Handling Multiple Job Offers

Congrats!!!. It's a great feeling to have more than one job offer. But the worst part is the confusion that it creates in selecting the best one.

Selecting a company to work with is more individualistic in nature and it will probably have great impact,either positive or negative, on your career.

Since it a very crucial decision, you need clarity in thinking. It's best advised to think on paper. Sit down with a plain sheet of paper and decide on the criteria's that are dear to you. Prioritise each of the criteria.

Some of the below listed could be a good canditates for your criteria.

1. Financial Package Offered.
The better the package the better we feel. But there are lot of other factors which should be equally weighed.

2. Growth Oppurtunities.
You should know about organisational structure of the company. Ask whether promotion is based on purely performance? Some software companies ,like govt jobs, still have minimum timeframe for a promotion, for example you should have served in the same position for atleast 18 months to get promoted.

3. Domain Knowledge.
A chance to work and gain knowledge in a domain like Banking, Insurance, Telecom or Supply Chain should be treated as a very good oppurtunity. Hence know on what domain you would be required to work on.

4. Working Hours.
This is highly individualistic. Some people like to slog to grow quickly and some people doesn't want to spoil personal life for anything. It's your call on work-life balance. And most software companies have demanding working hours.

5. Workplace learning.
Most companies have a very good internal learning program structure. A good company should have fixed number of days allocated for on job training. These trainings could be on soft skills, technical certifications, workshops,etc.

6. Travel time to office.
Travel duration is becoming more important due to heavy traffic snarls in all major cities. Four years ago, I used to reach my office, a distance of 4 kms, in 10 to 15 minutes. Today it takes 30 to 35 minutes on peak hour traffic. For this very particular reason, i have cultivated a good habit of starting early to office and coming late to avoid traffic. Travel duration is a pure time waste unless your vehicle is being chaffeured!!

7. Workplace atmosphere.
Software companies have revolutionised the look and feel of indian offices. The atmosphere should be fun filled rather than being dull. You would have already gauged on your visit to the office for the interview.

8. Onsite Oppurtunities.
Some people crave to get settled in a foreign soil for monetray benefits and some like to go on a month or two short term shuttles.And a few people dont want to travel due to variety of personal reaons, eg pregnant wife, sick parents, etc So get to know whether you will get what you desire from the company.

9. Process Orientation.
A CMM certified company is far more process oriented than a company which is not certified. How does this bother you?!. A company without a well defined processes will exert more pressure on its employee's. But this could be also be used to your advantage, a startup company without well defined process boundaries will have overlapping roles and responsibilities, so you will learn more. My first job was with a small start-up banking software company where i captured requirements,wrote code, tested others code, interacted with users and even doubled up as a Websphere administrator. That was a great learning experience.

You could think of many other factors which have not been mentioned above. List them also and prioritise.

A company which satisfies your high priorities might be the best suitable job. But be prudent and take a wise decision.

All the very best.