After a long process of applying to jobs, waiting for a response, and interviewing, you get not one but two offers.  Not a bad position to find yourself in!  In fact, it is one that many of our Compliance candidates within our Financial Services practice area are currently facing.

“The demand for compliance professionals across the financial services industry continues to be very high amongst our clients, and as a result, many of our strong candidates are receiving multiple offers,” explains Stephanie Tancredi, Director of The Execu|Search Group’s Financial Services Recruitment – Compliance division.  “After receiving multiple offers, these candidates have a difficult decision to make, and sometimes use compensation as their sole decision maker.  Though it is always tempting to take the job that offers the highest salary (even if it is only a little more), I always advise my candidates that there a variety of other factors that they should consider before making their final decision.”

To better understand the important factors that candidates should consider when making their final decision, we’ve included a list below:

• Growth Potential: When considering accepting one offer over another, an important question you need to ask yourself is, “does it enhance your skillset and marketability for your next position?”  When answering this question, be honest.  Will you have the opportunity to learn new skills and undertake new responsibilities or will you just be accountable for performing the same tasks you did at your last job?  Are there potential opportunities for advancement within the company?  Remember, it is important to keep in mind that just because an opportunity pays more, it doesn’t mean that it promotes long term growth.  While one offer may pay more initially, if you think your growth in the role will be relatively stagnant, the other opportunity that pays less but offers more room for growth may actually be the better offer.  Focus on the big picture: it may provide you with higher salary potential later in the future.
• Reputation: Which firm has a better reputation within the industry?  This is another important question to ask yourself when making your decision.  Before accepting an offer, you want to make sure you do your due diligence and research/analyze both firms’ profitability and abilities to grow, their standing amongst competitors, and how well-regarded they are as an industry leader.  As emphasized in the point above, you want to make sure you are making the right move for your career, so it’s vital to think about which company’s name will look the most impressive on your resume.
• Corporate Culture:  Most professionals spend, on average, more than 8 hours per day in the office.  Considering people typically spend another 8 hours of their days sleeping, 8+ hours is a lot of time to spend in an environment that you don’t enjoy working within.  As a result, when contemplating multiple offers, be sure to consider these questions and whether or not you can picture yourself being content in the organization of your choosing.  As Stephanie explains, “You can be doing the most exciting work and making all the money in the world, but if the people you work with are miserable or the company is just not the right fit for you, the job might not be worth it.  For your long-term overall well-being, it’s more important to generally enjoy going to work and like the people you work with.”
• Work/Life Balance: If you have other priorities/hobbies in life that are important and/or require regular attention from you, think about whether or not the job you accept will allow you to have enough time to devote to them.  If you find that the demands of one job will prevent you from appropriately meeting your responsibilities outside of work and would cause some disruption to your personal life, if you can’t rearrange your schedule or find a way to manage the demands of the job with the demands of your personal life, you might want to consider the other opportunity that offers you more flexibility.