offers that explode

[optinewb]

Apropos of a few searches starting to show the first signs of movement (Denver, UMass) I wonder if anyone who has been through this before has any thoughts or advice on how to manage an offer (this was an optimistic day, at least until I saw the thread about 300+ applicants for an open position).

Specifically I'm wondering about what I think people have been calling exploding offers that only give you a certain amount of time to decide and therefore potentially put you in a tough position regarding other searches at places you might like better.

Any collective wisdom on this? Is it a common situation? Any techniques for managing it? Can you back out if something better pops up (optimistic day!) -- though that would probably screw someone else?

It seems like a bit of a hostile maneuver by a school, no? Then again, a job's a job.

[guido]

When you say "back out," do you mean accept an offer and then change your mind? I have been told that that would be extremely unprofessional and could damage your entire academic career. Not to mention the ridiculously tough spot you put the hiring institution in.

When you say "hostile maneuver by a school," do you mean a hiring institution giving you a deadline for deciding? Uh, why wouldn't they give you a deadline? They want to make a hire, and they don't want to lose their second or third choice if you say no.

[well]

Deadlines aren't hostile, but making offers early to strategically force people in a tough market to make a decision before they have a strong sense of their options could be.

Maybe nobody does that, and maybe I've been reading too much game theory, but it seems like there would be a decent incentive for a committee at middle tier research U to get their offer out fast in hopes of getting a candidate that might otherwise end up at a higher status place.

Unless it just doesn't work that way, in which case game theory has been defeated again but remains cool.

[blotto]

Deadlines aren't hostile, they're strategic and part of the process. You'll generally get an offer with a deadline of 1 to 2 weeks, at most. If you've had other interviews, you can use that time to contact the search committees to let them know you have an offer at another institution and that you need to make a decision. If you haven't had any other interviews, you have to just make a decision: take the job in hand, or go back into the uncertainty of the job market. If you accept, you're no longer on the market. To echo the other responses, it would be extremely unprofessional (and detrimental to your career) to accept a position and then back out for another position.

[well]

I see, so it sounds like you could get a sense of where things stand for you based on whether you get any interviews/how they went, and the interviews will usually have happened before offers go out.

Something like that. And yes, yes, "backing out" was not a thought through possibility. I was spit balling options, not considering them.

That helps!

[guess]

I'm guessing optinewb is talking about offers that expire very quickly. Although I have never experienced this personally, I've heard of situation where a small public university gave a candidate "till the end of the day" to decide. From what I heard about the situation, the dean making the offer was not very friendly and appalled that the candidate needed some time to think about the offer. It was a very low ball offer and the candidate wisely walked away from the offer, but you should know that such behavior exists even if it's very uncommon. My personal experience ranges from 1 week to 3 weeks (this took some negotiating).

[yikes]

People, in buyers markets like this, your window into the job market will probably look more like a sequential decision making process. (Yes, some superstars will get multiple offers around the same time, but let's face it, that is not the normal situation, especially in this market.) If you are a game theorist, you have to think of it that way, and remember that departments are in a buyers market due to PhD oversupply. In other words, you will never have perfect information, and it is a single-shot rather than repeated game situation.

I believe most departments would prefer to quickly have you decide for a very logical reason: so they have time to move on to the next viable candidate if you decline. In some cases, sure, they might be trying to grab great people early. But it is more likely to be that they have a pretty good looking 2nd, 3rd and 4th option, and they don't want to let you dick around, only to have you end up saying no and then find that their other options have already accepted other jobs. (Some smaller places apparently fly people out one at a time based on their ranking, and make offers right there if the person is acceptable, so those places have even more reason to have you decide quickly.)

For this reason, and to give you a terrible but apt analogy, you have to be like the girl going to the prom, and decide beforehand who you're going with, and whether you're going "all the way." Yes, I know that is terrible, but it is similar. Don't be the dork who waffles and can't decide, then times out on their deadline, hoping someone else is going to come along.

This also means you need to do at least a first pass on finding salary information and some other basic parameters to help you decide if they would meet all of your basic criteria, before you do the fly out. You won't have enough time to do tons of research, but at least figure out if the area, location and salary range would be acceptable, and please decline the interview if it looks like there is no way you would go there.

However, if you are the lucky superstar that ends up with multiple offers, have a look at this on the chronicle, because there is some good advice there about negotiating and other ways to buy time.

[unclekarl]

One should always be prepared to turn down an offer, even if its at the dream school that fits you perfectly. If a school gets *too* aggressive, its a sign that you may not want to take the job. It may take you another 6 months to find a place, but would 1) you rather be at a place where you are treated like crap, or b) hold out for something where you are comfortable. There are *always* options, if one is open to them.