When a candidate that you were really excited to onboard rejects their offer letter, what do you usually think is the reason? I don't know why, but I'm so shocked and tbh, mentally disturbed thinking about why this one candidate, whom I thought would be amazing for our team, decided against joining us. I don't think it's the pay because she was extremely happy with what we offered. Or at least, that's what she said....

Even if someone seems "extremely happy" with the pay, there are so many other factors at play. They might have received a counter-offer from their current employer they just couldn't refuse – sometimes those are incredibly aggressive, and it's hard to compete. Or, they could have landed an offer from their dream company or industry, even if it wasn't their top choice initially. Sometimes, it's simply about better benefits, a shorter commute, a more appealing team culture, or a clearer career growth path that another opportunity presented.

Honestly, it's a gut punch when a top candidate declines an offer, especially when you've invested so much time and energy into the process. We've all been there, mentally replaying every conversation. Truth is, you'll never know ...

Be honest with yourself - do you truly think your offer was top of market?

Yeah it's tough when that happens. And I was honestly the other side at one point. What happened was I got a better offer. So most likely something shifted on their end and most likely that is they got a better offer or an offer from a company they have been wanting. We all know people are taking multiple interviews and it's just part of the job.

it's tough when that happens but they probably received a better offer elsewhere, or decided the fit wasn't great

As one who turned down a fantastic offer from a company I truly believe I would have been a good fit for, sometimes it’s just a single thing that makes the decision.

In my case, the offering company worked incredibly hard to give me everything I asked for in the offer. Everything, that is, except the one thing they couldn’t give me. Health insurance with the same company my current employer provides. And they tried to make up for that by giving me a differential increase in base salary that would have mostly offset the cost of buying insurance on our own.

If it had only been myself and my husband who would have been impacted I would have taken the offer in a heartbeat. But my oldest kid is on the spectrum and has had the same doctor their entire life. I didn’t want to impact them by changing everything and by putting a gap in their care while we sorted out the coverage. And that was enough reason to turn down the offer.

I still believe I would have been happy at the offering company. The team is fantastic, we clicked well, and I felt really bad turning down the offer. The hiring manager and I are still connected on LinkedIn and still chat.

My current company (the same one I was with during the interview process) still has no clue I had the very tempting offer in hand. I chose not to use it to try for more at my company because that is not what I did the interviewing for. Plus my employer compensates me very well already and the offer wasn’t a significant net raise (maybe 5% increase from my then current salary). I make significantly more now than I did then because of my promotion to VP last year, which came several months after I turned down the offer in question and was a bit of a surprise.

At the end of the day, my choice had nothing to do with the company and everything to do with my family.