Should You Tell a Recruiter About Another Offer?

When you are looking for a new job, it’s important to always lookout for your best interest. While some recruiters are going to advocate for a high salary, others simply want to fill the open role as soon as possible. And that does not always translate into the best outcome for you, the jobseeker.

So, should you tell a recruiter about another offer? It’s complicated. Let’s go over the possible scenarios and determine if it’s a good idea. Sometimes it is. Sometimes it’s not.

When You Should You Tell a Recruiter About Another Offer

There are some situations when you absolutely should tell your recruiter that you have another offer on the table.

The first, and really the only, reason to tell a recruiter that you have received another offer is if you are already deep in the interview process.

Competing Offers, Negotiating a Higher Offer, and Illusion of Demand

Let’s take the example of Kelly.

Kelly is actively interviewing with three firms for a Project Manager role. She is in second rounds with two of them. If firm A makes a tentative offer, then it is imperative that Kelly let the recruiter that set up interviews with firm B know.

Why should Kelly do this? Well, for several reasons.

First, by letting her recruiter for firm B know, they can inform the company and let them know that Kelly has a potential offer. For many firms, knowing that other companies are interested in Kelly can motivate them to also want to hire her. It’s a basic psychology trick (one that skilled recruiters know to never overplay).

Secondly, it can create negotiating for a salary improvement. If Kelly was offered 90k at firm A, but deep down prefers the work culture and atmosphere of firm B, then her recruiter can oftentimes leverage that to make firm B meet or exceed the other offer. These counter offers happen all the time in executive search firms and it’s not unusual.

The other reason you should always tell your recruiter about another offer is to preserve the relationship.

Don’t Burn Bridges

The second reason you should always tell your recruiter about another job offer is to preserve relationships and not burn bridges.

Hopefully you land at a great firm and are there for a long time. But what happens if you need to go back and look for another role in the future? Don’t you think that the recruiter remembers you not letting them know about the other offer.

If you wait until the last minute to let your recruiter know you are taking another job, or worse, if you don’t let them know, then you’re going to burn that relationship.

Don’t you think the recruiter will remember having to explain to their client without any warning that you’re no longer available? It happens, but it’s professional to give them as much notice as possible.

If you simply ghost that recruiter, you will be labeled a do not call or do not use in their agency system. So, even if the recruiter you dealt with has moved to another agency, your record will be available to other recruiters.

You should always consider your relationship with the recruiter and their agency. It might be that you will connect with them in the future.

Recruiters do remember good candidates and bad candidates. If you’re someone who is easy to deal with, communicates well, and is open and candid with the process, they will not hesitate to work with you again.

When You Shouldn’t Tell a Recruiter About Another Offer

There are times when you should not tell a recruiter about a competing offer. But they are very special circumstances.  Let’s discuss:

When The Offer Hasn’t Been Solidified

There is no reason to inform your recruiter about an offer if it doesn’t exist. Just because you might hear (possibly from a competing recruiter) that a company is going to make an offer, until you receive something in writing or a confirmed verbal offer, you should proceed with caution.

Consider a situation where you hear from recruiter A that you are going to receive an offer. Then you turn around and tell this to your other recruiter. Well, they might cut you from the list of eligible candidates and inform the client you’re off the market. Remember, your recruiter wants to make a placement, so they might see someone else as more viable for the role if you tell them you have an offer on the table already.

If Your Recruiter Hasn’t Set Up an Interview

You also don’t have to tell your recruiter about job offers unless you have something scheduled with them. If you have just connected with a recruiter and are seeking work, but they haven’t presented you with any leads, then you don’t have to let them know the status of your other interviews.

If they ask you, sure, you can let them know. But if they touched base with you or vice versa for potential work, then you don’t have to keep them informed. Recruiting is such a fast pasted and busy world that inundating a recruiter with info, especially when they are not putting you in the job and interview pipeline currently is just noise.

However, you definitely should be open once they reach out to you. The faster you are to respond, the more attractive a candite you are to recruiters. So, be honest, and respond quickly so that in the future should you wish to work with that same recruiter they will have a positive memory.

If It’s a Lie: If You Don’t Have Another Offer

Just don’t play that game. Recruiters deal with so much deception day in and day out that they’re almost as cynical and as good as cops at detecting b.s.

If you don’t have another offer, don’t invest one. The best that can happen is that the recruiter believes you and just notes it in your file.

If you are planning on lying in order to negotiate a higher salary elsewhere, realize that alarm bells will ring and there’s the possibility that the recruiter might know that you’e making up a story. In that case, they will blacklist you as a troublesome candidate.

Even if the recruiter believes your offer, you’re playing with fire if you try and use a fake job offer to negotiate a real job offer. While some firms see a counter offer as negotiation, there are just as many firms in my experience that get turned off and will just cut ties and look for another candidate. The logic is that if the person is coming on board in a state of adversarial negotiation, it doesn’t bode well for them long term.

How Should You Tell A Recruiter About a Another Offer?

Alright, so now that we’ve covered when you should and when you shouldn’t tell your recruiter about another job offer, let’s look at how you should inform them if the case calls for it.

The proper etiquette is to always email them an update and make it as polite and specific as possible.

You don’t want to be one of those candidates who are vague threating with their emails. That’s the last thing a recruiter wants to deal with. It conveys a sense of instability and behavior that recruiters hate dealing with.

So, a polite email noting that during your interviews, you happen to be in round 2/3 with another company and they have extended a tentative offer.

If you’re recruiter uses text as a means of communication with you, then you can certainly update them via text, but an email with a dedicated subject line (unless your recruiter has asked that all communication be kept in an ongoing thread) is professional.

While most agencies use an ATS that integrates text messages into a unified dashboard, an email is still more professional.

What you want to avoid is sounding like you’re giving them an ultimatum. If they get that sense from you, then unless you are the only active candidate for the role, they’re going to cut you.

And, again, it all circles back to being professional.

The simple facts are enough. You don’t even have to tell them what the offer was unless you still want to be considered for another role.

If you have decided that you don’t want to move forward with their role, it is enough to politely tell them you received another offer and will be taking it. Thank them for their time and say you would like to stay in touch.

Can It Hurt To Tell a Recruiter About Another Offer?

I sort of covered this above, but wanted to give this it’s own space because some people skips sections, and this is an important thing to cover.

Yes. If you are not working and do not have a solid offer, it can only hurt you to tell a recruiter about another offer. Especially if the offer is not real or is not firm.

Your objective as someone who is seeking work is to land a job. Obviously you want to have the highest compensation possible, but be honest with yourself and with your recruiter.

If there is no other offer, don’t make one up. It will only hurt you and create a rift with the recruiter and anyone else at the agency you might ever work with.