Have you ever turned down a job offer?

[Anonymous]

Yes. When my kids were very little and the logistics were tricky for me to balance with even part time work.

[Anonymous]

Yup, turned down what was for a long time my dream job: Foreign Service. Wanted it for a long time - through college and MA at GU School of FS. By the time I made it through the hopelessly long and disorganized intake process and had the final offer and start date in hand i looked at my life, a current job I enjoy, my spouse's career goals, our kids' situation here in DC and the mediocre pay package offered and I turned them down. I don't regret it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes. They called my current supervisor and asked for a reference. She said they kept digging for negatives and even insisted that "She can't be that good, there must be something bad that you are not telling us." I felt that it would be a toxic environment.

Something similar happened to me. The woman send an email to my former supervisor with a set of questions and my former supervisor forwarded it to me. The first thing I noticed was that my name was spelled wrong, it could have been a typo was still, a negative impression. Second, the reference request started with a negative premise, something along the lines like she is too good to be true. I was so happy my former supervisor forwarded the e-mail to me.

[Anonymous]

Yup, it was a very lateral move and they offered me about 10% more salary but I would have been working about 15% more hours, additional 15 minutes on my commute, and probably an increase of $40/month in parking. No thanks!