how to answer “is there anything that would prevent you from accepting an offer?” — Ask a Manager

A reader writes:

I recently had a recruiter reach out to me about a job. I’m not really looking right now, but I figured I’d see what they had to say. I had my first interview virtually, and progressed a few days later to an in-person interview. It went well, but towards the end, the hiring manager asked if there was anything that would prevent me from accepting an offer if it were extended.

Am I wrong to hate this question?

Side note: the recruiter had been very clear that I shouldn’t ask any questions about what the company can do for me in the interviews, as they would handle all negotiations for me. So while I did know the proposed salary, I knew nothing else about the benefits the company provided. I was therefore pretty uncomfortable answering this question, but basically said depending on the offer, I couldn’t think of any other reason not to accept.

I’m not proud of this, but that’s not strictly true. I did have some reservations, but how do you bring that up in an interview without tanking your chances? I work for a good company right now. Some things that could be better of course, but it’s not horrible by any means. There is obviously an opportunity cost to leaving the benefits and environment I’m sure about for something unknown. And I wasn’t even actively looking! There are myriad reasons why someone might turn down a job offer and I felt almost cornered. It left a bad taste in my mouth.

Ultimately, after receiving more information on the company benefits, which are almost all worse than where I’m at now, I withdrew my candidacy. I’m just wondering how interviewers expect people to answer that question. It feels like a gotcha. I’d love to know your thoughts.

It’s not a gotcha. It’s an attempt to find out if you have any concerns that they can address for you, and to gauge your level of interest.

It’s also an attempt to find out if there might be obstacles to you accepting that they’d rather know about now, like “I expect my employer will counter-offer” — which isn’t something you’re obligated to share, but they’re not wrong to be interested in knowing — or “I’m considering moving out of the country in May so I’ll need to figure that out first.”

Perfectly fine answers include things like:

* “I did want to know more about the balance of X work and Y work in the role. What portion of the person’s time do you expect will be spent on each?”

* “I haven’t had an opportunity yet to talk with the person I’d be reporting to, and I’d want to do that before accepting an offer. Will there be an opportunity for that in the hiring process?”

* “I know a lot of companies in the industry are struggling with X. How has the team been approaching that?”

* “I’d need to see the specific details of the offer, of course, but based on what I know so far, I’m very interested in the role.”