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I have a close family member who is at a stalemate in her job search. She recently interviewed with a really great company. Assuming she gets an offer, accepting this position would be absolutely be the right decision. It would be more money, better benefits, and a higher ceiling for future growth.

The background check required due diligence follow-up with her current employer. Once her current manager learned that she was looking elsewhere, she was given a counter-offer to stay. This would be about a 20% pay increase to match the base pay she expects to get at the new company. We all agree that this counter-offer is a nice fallback, but not as good as the opportunity at the new company.

The problem is that this process with the new company is taking a long time. It has been several weeks since she was given the counter-offer to stay, but she hasn't heard from the new company other than to learn that her background check successfully passed.

So my question is: if this anticipated offer doesn't come, what is the best approach to go back and accept the counter-offered raise?

For whatever it's worth, we all agree that it would be bad faith to accept the raise, minimizing her risk, then leave a few weeks after accepting it.

Ben Harrison
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    "The background check required due diligence follow-up with her current employer." Massive red flag. This should only ever be done in case of an "offer conditional on good reference" and even then candidates who have options should refuse. – Lilienthal Aug 03 '17 at 14:19
  • "what is the best approach to go back and accept the counter-offered raise?" Has the counter offer expired? What deadline was she given on it? Has she rejected it already? – Lilienthal Aug 03 '17 at 14:19
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    Related - When does accepting an offer to stay with my current firm make sense? – Bernhard Barker Aug 03 '17 at 14:47
  • What do you mean "what is the best approach" to accept the counter-offer? Just say "I've decided to accept this offer". Although it's anyone's guess whether they'd withdraw it because a couple of weeks have passed. You can potentially start with "is the offer still on the table?". – Bernhard Barker Aug 03 '17 at 14:56
  • @Lilienthal in any other circumstance I would completely agree about the massive red flag. However this company is a rare exception. It is a large employer in our region with a great reputation, and I know quite a few people who are happily employed there. It was just a step in the process that none of us would have expected. In hindsight I'm wondering if we should have advised to her to ask if they were willing to perform the background check after making an offer. Also, I probably should have mentioned the position is entry-level. So it's competitive and she has little to no leverage. – Ben Harrison Aug 03 '17 at 16:33
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    A background check for an entry level job? And an entry level job that's hiring people who are currently employed (i.e. no longer entry level)? You'd know this company and their reputation the best but this is setting off all kinds of warning bells for me. – Lilienthal Aug 03 '17 at 17:57
  • Correct. A background check, even for an entry-level job, seems reasonable to me. Just because it is entry-level doesn't mean they want to hire people who might be lying on their resumes. Also, by "entry-level" I mean entry-level for their specific industry. The starting pay is about 80% above minimum wage. So there are plenty of people (just like my relative) who already have lower paying jobs, but would like to begin a new career with this company. – Ben Harrison Aug 03 '17 at 18:37
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    I did accept a raise few weeks before I left a previous job. The reason to live was unrelated to the pay but more about the way the company was managed. Maybe she has other reasons to leave after the raise in case she gets the other offer? – Fez Vrasta Aug 03 '17 at 20:37
  • @FezVrasta I upvoted your comment, because I think it has merit and can be applicable. In this case though, her accepting the offered raise would also mean a handshake agreement to stay. While there would be no legal or contractual obligation to uphold that agreement, we feel it's important to honor that agreement and not leave the previous company feeling betrayed and put in a bad situation. – Ben Harrison Aug 04 '17 at 14:05
  • Is there some caveat or requirement that would be added to here should she accept? Why not accept and leave anyway? – IDrinkandIKnowThings Aug 04 '17 at 17:57
  • I did exactly that. I accepted a raise, then proceeded to further look for other opportunities and left a month later. The thing is, it's important to think of WHAT'S best for YOU. People come and go all the time. Managers in the old company will quickly forget you and move on, do the same. – Alexus Apr 20 '18 at 21:54

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Assuming that the new company doesn't offer your relative the job she interviewed for, she could probably pretty safely approach her current manager about the possibility of receiving a hefty raise. The company she's working for has has pretty much admitted that she's worth more to them than they're paying her and it wouldn't, I don't think, be inappropriate to tactfully bring that up.

That being said, since it's already been a few weeks since the counter-offer was made, her current company may assume that she didn't get the new job and might at that point be unwilling to give her the full 20% raise.

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    This second paragraph is important. The old company has been perfectly content paying her less than what they apparently consider her to be worth when she had no other prospects... It's unlikely that she'll receive the raise without the "threat" of walking away. – Kempeth Aug 03 '17 at 15:10
  • @Kempeth True. Although I would hope at this point the old company would be willing to give her some raise, if for no other reason than they otherwise risk incentivizing all of their employees to be looking for new job opportunities all the time. Managements' life would be a lot easier if their pay structure rewarded employees' good work with 10% raises rather than coercing employees' loyalty with 20% raises. –  Aug 03 '17 at 15:19