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How to turn down a bad offer


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I'm a soon to be new grad who was recently offered a urology position. I never thought about going into urology but figured I would interview and consider the offer. The offer I received was terrible even for a new grad (I used the aapa new grad salary report to evaluate this offer) and I was wondering how I respond to turn this offer down. Do I simply say thank you for your consideration but I am declining or do I elaborate as to why I am turning the position down?

 

Here is the offer: 70K base salary with possible 5k bonus based on performance

                           10 days PTO

                            3 days CME

                            on call for 1 week (mon-sun) per month (without additional compensation)

                            full health benefits 

                            6% 401k match

                            malpractice coverage but NO tail coverage

This is in a large city in the southeast that has many PA opportunities. 

 

Thank you!

 

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If you like the position otherwise, come up with a counter offer (with your evidence!) and see what happens.  If they won't budge, then they will know that their offer didn't meet your expectations and you won't need to give them any reasons.

 

If you're not interested in negotiating, you can give them a generic 'I've decided to go a different direction'.  

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I would be blunt, polite, and firm:

 

"I'm sorry, but I was under the impression I was interviewing for a market-rate PA position. We appear to have wasted our mutual time, because the offer you've put forward is so divergent from current compensation trends that I can't in good faith even make a counteroffer.  If you are interested in pursuing me as an employee, I will entertain an actual offer, should you choose to make one after consulting current compensation trends."

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While I appreciate the above sentiment, I would not use as strong language as above - simply telling the employer you turned them down because the salary is not competitive with the market, is sufficient to get the message across.

Sure, it's sufficient, but what is the point: conflict avoidance, or getting fair compensation?

 

Walking away simply writes off all previous investment as a waste. If you confront them, nicely, with the fact that their offer is an insult, you will either 1) gain nothing, in which case you're no worse off than you were before, or 2) elicit a real, negotiable offer from them.  If the chances of outcome 2 happening are anything greater than 0%, you're better off with my approach. Mind you, if one is a conflict avoidance-oriented person unwilling to stand up for her or his own value, and there A LOT of such folks graduating from PA school, then the temptation to walk away vs. actually trying to rescue things can be quite high.

 

If the field isn't desirable enough to be worth negotiating over, of course, then do just feel free to walk away.  My approach assumes that, if compensation were adjusted appropriately, the OP would actually like the position.

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Thank you all for your input. I have responded to the employer by declining the offer and citing the AAPA salary report of new grads as a reference. Although urology is not necessarily my first choice of specialty, I am looking for something with a good combination of medicine and procedures which this position would have allowed. Had the offer been a little more competitive, I would have tried to counter offer but since it is so far off of the national average with salary and the majority of the benefits I do not think we would have reached an agreement and therefore I did not counter. I received quite a few other interview offers in different fields and I'm pretty sure (or at least hoping) that the offers cannot get any worse than this one. Thank you all again. 

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Sure, it's sufficient, but what is the point: conflict avoidance, or getting fair compensation?

 

Walking away simply writes off all previous investment as a waste. If you confront them, nicely, with the fact that their offer is an insult, you will either 1) gain nothing, in which case you're no worse off than you were before, or 2) elicit a real, negotiable offer from them.  If the chances of outcome 2 happening are anything greater than 0%, you're better off with my approach. Mind you, if one is a conflict avoidance-oriented person unwilling to stand up for her or his own value, and there A LOT of such folks graduating from PA school, then the temptation to walk away vs. actually trying to rescue things can be quite high.

 

If the field isn't desirable enough to be worth negotiating over, of course, then do just feel free to walk away.  My approach assumes that, if compensation were adjusted appropriately, the OP would actually like the position.

I guess my point was not to antagonize the employer. Having been on the hiring side in the medium past, I can tell you that if the employer is offering 20% below market (let's say), they are not going to increase the offer by 20% if the candidate points out they are below market. Instead, they will keep fishing until they get someone to accept the lower pay. When they have high attrition and inability to attract quality candidates, that's when they'll finally increase the pay rate. 

 

But you don't usually get that degree of rate rise, in a negotiation process.

 

I don't think of myself of conflict-avoidant, but as strategic - everyone has a different style, of course.

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I think of myself as "conflict seeking".....ok, maybe not all the time, but when it matters. I recently told the physician board of my primary job that they made a huge mistake hiring someone all the PAs present at this individual's interview said not to hire....they apologized for making the rest of us have to deal with this person.....who we will now probably have to go through a lengthy process to fire...

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I think of myself as "conflict seeking".....ok, maybe not all the time, but when it matters. I recently told the physician board of my primary job that they made a huge mistake hiring someone all the PAs present at this individual's interview said not to hire....they apologized for making the rest of us have to deal with this person.....who we will now probably have to go through a lengthy process to fire...

ugh, nothing worse than a bad hire. At least you have recognition (by management lol) early in the process. Depending on the environment though, can be a painful process to terminate someone (unless they're hired with a trial/probation period...).

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I guess my point was not to antagonize the employer. Having been on the hiring side in the medium past, I can tell you that if the employer is offering 20% below market (let's say), they are not going to increase the offer by 20% if the candidate points out they are below market. Instead, they will keep fishing until they get someone to accept the lower pay. When they have high attrition and inability to attract quality candidates, that's when they'll finally increase the pay rate. 

 

But you don't usually get that degree of rate rise, in a negotiation process.

 

I don't think of myself of conflict-avoidant, but as strategic - everyone has a different style, of course.

Your point is well taken--my idea wasn't to antagonize the employer, just give them direct feedback with opportunity for immediate correction: why else bother explaining to the employer if they're not going to get a job out of it?

 

Many of the PAs, especially new grads, who come here asking for advice have no idea of their own worth nor skill in negotiating.  That means a lot of new grads get reamed on their initial hire: low pay, poor benefits, non-competes, and unreasonably lengthy termination clauses.  Sad to say, but I suspect that plenty of employers know EXACTLY what they're doing by lowballing new grads.

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