Counter offers...

I would say if the offer was accepted, the offer was accepted. You don't go back and ask for more after agreeing to their terms originally.
If you were still talking, then sure, mention the counter offer and see where that gets you.

 

Ding ding ding. The key is he accepted the offer. You don't accept and THEN negotiate.

 

Again. What if he's not trying to negotiate, but just is telling them that they offered more money and he;s turning down their offer??

I can think of one prominent member here that was ready to take the SE job at another paper 500 miles away, and would have, but his gig offered a promotion and raise. He turned down the place he was going to move to.
He;s happy now and wasn't going to whip the new gig into more money, but he's still plagued with "what if" he went.

 

Advice Nelson Rockefeller would have done well to abide by.

Oh, and the rest of the post is gold too.

 

I don't think you can ask for more from the potential new employer after accepting their offer, but if you want to stay at your current job, just apologize to the new paper and say that your current work situation has changed and you've decided to stay.

 

Agreed. I had to do that after getting a job offer in a much larger market. I'd say it was all about happiness, but that'd be a lie, it was about the money. I accepted the offer, told my current employer, and they matched the offer. I truly had no intentions of having that happen, I really was putting in my notice, but hey, you gotta do what you gotta do. Unless your job really sucks, it is much less of a hassel to stay where you are at for a big pay increase. I really dreaded the phone call I had to make renigging on an offer I had already accepted, but like I said, you gotta do what you gotta do. That being said, I would not call to renegotiate. I would, as someone else mentioned, make a decision and stick with it. That's just me, however, and there really is no right or wrong answer on this one. But if you are worried about pissing someone off, a friend of mine gave me pretty good advice. Look, it's a 30 second phone call that really sucks to make, but you will feel 1000 times better when it is done. Rip that band-aid off and move on.

 

Even if they retract the offer, who cares? You still have a decent job.

 

slappy, I agree with you wholeheartedly. I read your "What if he's going back out of courtesy" after someone asked about going back for more money and I thought you were suggesting re-negotiating for something else.

That's the thing. Either you take the new job, or you turn down the new job and tell them why. But you can't go back to them with a "Hey, my old paper offered this and I was wondering how badly you want me" kind of thing. Doesn't work that way.

 

that's ok guys. I can take it. I still love y'all. Homey don't play that game, is all.

 

You've accepted already. You should have told your current shop that an offer was on the table, not that an offer was on the table AND accepted.

I was in a similar situation you're in. I was on a great beat for ok pay. I applied and was offered an SE job at a paper with problems. It is a larger paper and pay was substantially better than the old shop. The old paper counter-offered with a raise that was mid-way between what they were paying me and what the other paper offered.

I wound up taking the bigger money. The new job has been a challenge and, at times, a headache that makes me wonder if it's worth it. I don't think I could go back to the old shop for the same pay now. But I could definitely see myself going back from what their counter was. Not saying I am. Just saying it's more attractive now in retrospect. Of course, if I had taken the counter offer, I'd be miserable thinking about the money I passed on. Some things you just have to figure out the hard way.

 

I don't think he should go back and ask for more, just tell them that he's seriously considering his current job's counteroffer. They will indicate what they can do from there, be it more money or not. Maybe they chip in a little more for moving expenses or something like that.

This happened to me with a job in CT. Also in Washington, DC. And Indiana. All three times, everyone upped the ante.

 

Sorry, I'm with Elliotte...

It's awkward, sure. But he's absolutely right. These situations only come along several times in your career. Once you take the job, you have zero leverage.

You go to the paper that made the offer and say, "Look, I'm sorry about this, but after I accepted your offer, I got another, larger offer from my old place, and I just need to see what you can do."

If they say, "Screw you," well, then you're staying at the old place, which is probably what you'd like to do anyway.

I do agree with one part of what the dissenters are saying, obviously: If you have no intention of taking even the larger offer from the new place, then it's just a waste of everybody's time, and don't bother. But if they beat your old place's offer with one that's enough to change your mind, then that's your answer.