Let’s Chat… (Part 2) How to Professionally Accept a Job Offer!

Welcome back to Part 2 of our 2-part series surrounding job offer declines and more positively, acceptances! Keep reading along to tune into all of the ways to seamlessly move through a job acceptance process, while also ensuring that your needs are met and expectations set for long-term job satisfaction!

Elements of Job Acceptance

Express Appreciation

Immediately after your interview concludes, and regardless of the outcome of your journey, we encourage you to continue showing gratitude to all employees who assisted you in the interview process (whether internal or external). Writing a follow-up email, handwritten letter, and saying ‘thank you for your time’ before your interview concludes is a fantastic way to set yourself up for success! Even better, if you’re interviewing for an internal role, take advantage of any opportunity to express gratitude in person instead of through a screen; expressing appreciation and excitement will set the tone off the right way for the rest of your interview experience, especially if your next step is negotiating.

Time Length

Maintain awareness of important timelines regarding your offer acceptance. Once you receive a formal offer letter (either through email or sent to your permanent address), take a meaningful amount of time to review the terms, conditions, benefits, compensation, and all aspects of what your role will include. Doing so may take a few days, and that’s okay! Make sure to continue communicating with the hiring manager, maintain transparency, and proceed when you’re comfortable and ready. Establishing the window of acceptance during the interview process is a great way to set expectations; make sure to ask the right questions during your interview to understand when to expect to hear back, when your answer should be submitted, and if/when a negotiation period will begin.

That Brings us to our Next Point… Negotiate!

After reviewing an offer letter, we highly encourage you to negotiate details of benefits, or compensation in the form of salary, PTO, benefits, etc. Whether you value a 401K plan, health insurance coverage, or a few extra days off each year will be a completely personal and unique assessment of your career and future mindset. Remember, there’s no better time to achieve the exact offer that you want than right before you accept, so make sure to take advantage of the moment while it’s there! Negotiating offers is also crucial to the way your employer perceives you – make sure to stay calm, kind, and polite in all environments!

• Extra Tip: Conduct market research before entering negotiations to understand the going rate of your role across the industry and at a variety of companies, general benefits that contribute to offer letters, education expectations, or other certificates that may result in higher compensation, etc. Providing validation and evidence to justify your negotiation is a phenomenal way to showcase that, not only did you take meaningful time to craft a proposal, but your expectations are validated by your industry at large.

Accepting the Offer

Finally, accept the job offer! Write an acceptance letter; if you correspond via email, you can also email your letter. Ensure that you express gratitude again and thank the company for the opportunity. Make sure to include verbiage stating that you accept the company’s offer (“I formally accept…”) and state the title of the role, salary, and benefits that you agreed on. Recapping the salary and benefits will help ensure there isn’t any confusion on either side and that there is a written trail of expectations. Lastly, include the date you expect to start!

Ready, set, …. accept!!

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