Is it okay to tell the employer that you'll want some time to consider the job offer first before accepting it after you have been offered the job??

of course it is..

just make sure to say it in a nice way

I can't see why not. Who are you afraid of? The employer? They are just human and you also human. You do know about human right, do you. A good company can understand that. Nothing to worry.

yes, it is okay to tell them that you would want to consider the job first. just remember to tell them when you can give them a reply. Dont wait too long though.

Should be alright as long as you haven't sign the contract. They will give you a certain period before proceeding to the next candidate.

If they call you with an offer, and if they ask you, would you like to accept, you can respond something similar to this:

"Yes I accept pending my reading of the offer letter"

Never accept a job without reading the offer letter first. The offer letter will typically come with a statement, indicating how many days you have before you need to return the letter to the employer. Take that time to decide.

^ Sometimes I stumbled across companies which do not allow me to bring back the offer letter for thorough reading. They want me to sign there and then.

Normally, if they ask me to sign on the spot, I will decline the request. Unless that is a job I really want.

But so far I have not encountered any such company..

I have encountered twice so far..

Me : Would you send a soft copy of the offer letter to me via e-mail?
HR : May I ask why?
Me : So, I could read it thoroughly
HR : I'm afraid I can't do so.
Me : How about I go the office and collect the offer letter back home to read?
HR : No you can't. You can't bring it home.
Me : *WTF??!! Getting annoyed* Why is that so?
HR : It is our policy to do so. You have to sign it on the spot. Whatever requirements you need will be discuss there and then.
Me : No. I wouldn't want to sign there on the spot. I would like to read it thoroughly for a day at least.
HR : I'm afraid I can't fullfill your request
Me : *Very annoyed with their so=called policy by now* No. Then I wouldn't accept the job at the time being.
HR : If you insist so, probably I could ask my HR Manager regarding this matter.
Me : Nvm then. I reject the offer then. *Engage the line*

How to encounter this problem??

This post has been edited by goliath: Jul 18 2006, 06:13 PM

usually this kind of company dont have good benefit and with "bad policy" that are not fair to employee. They use whatever reason to make you cannot read it clearly before you sign the agreement.
it is correct that you didnt receive the offer

^ This causes me no job till now

Yeah. One more thing,

Me : Why I can't take it back home for thorough reading?
HR : It's our policy. People will use this against us *practically what they meant is they will be sued / extortion or something like that. I pun tak tahu.. *
Me : *WTF???!! Something fishy going on here * Nvm then..

This post has been edited by goliath: Jul 18 2006, 06:27 PM

Normally they will give you one week to consider that offer. 2 weeks also okay for some companies if you give them a valid reason

^ Unleash some valid reasons, please. I need some inputs

Like you're going oversea for a week or 2 weeks, then you have more time to consider lor! They normally accept it

oh, good to know that we still can consider their offer..

going to discuss the terms with my future employer tomorrow. hopefully they are understanding like described here..

This post has been edited by skullz): Jul 18 2006, 09:50 PM

I hope you are not fresh grad. In the sad state of affairs in Malaysia, the employer is the slavemaster. Sorry to say but we are Asians and will always be treated as slaves in the workplace.

Anyway, if we stand back and look at it, I believe its not that bad to go to the company and read their offer letter. Offer letters probably takes around 30 minutes to read at the most or even at the worst case 1 hour(This one only applies to MNCs). Then a decision could probably be made by then.

The most common is the hirer would want you to accept the offer as quickly as possible, keep stressing the urgency of the timeline of new employee training.

I don't mind signing it there. But, I'm afraid that there are hidden clauses which are quite deadly if you don't read/understand it properly. Don't get me wrong, I mean fresh grads don't know how an offer letter look like or how badly the clauses are hidden within. Silly mistakes will be made because HR personal keeping pushing you while you are trying to concentrate on the reading material. Furthermore, they'll twist and turn those words making it even harder to understand

This post has been edited by goliath: Jul 18 2006, 10:41 PM