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How To Politely Decline That Job Offer

If you need to know how to decline a job offer politely, then this article would be of help to you. How do you decline a job offer politely? Whether it is because you have multiple offers, or it just wasn’t the right fit for you or you just simply decided not to make a move. It is really stressful to reject a company, especially after you have gone back and forth, negotiating with them and building all these relationships.

Maybe as you were going through the interview process, you realize that the company just wasn’t the best fit, or you accepted another offer because you had multiple offers. Or maybe the salary just couldn’t quite get you to the point where you wanted to be for the next step in your career.

Interviewing is a time-consuming and tedious process. Many people have put a lot of effort into your interview process. For someone who is in recruitment, we know that recruiting requires a lot of effort, from resume and phone screening to interview panels and project vetting. The offering company is ecstatic to have you on board and is eager and hopeful to have you join the team. But you realised at the last minute that the job wasn’t the right fit for you. You need to know how to reject that job offer respectfully in such a way that you don’t burn any bridges.

After you have made up your mind and you are definitely sure that you are not going to take the job offer, the next obvious step is to send a message to decline the job offer. I believe it is better to have the conversations, either in phone or on person and if you have to, you can send an email.

Begin your decline with a gesture of gratitude and appreciation by thanking them for taking the time to meet with you and for providing you with this opportunity. Make sure to express your gratitude to the recruiting and hiring teams for their time and consideration.

Reiterating what you’ve learned throughout the process is always a good idea. When you do that, you are signalling to the company that you took this opportunity seriously by sharing your gratitude and lessons learned.

Say for example that you regret to inform them that you will be declining the job offer at this time. Make a list of the things you are grateful for, like if the hiring manager and the team seemed really nice, say so and just go straight to the actual reason why you are declining the offer.

For instance, if you have another offer that you have accepted because it aligned more with my career goals. You want to be concise and courteous, but you also want to be honest about why you’re declining. You should strike a balance between being clear and complimentary in your message because you never know when you might want to open that door again in the future.

The message should be sent to the person who extended the job offer to you, who is most likely the recruiter. Also, express your appreciation to everyone who took part in the interview process and how much you enjoyed meeting them. It will not cost you anything to be polite and kind to people who have invested so much time and efforts in interviewing you and expressing that they want you to be a part of their team.

Should you decide to send an email, here’s an example email that incorporates all of these suggestions:

Contact Name
Street Address
City, Post Code

Date

Dear Ms Rachael,

Thank you so much for offering me the opportunity to work at Global Works. I feel fortunate that I was offered the chance to join you all. Unfortunately, I will not be accepting the position at this time. This is because; I have decided to accept another opportunity that aligns more closely with my career goals and aspirations.

I would like to express my gratitude to you and the hiring team. It was such a pleasure and honour to be given such an opportunity. You have my best wishes in finding someone more suitable for the position.

If there is anything that you will like to discuss further, please do not hesitate to let me know and I would be happy to set up a call with you.

Sincerely,

Signature

Your Name

Have a look at the signs that you should decline that job offer HERE