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NGPF Activity Bank Career #11

ROLEPLAY: How to Accept (and Decline) a Job Offer

After you decide which job you would like to take, the work isn’t done. It’s time to go through the process of accepting the job.

You must remember that you have a professional reputation to maintain, and how you respond to your new employer (and the companies you’re rejecting) will impact how you are viewed. Doing it the right way can allow you to keep doors open and maintain valuable relationships, while doing it the wrong way can hurt you down the road when you’re looking to make your next job move.

Part I: Guided Reading

This article, How to Accept and Decline Job Offers from LifeHacker, explores this situation in depth. Answer the questions below as you read through the article. When you are answering the questions, write the responses in your own words, in a way that demonstrates you understand the concept; do NOT just copy verbatim from the text.

Deciding to Accept or Decline

1. What are three reasons you might decide to decline a job offer?

How to Accept an Offer

2. What are the two mediums you should use to accept a job offer?

3. What must you ensure about your offer letter before sending it in? Why is that important?

4. Why do you think it’s important to inform everyone who played a part in the hiring process that you accepted your offer, not just your main point of contact?

How to Decline an Offer

5. How can declining a job offer turn into a positive as a professional?

Declining Because It’s Not a Good Fit

6. When should you ideally send a response to a company you’re declining an offer from?

7. Why would saying “I didn’t think your organization would’ve been a good fit for me. I wasn’t excited about the offer.” be a BAD way to decline a job offer?

Declining Because of a Non-Negotiable Offer

8. What are the two possible outcomes when you tell an employer you’re declining their job offer because it was non-negotiable?

9. If there is a follow-up conversation, when should it happen? Why is that the best time?

Wrap-Up

10. Why is it so important to leave every company or employer feel that their time was well spent considering you for a position?

Part II: Practice

Now that you know in great detail how to accept and decline job offers, it’s time to practice those skills. Imagine you were choosing between three job offers, and recently arrived at a decision. Now you need to notify the companies of your decision.

*Note: It does not matter what exactly the companies do. Feel free to pick real companies, or create fictional companies. The point of this activity is about your approach and tone in dealing with accepting and declining job offers

**Note: The LifeHacker article provides templates for how your responses should look. DO NOT copy those responses exactly. You should keep the main points the same, but please put your responses into your own words.

Accepting your Choice Offer

Your first task is to notify the company that you are deciding to work for.

11. First, you must call your main point of contact. Below, write a script for what you would say to them when you call them on the phone.

Script You: Main Contact: You: Main Contact: You: Main Contact: You: Main Contact:

12. Assume their reply says: “That’s fantastic! So excited to have you join the team!” How do you respond?

Script (continued) Main Contact: That’s fantastic! So excited to have you join the team! You: Main Contact: You: Main Contact: You: Main Contact:

13. The next step is to notify other people who helped you during the hiring process. Below, write an e-mail thank-you note to someone who helped you during the hiring process.

To:

Subject:

Declining the Other Offers

Now you must notify the two companies whose offers you are deciding to decline.

14. The first company you are notifying gave you a non-negotiable offer. You were hoping they would change some of the terms of their offer, but they did not. Write a script for what you would say to your main point of contact informing them that you are declining their offer.

Script You: Main Contact: You: Main Contact: You: Main Contact: You: Main Contact:

15. The second company you are notifying was just not a good fit. Write an email to someone who helped you during the hiring process (not your main point of contact) thanking them.

To:

Subject:

www.ngpf.org Last updated: 7/6/18

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