With other potential suitors in the wings, how long can you consider a job offer?

Q: A company makes you a pretty good job offer. They want a decision as soon as possible. What if you have other interviews scheduled within days after receiving the offer? What's an acceptable time period to consider an offer?

Nick's reply: Employers can take weeks or months to decide to extend an offer. Then they expect an answer within a few days.

I believe that two weeks is a reasonable decision period for a job candidate. However, the more quickly you decide, the more impact an acceptance has on the hiring manager. Though it's not always true, many managers just get a nice warm, fuzzy feeling about a candidate who accepts promptly. The candidate reveals that he's confident about the opportunity and ready to start work.

But the decision process can be more complex if other job offers are pending. That requires a bit of expectation management. There are two ways to approach this. One is the "bird in the hand" theory; the other is the "I'm in control" approach. Let's look at the latter first.

Once an offer is extended, you take control by immediately letting the employer know you are expecting other offers over the next two weeks. (It's not reasonable to stretch it out longer. An employer has a right to a decision within two weeks.) "I know you'd like an answer in three days, but I can't do that. I'm very pleased to have an offer from you, and I'm excited about this job. But I think it's to the benefit of any company I join if I consider this carefully. A careful choice will ensure I'm dedicated to the job once I come aboard."

This puts you in control, assuming you don't alienate the employer in the process. Now your challenge is to get all those other offers during the two week period, and to make a choice. That's not as easy as you might think.

The downside to the "I'm in control" approach is that you're responsible for abiding by the schedule you've set. It's hard to control those other employers. They may take weeks to make their own decisions.

This is where the "bird in hand" approach starts to sound more sensible. No matter how many other interviews are scheduled, you've got just the one offer. Everything else is speculation. You may not get any other offers. Consequently, the only decision you need to make is about the offer(s) you have in hand. That is, if there were no other possibilities, would you take this job now? Like it or not, that's reality: Pending interviews are not job offers in hand.

The potential fallout, of course, comes if those other interviews yield offers after you have accepted one already. Is it ethical to rescind your acceptance if a better offer suddenly materializes? That's a tough call. But I believe the honest answer is yes. We all have to make awkward decisions sometimes. In this case you must weigh several factors:

• One company acted first to hire you. Does it deserve your unqualified loyalty?
• Another offers more money. Is that your most important criterion? Is it worth quitting the job you accepted?
• Yet another offers a better job. Is that worth quickly moving on?
• Changing your mind may affect your reputation. Is it worth it?

Companies often find themselves in the very awkward position of laying off people when the interests of their stockholders clash with good employee relations. Likewise, an employee sometimes faces a career choice that will leave a company hanging. This choice usually rears its head when the individual decides to change employers after several years of service. But it can also surface when a second, better offer appears suddenly after the person has accepted an offer already. Is there much difference?

My advice: Make room for a two-week decision process if you can, but be ready to deal with the offer you have in hand when the deadline hits. If you have only one actual offer your only real choice is between yes and no.

Copyright 2009. Distributed by Universal Press Syndicate

Nick Corcodilos is author of "Ask The Headhunter: Reinventing the Interview to Win the Job" and the host of www.asktheheadhunter.com. He can be reached by e-mail at seattle@asktheheadhunter.com or at North Bridge Group, P.O. Box 600, Lebanon, NJ 08833. Sorry, no personal replies.