How To Decline A Job Offer

You came, you saw, you conquered! And now you want to give all of it up. Don’t just put up a sticker saying “I decline” on your interviewer’s desk and leave. And don’t throw away your cell phone every time there’s a call from that company wanting to ask you of your decision, not knowing how to say no. Think of what you would do if your best friend proposed to you? Go running off to the hills? Of course not! Tell your friend the reason why it can’t happen with gentle care so that it doesn’t hurt your friendship? Yes! A relationship with a company is no different than a relationship with your best friend. A company doesn’t have robots slaving for it, but people working for it. A relationship with the people of a company, where you are or going to work is as important as a relationship with people back at home. Sooner or later, some company is going to become your second home. You don’t want to fend the others off in an ungentlemanly way that in future endeavors you may have no opportunity to work with them. As such, it is very important that you say no in the most pleasant way. Read further to know about how to decline a job offer in a courteous way:

 

Don’t wait for an age to pass through before you decide “now is the time”. Don’t freak out over how to decline an organization. If you’ve made a decision, be courteous enough to inform them as soon as possible so that they can hire somebody else. You may be in the top five of the candidates who were offered the job, but the ones below you may need that job more than you do. Don’t be late in your response; lest you ruin their chances of getting selected. You’ll be doing more good than harm, and helping a lot of people if you reply back in a timely manner.

It could be a verbal response or a written one, though common courtesy says it should be a combination of both, first with a phone call, and then with a declining letter in proper written format. Don’t go blurting out stuff randomly. Think about what you want to say before you call in or start typing on that declining letter. Call the person who offered you the job and address the letter to him or her only. Don’t blow the person away unprofessionally and for both cases - be polite and precise. Avoid common slang while speaking and grammatical mistakes while typing!

No matter how unsuitable to the position you were, doesn’t matter how below your expected range you were offered the salary, doesn’t matter how much you despised their office or staff when you went in for the interview, and still doesn’t matter if you got the job of being a president of some high profiled company - what matters is they gave you a chance to work with them, when many of the companies out there didn’t. Be grateful for that and express your gratitude for giving you an opportunity to work with them.

 

There’s no room for profanity in professionalism. Declining a job offer is not some obscene way for you to settle scores. Be professional and keep things like “less salary” or “office too far” away from your list of reasons. You should have tried to negotiate with the salary during the interview and mentioned to them that the office is too far from where you live. There might have been some option from the company’s side that you might have missed like – a quarter for you to live nearby or other benefits for proving a salary below your expectations. However, if the recruiter personally asks you about where you’ll be joining and at how much salary, tell the truth. Who knows, by knowing the name of the rival company, he/she might offer you a higher package and a better position.

 

Even saying no to someone has its share of etiquettes. And now that you’ve read about how to decline a job offer, don’t blow away the company that wanted to invest in you, with just a shrug of the shoulders. Be professional!