With the job market recovering at a healthy clip, and expanding in many respects, more employment options are opening up to Filipino jobseekers. The amount of choices and opportunities can be plentiful, as are the chances for being hired. However, a candidate can’t be expected to entertain every single job offer that follows up, and they might not feel inclined to.
Maybe one role has a more competitive salary or position; perhaps it’s in a more favorable location; or in dire cases, there might be an aspect of the business in question that the candidate doesn’t feel comfortable with. Nonetheless, there’s nothing wrong with wanting to show some courtesy towards the recruiters who saw merit in your credentials and considered you to join their teams. This is a snappy set of rules for how to decline a job offer.
Be Sure
If you have reservations over joining a company, consider what they are for a moment before you move on to the other steps. List these concerns, whether they’re about money, future upwards mobility, expenses, etc.
Then, through the channel of communications they provided, politely make your concerns known and if they’d be willing to compromise within reason. After all, if you were already on the edge of declining their offer, you don’t stand to lose much from asking these important questions.
Be Thoughtful
You may have a myriad of reasons why you want to decline a job offer. For example, the position might be right, but you might feel ill-suited for the industry that needs the role filled, or another recruiter is offering better perks. Try to hone in on one or two reasons that are benign or even neutral in tone.
You’re declining this job offer in this way to be polite, so refrain from going into too much detail if in doing so would highlight a perceived shortcoming of the business the recruiter is representing. Explaining that you’re accepting a position at a different company is fine, but you don’t need to say it’s because of pay or proximity or prestige. Adding a professional yet cheery tone to your message would also be a nice touch.
Be Fast
Recruiters, both in-house and third party, put a lot of work into not only creating the job listing, but sorting through the various applications, yours included. Even if you want to decline your job offer, it’s good form to respect the time they put into it by providing your response as swiftly as you are able so that the two of you can focus your attentions on new pursuits.
Sending your response within the day you decide the offer isn’t for you or the day after is preferred.
Be Apt
In addition to being fast, you should also be concise when declining a job letter. The sooner you write it well, the quicker you can prepare for the job offer you are taking. The structure of the message can be simple: a greeting, an expression of thanks for the offer, one or two sentences with your thoughtful reasons for why you’ve decided to pass on the offer, and a farewell. Flowrite has crafted some concise templates based around these principles here.
Be Decisive
This is the closer of your message where you decide to either part ways with the business you’re addressing or leave the door open to work with them in the future.
Sometimes, a job applicant is caught between two or more great options. If you find yourself in this position, then it would be to your benefit to let those with the offer you didn’t choose know that you respect them nonetheless. In doing so, you can allow for potential future collaborations with them if your company isn’t directly competing with who the recruiter represents, or have you and your resume favorable and fresh in the mind of the recruiter if the role you go for doesn’t work out in the long-term.
A subtle touch is required for this option. You shouldn’t be so forward as to say that you’ll pursue them if your current choice in employment falls through. Instead, simply state that you’d love to keep in touch with either the company or the recruiter specifically; you can even ask to connect on social media platforms like LinkedIN if you feel so inclined. A pleasant line about how you’d love to cross paths or work with them in the future would also help.
You’ll have plenty of opportunities to put this guide into practice with the multitude of high-quality job offers in John Clements’ own career page. Take a look at our catalogue of entry-level, management, and executive positions across a variety of industries all across the Philippines.
