All,

So it has come down to this situation:

1. Job offered, Accepted, CPG Company (Dairy), +17% increase on base salary, no bonus (yet), job promotion within 12-18 months. Supposed to start job March 23rd. 500mm-1B in revenue yearly. Travel 1-3 times a year. Broad organization.

2. Job not offered, between me and someone else, CFO is calling references tomorrow, and making decisions, Restaurant/Franchise industry, potentially +17-20% bump on base, some sort of bonus (unsure on %). $5-$10mm in revenue yearly (big time growth opportunity). No travel. Flat organization.

So I make X salary with a 10% bonus currently with a F500 CPG company (6b+ revenue). MBA. 3+ years FA experience with CPG and Food and Bev companies.

The problem with this situation is both commutes suck, 65 miles round trip for both companies. #1 is right near a major city aka big time traffic. #2 uses a tollway would be less congested.

I think #1 is better for the future. I can apply the experience to continue molding myself in the CPG world which is highly desirable.

Tomorrow is the big day, #2 will let me know if I have an offer or not....

If #2 offers 20% with a 5% bonus, would I be stupid not to take it? I am concerned about the industry and that the company is flat with no true Senior position to move into (yet).

If #2 offers, I will have to call #1 and tell them that I will not be coming into work on the last possible moment I can... horrible situation.

Looking for overall thought starters, things I should consider, help.

You should negotiate no matter what obv and then reevaluate

"Job offered, accepted..."

You have accepted an offer. What possible reason could you have for being so unprofessional as to renege? I'm assuming that you are relatively young and near the beginning of your career? If doing the right thing doesn't interest you, consider your self interest: it's a small world and you will run into these people again; do you want to be known as "that guy" for years or decades?

Sent from my HTC6525LVW using 2+2 Forums

^You answered your own post?

In return for a few extra percent a year, you have to :

- be a dick and potentially burn bridges
- take a job less suitable for your future/future earnings.

How is this even a decision?

Congratulations, you have a new job. Stop shopping and commit to what you've committed to. You're wasting energy.

Backing out after accepting a job is not nearly as big a deal as they are making it out to be. Nobody at the company will care; they will just offer the job to the next best candidate.

A promotion in 12 to 18 months is worth absolutely nothing; I would completely ignore that when making your decision

I would go with your instinct and take the 20% + 5% bonus if offered.

Until later in your career when you run into someone who remembers how you acted. Whether a hiring manager, or someone in HR, you will (at best) have lost an ally and possibly made an enemy.

Sent from my HTC6525LVW using 2+2 Forums

Disagree completely

You should always do what's in your best interest.

When I was in law school my career services office or whatever got all bent out of shape when they found out I accepted an offer and reneged when I got something else I preferred.

They said its unprofessional, that it could damage the relationship the school has with biglaw firms, etc etc. I explained to them - and what I will tell OP - is that these are organizations that will drop you the second it makes sense for them to do so. Don't feel bad for them because they won't feel bad doing it to you. And the end of the day, against the urging of my school, I just went ahead and did what I wanted.

That same year, some firms underestimated their offer/acceptance ratios and unexpectedly terminated some offers they made to students.

Feel free to ask those students whose careers were over before they started whether doing the "right thing " was worth it

Assuming you are <40 years old you should think long term IMO

I'm not talking about offending a company, I'm talking about burning a bridge with a person. I believe that should be in your long term best interest.

Sent from my HTC6525LVW using 2+2 Forums

I understand TiggerToo's point, I just don't agree. The idea that you should keep a job offer that you don't want / turn down a better job offer, to avoid burning some hypothetical bridge over a minor offense is laughable.

If you give them the ol' "I got another offer for more money, a bonus, and no travel," and they take it personally and hold it against you and years down the road use it against you, you can rest assured that you would have probably done something else to displease them even if you had kept the job, because they are a totally unreasonable person.

Edit: going to bow out, don't want to derail any further.

I'm not sure which one is best, but I do agree that backing out is not a huge deal if you have a better offer. If you do it the day before you are to show up or something, then it might be a different story. It happens all the time in every profession. It's not a great thing to do, but it's not exactly a capital offense either.

The 12-18 month raise is worthless. You should be shopping yourself around after a year looking for a pay bump and or a better title. I don't have experience using this strategy but my mom has.

She basically averaged a new job every 2 years always getting a pay or position raise. She went from a bank teller like 20 or 25 years ago to SVP level of fortune 500 companies making well over 225k-250k base with added bonuses and even getting a CCO position in a smaller company. She did that all with out finishing college.

The one time a job fell through because of someone she burned working their cost her a 400k job plus bonuses. She was pretty upset but as it turns out the company ended up on American Greed with the person who got the job instead of her got 2 or 3 years in prison.

Moral of the story is always be looking for the next better thing, you will move up faster than starting at a low level of a single company and trying to get promoted internally. You need to look out for yourself imo

Great comments. I am very young in my career. They are giving me upfront 10k sign on bonus (only 1 year contract). Looks like #1 is a go. One of my issues is that I have been moving around.

I ended up sticking to #1 option and I am 4 weeks in now. It would of been a huge mistake if I bailed. Great opportunity here. My boss is actually working on my bonus structure now (they paid out 146% last year).

Looks like I made the right choice all along. Commute is WAY easier than I expected.

Thanks for all the feedback