I have an offer, but I still have interviews for roles I want more.

JOB SEARCH STRATEGY WITH EARLY.

Last week in the Early Accelerator, a member came to the group call with a problem. A good problem, but a problem nonetheless.

Brian: “I actually just got a job offer.”

Me: “Hell yeah!”

Brian: “Yeah, but I’m also in the process with a couple of other companies, which I have a lot of interest in. I just had my first call with my top company. I definitely need a job, but I also kind of want to keep interviewing with these companies, but I’m also not trying to burn bridges, so what do I do?”

This is something I’ve seen time and time again.

The job search starts slowly as you lay the foundation and get comfortable flexing the outreach, networking, and interviewing muscles.

Then, after a month or two of repetitions, you start to see success, and that success builds confidence.

With that confidence, you become more attractive to teams, and before you know it, you have multiple rounds of interviews going on at the same time, with some (or all) turning into offers.

It’s not uncommon for me to hear things like, “Before it was so hard just to get an interview, and now I’m dealing with so many interviews and multiple offers. When it rains, it pours.”

But this level of success brings a new kind of problem.

What do you do when you have an offer in hand, but you’re in the process with other companies for roles you want more?

You want to do what’s best for your career, but you don’t want to burn bridges or do something that could jeopardize the offer you already have.

Do you continue interviewing? Is that disloyal, greedy, or risky? What happens if you take the initial offer but take another offer in a week or a month?

No one really talks about this, but it happens all the time.

So this week, I’ll share my thoughts on what to do when this situation arises.

Here’s what we’ll cover…

Table of Contents

• An offer in hand doesn't necessarily end your search

• A decision that made me millions and landed a dream job

• The 5 step playbook to handle this "Bird in hand" situation

• When you want to be careful

• Why you never cool the pipeline

DON’T JOB SEARCH ALONE

If you’re reading through this thinking, “I want multiple startup offers to choose from,” that’s exactly what the Early Accelerator is built for.

Here are some recent member successes:

Last week, a member signed an offer that increased his cash compensation by 40%.

Another Early member recently landed a remote senior leadership role at a $500M startup that wasn’t even hiring.

Another went from VP to a COO role less than 90 days after joining.

These are the result of the playbooks, mentorship, coaching, company research, and community we provide.

It’s the best way I’ve found to cut through the noise and land a role at the next generation of world-changing startups.

Learn more and apply today (click here).

3. THE 5-STEP “BIRD IN HAND” PLAYBOOK

There are five steps to take in order to allow yourself the chance to make the best decision for you and your career.

Step 1: Inform the other companies

Step 2: Stall to give yourself time

Step 3: Push the start date

Step 4: Accept and keep going

Step 5: Exit gracefully

Let’s dig into each one so you know exactly what to do at each stage.

Step 1: Inform the other companies

As soon as you receive an offer, your next step is to inform the other companies that you have an offer and ask if there’s any way to expedite the process.

The important thing to note here is that you should be informing those companies only if you want to work there more than the company that has just given you an offer. If you wouldn’t work there even if they expedited the process and matched or exceeded everything in your current offer, then don’t string them along.

Some companies will expedite the process. Others will not.

If they expedite the process, it’s a very good sign that they like you. If they don’t expedite the process, it could be because they have a set process they don’t want to deviate from, because the team is busy, or because they have a pipeline of very strong candidates. You just don’t know. But just because they don’t expedite the process doesn’t mean that you don’t have a chance of landing the offer.

Here’s a sample message you can send to try and expedite the process…

Step 2: Stall to give yourself time

Even if you’re not waiting on another offer, it’s important to do your due diligence on the company and offer in hand. If you are waiting on another offer, this can buy you some time.

Here are the things I recommend you do:

• Ensure you have all the details about your equity (# of shares granted, total # of outstanding shares, strike price, 409a valuation, options vs RSUs, vesting schedule, exercise, post-termination exercise window, etc.) so you’re able to make an informed decision and negotiate with full information.

• Give yourself time to go through the offer line by line to ensure you understand each aspect. Send any questions to the recruiter or hiring manager to ensure you understand everything.

• Ask to speak with the hiring manager for 30 min to 1 hour to align on the role and expectations, and to go over a 30-60-90-day plan you prepared.

• Negotiate your offer’s base salary, bonus, equity, and any additional items you want adjusted.

Outside of those things, here are some additional ways you can do your due diligence while giving yourself more time for the other offer to come through:

• If you’re an executive, you can ask to speak to an investor to understand more about their investment thesis and the conditions they believe will result in the company’s success or failure.

• If you’re an executive, you can ask to sign an NDA to review the company’s financials to understand the financial standing of the company and exactly what you’re stepping into.

• You could ask to speak to another member of the team you spoke with during the interview process, but didn’t get a chance to ask all your questions.

• If you’re going to be a manager, you could ask to speak with one or multiple members of the team you’ll be managing.

All of these things can buy you days or sometimes weeks.

That said, you want these requests to be legitimate so that in the event the additional offer doesn’t come through, you’re not starting your relationships in your new company with a bad taste in their mouth.

During this period, every additional day gives you optionality, but you don’t want to spook the other side into thinking you don’t want the offer and pulling it.

Step 3: Push the start date

If you’ve informed the other companies of your offer and gone through the entire negotiation process, unfortunately, there isn’t a whole hell of a lot you can do to extend the timeline before you sign the offer or reject the offer.

As a last technique to give yourself some more time before you start you can see if they’re open to extending your start date further into the future.

Startups are notorious for wanting you to start tomorrow, but you won’t get what you don’t ask for.

With that in mind, the maximum I would ever ask for is a month. They’re hiring you because they need a job done today, not next quarter. In reality, they’ll likely be okay with you starting in 2-3 weeks, but anything more than that is uncommon.

If you’re currently in a job you can cite the fact that you want to give your current company two weeks notice and if you’re not in a company you could cite the fact that you have some things around the house or personally that you need to finish that you haven’t been able to get to during the job search that you want to complete before jumping head first into your new role.

Regardless, this is the last stalling technique.

Step 4: Accept and keep going

Once you’ve run through all the above tactics, the only thing you can do is accept the offer and keep going.

If you’ve accepted the offer, go all out in your interview preparation for the role before you start.

Once you start, you’ll be drinking from a fire hose, and you want to make sure you’re setting yourself up for success in that role, so you’ll be busy. Try hard in your new role. Meet people. Do good work. If you ultimately end up leaving, those things will go a long way in softening the blow.

Outside the role, keep up to date on the interview process and with your recruiters, and do everything you can to show up as the best version of you in the process. Remember, there’s nothing to lose. You already have a job, so you can show up as the true you without any consequences.

Also, if once you start the new role you determine, “Actually, this is exactly where I want to be.” It’s ok to pull out of the interview process. Just remember to review your ideal job description and your goals to ensure you’re not just pulling out due to momentary discomfort.

Step 5: Exit gracefully

If your interview process was unsuccessful, no worries, you already have a job.

If your interview process was successful and you landed a better job, it’s time to exit gracefully.

My recommendation is to give the hiring manager or recruiter a call because this news is typically best delivered over the phone. If you’re not comfortable with that, a short, warm email will do the trick.

Here’s what a sample email could look like…

Remember, if the new role that you’re taking is a better fit and will do more for you and your career in the future, then this temporary discomfort has a significant downstream payoff. It’s uncomfortable, but that discomfort will pass quickly.

But won’t the team hate me?

No, they hired you because they liked you. They’ll definitely be disappointed, but this won’t kill the relationship. If anything, they’ll see it as a sign that you’re a sought-after talent, which is a good trait to have and reinforces their decision to hire you in the first place. Plus, it’s better to bow out before you start, or a few days or a month into the role, rather than 3 months, 6 months, or a year down the road. Trust me, they’ll find someone new to replace you.

4. WHEN YOU WANT TO BE CAREFUL

The advice above is what I would typically share with people going through this situation, but there is one nuance to consider.

If you know people on the team or at the company who gave you the initial offer, you may want to inform them of what’s going on before the second offer comes through.

I think about it this way: I have a friend named David. David and I worked together at Uber. I was a groomsman in his wedding after he left Uber. We’re good friends. If I landed an offer at his company and had this other opportunity I was considering, I would let him know before I accepted the offer, and likely during the interview process. I would do that because I have a high degree of confidence that he would understand. For example, if I received an offer for a GM role at his company and I was also interviewing for a COO role at another company of similar or larger size, then I have a high degree of certainty he would say, “Dude, go for it. I completely understand.” That said, I’d probably inform him before signing the offer to buy time to see the other process conclude, not after signing, while I was still interviewing.

I mention this to say that if you have relationships with people on the team, you may want to give them a heads-up that you’re interviewing with another company before you sign the offer. Once you sign the offer, they’ll assume you’re all in, but again, if the new role is truly better, they’ll be disappointed but understand.

5. NEVER COOL THE PIPELINE

There’s one final thing to remember.

As you’re interviewing for roles and expecting offers, don’t ever ever ever count your chickens before they hatch. In the last week alone, I’ve seen two people who have gone through multiple rounds of interviews, on-sites, case studies, and had everything met with giant smiles and the team saying, “I can’t wait to work with you, when can you start?” only to receive an email that the company had gone with someone else with more experience.

So, as you’re interviewing, don’t freeze your outreach and applications.

You definitely want to go all-in on the processes you have in hand, but do what you can to maintain the rhythm of networking, outreach, applications, and adding new opportunities to the top of your funnel. This is where having a system can be highly beneficial.

If you shut everything down while you’re interviewing because you’re expecting an offer, restarting your momentum can be brutal if that offer never comes.

On the group community call, I told Brian the same thing that I shared with you here today.

If you remember nothing else, it should be that if you have an offer in hand but ongoing interview processes with companies you’re more interested in, there are five things you can do:

1. Inform the other company/companies

2. Stall to give yourself time through negotiations and due diligence

3. Push the start date

4. Accept and continue the interview process

5. Exit gracefully

He’ll be accepting the offer but keeping the line warm with the other companies he’s interviewing for in the event they turn into better offers.

Have you ever accepted an offer and continued interviewing? Did it turn into a job? If you have, shoot me a reply and let me know how you handled it.

Let’s go get you that job! 🏆

Kyle

Founder of Early

P.S. Whenever you’re ready, here are the three more ways I can help you this week:

1. Download the Clarity Playbook (FREE) - the exact process I walk every Accelerator member through to lock in their Role, Impact, and Company before they ever write a post or send a resume. Start here!

2. Use the Proof of Work Finder (FREE) - this prompt finds the highest-leverage Proof of Work you can create for a target startup, builds it with you, and pressure-tests it so it doesn’t read as generic. Send your Proof of Work to the team and create a huge gap between you and the second-place candidate.

3. Apply to join the Early Accelerator - Get coached directly by me, surrounded by a community of hundreds of badass startup operators. This is everything I learned when landing my role as Uber employee 250 and transitioning post-layoff to a Series A with top VC investors. We give you everything you need to make your startup job search a success. Structure, accountability, strategies, investor-grade company data, target company lists, negotiation assistance, everything to help you win.