My students are smart and disciplined. So what happens when you take talent, hard work, and marry that with a strong university recruiting engine and a healthy job market?
Yep, multiple job offers
Amazing, right?
- Trust me, I think it’s remarkable too
- It’s a great problem to have. A well-earned blessing. It’s winning
- Uh, I did not have the luxury of a problem when I graduated college ;(
FOBO (fear of a better offer)
And yet, it’s a paradox that it you have too many choices, it can actually make you feel worse. Less happy and less grateful. Yes, we start developing a nagging sense of uncertainty, dread, and loss.
Some questions which I’ve heard recently:
- How do I choose between two very different companies and job offers?
- What happens if I choose “incorrectly” and the other one was a better choice?
- What do I do? I don’t want to miss out on the other job.
1) Breathe. Enjoy.
Yes, take some time and pat yourself on the back. It’s okay to be happy for a moment. You can always worry more tomorrow.
2) There is no “wrong choice”
First, an internship during college is a not a life sentence. It creates more options, not fewer. Also, you wouldn’t have applied, gone through HireVue, and struggled through multiple rounds of interviews if you didn’t think the company / job / opportunity was worth it. So the situation looks like cake vs. cookies.
- Job A = cake = awesome
- Job B = cookies = awesome in a different way
3) Life is a S-curve, not a train schedule
Formal education is a bit predictable. There is a course catalog, syllabus, assignments, and a grading rubric. Namely, everything is out of of a 4.0 scale. It is binary: school and non-school.
It might be helpful to think of your career as a bunch of S-curves. There are peaks / valleys. It’s up to you to lean into the turns, speed up and slow down. After you graduate, there is no syllabus. As I often tell students, “When you join the corporate world, your manager is not going to give you a multiple choice test on Monday.”
Some people know from day 1 what they want to do professionally. However, most don’t AND that’s perfectly normal. Heck, your title/role/job from 2035 probably doesn’t really exist yet. Instead think about emerging strategy (read: Mintzberg). Pick the general direction and start making some smart, deliberate steps:
4) What’s the industry, company, function, job?
Okay, let’s do some comparison of your two offers. Think about the following:
- Industry or type of industry (retail, technology, B2B) you’re interested in?
- Company with a strong market position, and/or growth prospects?
- Department / function / job that you’re interested in?
- Geography – is it where you’d like to be post-graduation?
- Size of the company: 200 person, 2,000 person, or 200,000 person
5) Are you a sophomore or junior?
For juniors, this is an internship – a trial, both by you and also for the company. The stakes are lower, and the chance of you re-recruiting in the fall are somewhat high. This has a few implications:
- If you have the chance to work for your dream company, dream job, take it. After you do great, and get the full-time return offer, you are loving it. Senior year = amazing.
- Your sophomore / junior summer is a great time to experiment and try something out
6) What’s important to you?
There is no perfect job. No matter what the recruiting brochures say, it’s work. Yes, it’s fulfilling. Yes, it can be fun. Yes, you will learn. But it’s not a vacation, it’s work.
- What is on your wish list of criteria? Which ones are more important?
- Hint: a mentor of mine one said there are 3 criteria for any project / job
- Did you write out a pro/con list for each side (yes, the good ole Benjamin Franklin approach)
7) What gives you more optionality?
If you agree that career is a bunch of S-curves, which job will help you to:
- Learn more?
- Be LESS complacent and hustle MORE?
- Grow as a human?
- Increase your market value ?
- Augments your resume in the right way?
8) What does your gut tell you?
If you’ve satisfied the “logic” part of decision, let’s dig into some of the emotional side:
- What does your heart / gut tell you? Which way are you leaning and why?
- What are you afraid of with job A?
- Which job would you potentially “regret” not taking more? FOMO?
9) What do (your) people say?
It always helps to get input from people you know and trust. They may see blind spots or point out pro/con that you didn’t think of. Note: this is not just from anyone. Nope, we don’t care about public opinion, we only want input from a diverse group of trusted, informed people.
- Diverse – not just people from the firms who are recruiting you
- Trusted – people who know you, love you, want the best for you
- Informed – only people who know something about the choices
Also, this is just feedback to help you make the best decision. It’s your decision, not theirs.
10) How is the “fit”?
People matter. Culture matters. From the informational interviews and the people you’ve talked to so far, how would you describe the conversations? If you plan to exceed expectations (of course you do), then where will you be more comfortable working 50-70 hours a week?
- Do you know alumni or friends who work there?
- Have you spoke to any people who left the firm?
- Why do you think they hired you?
Be grateful, decide. Don’t look back
Unemployment in the US is around 4-5%, but that’s misleading because that only includes people actively looking for a job. Also, all jobs are not the same. You have two top-shelf (read: premium) job offers. You should be proud of yourself, because I am.
Make a great decision. Then, don’t look back. FOMO (fear of missing out) and FOBO (fear of a better offer) usually makes you less happy. That dissatisfaction then translates into poor quality work.
Do great work, Get Rare and valuable Skills
For me, the goal is not the job. The goal is to develop rare and valuable skills. Be so good they can’t ignore you. The job is a convenient – and yes, they pay you too, which is great – way to gain the skills, mindset, relationships, and experience you need. I am convinced of 3 things:
- There are dozens of ways (not 1 way) to develop a deeply satisfying career, professional life.
- We are fairly bad at predicting which 1 way is the best (fastest, most satisfying)
- All routes involve focus, hard work, and persistence
As Vince Lombardi, famous football coach, said, “There is no substitute for work.”