Personal & Life
Offer Comparison Board: Decide Before the Deadline
Intermediate | 1 whiteboard page · Task board: 5 columns (5 parent tasks, 10 subtasks)
Intermediate: Method names appear, but the whiteboard explains the key points. Use the examples as a guide and fill it in, thinking it through for your own situation.
An offer comparison board for choosing between job offers before the reply deadline, opened when you hold more than one and cannot decide. The whiteboard holds the comparison and reply rules, a table lining offers up on pay, location, duties, growth and how you work, a quadrant of five-year growth against present comfort, a five-step flow to the reply, and frames on what to ask and how to decline. Five columns run from Offer received to Replied - one card per employer, moved on only when terms and answers are in, and Replied once every employer has been told, including those you decline.
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Offer Decision Board
How to use: (1) Write out every reply deadline, then fill the five columns of the table → (2) Move a card on once its terms and answers are in
1. The Goal (choose one before the deadline and tell the rest)
- Write the deadlines first List the reply deadline for every offer and let the earliest one set the pace. You are done when one is accepted and every other has been told.
- Confirm it in writing Copy pay, location, duties, and start date into the table only from the written terms. What you heard in a meeting waits until it arrives in text.
- Name what is blocking you Hesitation usually comes from missing information rather than from the terms. Write the one fact that would settle it and turn it into a question.
- Check what can be discussed How far terms can be raised at all differs a lot by region and industry. If they can, note what to raise; if not, note what to confirm instead.
2. Side-by-Side Terms (same five columns for every offer)
| Pay & take-home | Location | Role | Growth & review | How you work | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Offer A | Gross vs take-home | Housing help offered | Placed after joining | Coaching after entry | Some remote days |
| Offer B | Large variable bonus | Relocation with aid | Role is guaranteed | Personal growth plan | Onsite, fixed hours |
| Offer C | High base, no extras | Commutable from home | Broad remit, shifts | Criteria published | Discretionary hours |
3. Sorting the Offers (growth in five years against how settled you feel)
Vertical axis: Growth you expect in five years (low to high) / Horizontal axis: How settled you feel now (low to high)
- On hold (room to grow, something nags) The growth is there but the terms do not sit right. Name the one item that nags and test whether a question can clear it in time.
- First choice (growth and comfort both) Both are high, so make it the first choice and decide the order of the acceptance and the calls to the others in advance.
- Decline (neither now nor later) Little growth and little comfort. Write one line saying why and take it off, so you do not reopen it as the deadline closes in.
- Steady (comfortable, future unclear) The terms are fine but you cannot picture the years ahead. Ask what experience you would gain and add the answer in one sentence.
4. Five Steps to the Deadline (loop back to the questions when stuck)
- 1. Confirm Gather the written terms from every employer and agree that nothing verbal counts.
- 2. Ask List what the papers leave unclear, send it to one contact, and get the answers in text.
- 3. Compare Line every offer up against the same five columns and send blanks back to the questions.
- 4. Discuss Show the table to family and to a careers adviser and let them add what you cannot see.
- 5. Reply Choose the one you accept and the ones you decline, and reach all of them before the day.
5. Always Ask Before Deciding
- Ask whether the role and the site are guaranteed
- Get the pay breakdown in writing
- Ask which sites are possible and whether you would move
6. When You Are Rushed
- Never accept on the spot, ask in writing
- Do not drop others on the phone
- Ask why the rush and record the answer
7. How to Decline Well
- Tell them as soon as you decide, main point first
- One line of reason, no comparison
- Follow it with a short thank you
Task board contents
Offer received 15 items
Collect offer terms
The base for everything else. Where the written terms are missing, the comparison table stays empty and the decision stalls.
Request the papers
Get the written terms covering pay, location, duties, and start date from every employer. Note the day each one arrived and keep it.
List open questions
Mark everything you cannot follow in the papers and turn it into a per-employer list of questions. Always pick up the vague wording.
Ask what is unclear
Never compare around a blank. A question counts as finished only once the answer is back in writing.
Send your questions
Put one employer's questions into a single message and say by when you need the reply.
Get replies in text
Write back the key points of anything you heard by phone and ask them to confirm it. Nothing stays verbal.
Fill the comparison
Line every employer up against the same five columns. While one cell is still blank, you do not decide.
Estimate take-home
Compare what actually reaches you, not the headline figure. Note where allowances and bonuses are treated differently.
Check where you live
Look up the possible sites and any housing support, and fill the cell including the time and cost of getting to work.
Talk it through
Let someone else cover your blind spots. It counts as done once you have talked with the table in front of you.
Talk with family
Share the location, housing, and start date straight from the table, and ask what would be hard in daily life.
Ask an adviser
Take the table to a careers adviser and ask how it compares with where students went in the same field.
Reply by the date
The job ends with the messages, not the choice. Silence past the deadline also holds up the other candidates.
Accept in writing
Tell the employer you accept before the day the deadline falls, and put what you accepted in writing too.
Decline the others
Tell the employers you are turning down as soon as you decide, using the channel they have been contacting you on, then follow up with a short note of thanks. One line of reason is enough.
