You’ve got a new job offer and your company outbids your prospective employer to win you back. How do you feel. Elated? Smug? Absolutely sorted for the foreseeable future?

What you might want to consider are the downsides;

• Employers who have been let down will often blacklist you – and recruiters may be sceptical the next time you approach them.
• You may damage your reputation in the market, particularly if you are in a senior position and well known.
• Your current employer will inevitably want you to prove that you are justifying your new salary and/or position. As will your colleagues.
• There will be reasons why you want to leave the company – can money or a better pension package make it worthwhile if it’s quality of life, personal development, values and happiness that may be at stake?

So, think long and hard about why you want to leave your current company. If you have issues with your employer – maybe your boss, your salary or the way things are done, then a frank and honest conversation with them can often improve things. Do this before looking for a new role or as early in the recruitment process as possible and then decide how you will respond to a counter offer and stick to it.