdown according to each school and its specialisations.
Similarly, I will recommend that you compare with at least 2-3 data sources before ascertaining if the offer extended to you is too low and that negotiation is required.
Conclusion
I hope the above has provided you good information to work on!
In my next few blog posts, I will dive deeper into the world of offer negotiation.
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