Yes! A relationship with a company is no different than a relationship with your best friend. A company doesn’t have robots slaving for it, but people working for it. Sooner or later, some company is going to become your second home. As such, it is very important that you say no in the most pleasant way. Read further to know about how to decline a job offer in a courteous way:
Timely response:
Don’t wait for an age to pass through before you decide “now is the time”. Don’t freak out over how to decline an organisation. If you’ve made a decision, be courteous enough to inform them as soon as possible.
Manner of response:
Think about what you want to say before you call in or start typing on that declining letter. Call the person who offered you the job and address the letter to him or her only. Don’t blow the person away unprofessionally and for both cases. Avoid common slang while speaking and grammatical mistakes while typing!
Express gratitude:
No matter how unsuitable to the position you were, doesn’t matter how below your expected range you were offered the salary, doesn’t matter how much you despised their office or staff when you went in for the interview, and still doesn’t matter if you got the job of being a president of some high profiled company — what matters is they gave you a chance to work with them, when many of the companies out there didn’t.
Be professional:
Declining a job offer is not some obscene way for you to settle scores. Be professional and keep things like “less salary” or “office too far” away from your list of reasons. There might have been some option from the company’s side that you might have missed like — a quarter for you to live nearby or other benefits for proving a salary below your expectations. However, if the recruiter personally asks you about where you’ll be joining and at how much salary, tell the truth. Who knows, by knowing the name of the rival company, he/she might offer you a higher package and a better position.
Even saying no to someone has its share of etiquette. And now that you’ve read about how to decline a job offer, don’t blow away the company that wanted to invest in you, with just a shrug of the shoulders. Be professional!
