Taking a Job Offer Now…But Still Looking for Another One [duplicate]

manpreet Best Answer 2 years ago

I am in a tough situation. My current job is going through layoffs. I don't feel secure in my position and I have been looking for a new position for about 7-8 months now. I finally got an offer that increases my salary by 10%.

However, I am not 100% sure it is what I want to do for the long term. However, I feel that I have no other choice. I'm exhausted with the search and the situation with my current job is not getting better.

Can I take the current job offer that I have on the table and still look at other opportunities? If I am offered a better job, I want to be able to take it. I am scared of what a short stint on my resume will look like. I've never stayed at a position for less than 2 years.

Please advise.

manpreet 2 years ago

Since you are getting an offer, it's time for you to sit down and work out what kind of skills and experience you expect out of it. As a rule, I don't take an offer from the next employer unless I can clearly justify why I took that offer to whatever prospective employer comes after my next employer.

I once took a systems engineering consulting job for no other reason that I needed to rebuild my cash reserves and buy myself some time to put my javascript proficiency at the point where I wanted it to be. And I got exactly what I wanted. And that's exactly what I explained to every prospective employer who came after that client. No apologies.

You might take this job offer because you can't afford the luxury of being unemployed, but it must clear in your mind why you are taking it. But taking the offer might work for you if you can explain to the prospective employer who comes after your next employer that it bought you time to look around, broaden and deepen your skills set and get ready for the next challenges.

The question is: how adaptive, resourceful and opportunistic are you, how good are you are make lemonade out of lemons, and how clear are you about your medium and long term career goals? Not that clear is OK - I can't see past five years myself :)

In general, I don't like leaving too early. But if Google made me an offer, I'd be zooming out of that door and woe to my boss if he is by the door pushing a walker - there are some opportunities in life that you just have to jump at :)