I’m interviewing and expect an offer from a company this week; however, I have 2 other companies I’m talking to, in different stages and I want to wait and see what may transpire. How do I juggle them?

Well, your question does show that the employment market is heating up as well as the fact you must be doing something right since it sounds like you may have more than one offer to evaluate soon. Those are the positives. The negative side is that our answer is you probably can’t juggle multiple companies effectively in this scenario without burning a bridge.

Timing plays a huge part in an effective job search and as you already know, interviewing for a job is a lengthy process, but when you have made it to the offer stage, the process typically speeds up and like a train, can’t be stopped suddenly just because you now have other options to explore. If you stall your first offer too long you stand a good chance of them withdrawing the offer or choosing not to make the offer at all. Human nature is that we always think there may be something better coming up than what we have now; the proverbial “grass is greener on the other side” syndrome. But like realtors will tell you when you go to sell your house, sometimes your best offer is your first offer.

When timing becomes an issue this far into a job search, I suggest you take a different approach and evaluate each of the opportunities on their own merit---not try and play one against the other. You need to focus on the job you want and not waste your energy or the other prospective company’s energy if you know the first offer is a good career move.

If the offer you are waiting for is not the role you want, your best scenario may be to just decline gracefully. Of course, you can ask your other two prospective companies if it may be possible to move up the interviewing timetable because of your potential offer, but that approach can backfire on you as well—they may not like to be pressured and tell you to proceed without them.

Honesty is always the best policy when dealing with future employers and even if the timing is wrong this round, if you handle the situation in an upfront fashion, you can avoid burning a bridge with a company that might have a great role for you in future years.

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