So you got a job offer but it's not your top choice...or it's not the best offer.

What do you do?

Ideally, you have built leverage throughout your job search and can trigger it to get another company to make you an offer and/or to negotiate for what you want. 

Quick story:
Once upon a time, I learned how to use my leverage to have companies scramble to make me an offer after they feared they might lose out on me.

It was such a sweet feeling. I have never looked back and I now make sure I always have leverage going into negotiations and offer conversations.

The secret sauce is to have multiple companies in similar stages of interviews at all times.

That way you can trigger leverage in your favor as you go into late-stage interviews.

Let me break it down, further.

1. Always be filling your pipeline
 

The best way to build leverage and get multiple offers is to keep filling your pipeline with potential jobs.

It's ideal to be actively interviewing with at least 10 companies at any given time.

This helps speed up your time to an offer and allows you to push companies forward if they are moving too slowly. 

If you don't have many opportunities going, disregard the rest of this post and fill your pipeline with more jobs. :) 

2. Keep companies in the loop

It's perfectly okay to email a recruiter and tell them you are scheduling interviews with other companies and you want to schedule the next steps with them if they are lagging.

Recruiters typically appreciate this and it signals you are competitive in the market and don't want them to lose out. 

If you are a top candidate companies will speed up their process for you. 

Generally speaking, if a company is moving fast it's a good sign.

3. Trigger leverage to get multiple offers

If you are in the offer stage with one company and want to get another offer do this - as soon as you get the verbal offer from company A, email company B and let them know you got a verbal offer.

Don't keep it to yourself, especially if other companies are close to the end of their interview process. 

It's not as helpful to do this if you just began interviewing with a company. They might feel like they can't keep up while also honoring their full interview process. 

But if you are in mid to late stages with other companies, tell them you got a verbal offer and ask if they could tell you their decisions asap. 

This is how you strategically use leverage to get multiple offers.

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SIDE NOTE: Want to learn more about how to negotiate your salary more effectively? Check out module 5 of my workbook.
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TBH leverage is everything in your job search.

If a company really wants to hire you, they'll figure out how to be competitive. 

Signaling you have leverage throughout the job search makes you a more compelling candidate and gives you more choices. 

Learn to play the job search game in your favor.

P.S. It's also okay to take a job that was not your first choice.

Want to know the job search process that helped my clients land at FAANG companies? I share my entire job search system in this workbook 👇🏾
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