By Chelsea Babin

When you’re in the midst of the hiring process, it’s easy to see things from only one perspective: yours. However, taking a step back from that and seeing the common thought process of a top technical professional who has just received an offer from your company may help you ask more effective interview questions, explain the position and details about the company more thoroughly, and increase the rate of IT professionals who respond with an enthusiastic “yes” to your offer! Here are 10 of the most common things top technical professionals will consider before accepting your offer.

1. Will I Be Able to Learn and Grow in This Position? For most top technical professionals, this is the key question and the first they’ll ask themselves. Is there room to learn on the job and grow their skills? Will they be able to use the cutting-edge technology and innovative processes they love? Can they grow their career at your organization or will they have to jump ship in two years when they’re ready to be promoted to a Lead role? Make sure you communicate all of the training and education opportunities your company offers, what technologies they’ll be working with now and can look forward to using in the near future, and if there’s any room for them to grow or be promoted from within during the interview process.

2. Is it the Right Time for Me to Switch Jobs? While most IT professionals will ask themselves this question before they begin their interview process, they may have stumbled across this opportunity at your organization when they weren’t in the middle of a traditional job search. If that’s the case, they’ll need to evaluate whether or not it’s a good time for them to switch jobs and there’s very little your organization can do to make an impact on this consideration. However, offering relocation assistance or a shorter window before they can access health benefits may help ease their minds and pave a smooth path for this career transition.

3. Can I Maintain or Improve My Current Lifestyle? No one wants to take a major lifestyle downgrade, no matter how enticing a new job opportunity may be. This question will definitely come up when a top technical professional is evaluating your job offer and, if they can’t maintain or improve their current lifestyle due to major cuts in salary, PTO, or other crucial benefits they’ll be more likely to say no to your offer. This is why it’s so important to keep up with the joneses when it comes to benefits and offering a competitive salary.

4. Do I Feel Like I Fit In With the Company Culture? Communicating your company culture is one of the best things you can do during the interview process. That way, when a top technical professional is evaluating your offer of a new job, they’ll be able to easily picture themselves within your organization and figure out if they’re a good fit. While you’re searching for this too, you presumably wouldn’t make the offer if you feel like they’d be a bad fit for your company culture. Make sure they see what you see!

5. Have I Been Offered a Fair Salary for the Value I Bring? Because a lot of companies don’t lay out salary specifics until the job offer is made, this is typically one of the most common evaluations a top technical professional has to make before accepting your offer. Staying on top of industry trends, understanding what they’re currently making, and getting a thorough idea of the value they’ll bring to your organization will all come into play here. If you’ve offered a fair or competitive salary and the IT professional is eager to work with your organization, they’ll probably say yes right away!

6. Will I Enjoy the Work I Have to Do Every Day? Laying out the details of upcoming projects and what day-to-day work life looks like at your organization can really help top technical professionals picture themselves at your company. If not, they may be left wondering whether or not they’ll enjoy the work they’ll be doing every day at your company. If they don’t have a clear positive answer, they could turn down the offer or accept and quit quickly after discovering they didn’t enjoy what the job entails. For the sake of keeping your turnover low and hiring the right people, make sure you offer day-to-day details.

7. Will I Have a Good Work-Life Balance? While a competitive salary is a crucial part of the equation, a good work-life balance is often held in equal or higher regard. If you offer work-life balance improving benefits like flextime, partial telecommuting, unlimited or ample PTO, summer Fridays, or others make sure to mention these during the interview process. Additionally, if your organization is the kind of place where overtime is frequent and expected, you need to communicate this now so each technical professional can evaluate whether they feel they would thrive in that situation or be miserable and quit quickly.

8. Can I See Both This Company and Myself Succeeding For Years to Come? Most top technical professionals want to stay with a company for years to come but, in order for that to happen, they need to see both themselves and the company succeeding together. If you haven’t laid out any clear path for the future of your organization or its current stability during the interview process, this may be difficult for them to assess.

9. Are They Offering the Benefits I Really Need? Whether it’s health insurance or a match on a 401k, some benefits aren’t just nice to have but absolutely essential, depending on the technical professional. If your suite of benefits is lacking, you may get a lot of job offer rejections from top technical professionals who don’t feel their needs can be met at your organization.

10. Do I Like and Get Along With the Team and Managers? Ultimately, likability comes into play a little bit when a top technical professional is evaluating a job offer. No one wants to work around a bunch of negative Nancy’s or get stuck working with a micromanager. From what they’ve gathered during the interview process, they’ll evaluate whether or not they feel like they can and do get along with your existing technical team, their managers, and you!

Now that you’ve walked ten questions in a top technical professional’s shoes, you can see how much they’re evaluating and what they’re really trying to process before accepting or rejecting your job offer. Hopefully this will help you communicate more thoroughly and accurately the essential details of each position during the interview process and evaluate what you’re offering to lure the best of the best techies to your company.