Two offers landing in the same week feels like a problem worth having, right up until you have to choose and the salary figures refuse to settle it for you. The instinct is to pick the bigger number and move on. Resist that, because the bigger number on the offer letter is often the smaller number once you have weighed pension contributions, the commute, the people, and how much the role will stretch you over the next two years. A £4,000 difference evaporates fast when one job has a generous pension match and the other expects you in the office five days a week across London.
Compare the whole package, not the headline
Lay both offers side by side on paper and force yourself past the base salary. Look at the employer pension contribution, the holiday allowance, any bonus and how realistic it is, the flexibility on remote work, and the cost and length of your daily journey. A typical mid-level role might sit somewhere in the £35,000 to £55,000 band depending on region and sector, but two offers in that band can differ by thousands in real terms once you total the benefits. Write the numbers down; do not hold them in your head.
Then weigh the things that resist a spreadsheet. Which manager did you actually warm to? Which team sounded like it would teach you something? Glassdoor reviews are noisy and skewed towards the aggrieved, but a consistent pattern across twenty reviews tells you more than any line in the contract.
Buying time and bowing out
You are allowed to ask for time. A polite "I'm genuinely excited about this and want to give it the consideration it deserves - could I confirm by Friday?" is reasonable, and a good employer will grant it without sulking. An employer who reacts to a three-day request with pressure or veiled threats has just shown you something useful about how they treat people.
Decline the other offer properly. Phone or email the person, thank them sincerely, and keep the door open - the recruitment world is smaller than you think, and the hiring manager you reject today may run a team you want to join in three years.
- Get the winning offer in writing before you decline anything else.
- Never use a competing offer as a crude bargaining chip; mention it only if asked directly.
- Trust the role that will make you better in two years over the one that pays slightly more today.
Pick the job, not the number. The salary fades into background noise within three pay cheques; the manager, the work, and the people you sit beside are what you will actually live with on a wet Tuesday in November.