New employer trying to take you out of the market?

At this time of year there are plenty of offers flying around. People keen to get the right person in place before that big registration month, others keen to catch up on time they have lost of the start of the year. And very often employers like to make absolutely certain that they have taken the right person out of the market immediately, they don't want them being tempted by something even better from somewhere else. It is the eternal dilemma, the job is not a bad one but they need the answer in two days. But you have been honest with them, and have explained that you have two more interviews next week for jobs that you are interested in. How do you proceed? I would always prefer my candidates to be upfront, and say that they are really interested in the opportunity but they will not make their mind up under any circumstances until they have explored the other opportunities. The new employer can either now back down or insist that a decision is made. And this is where it gets tricky for them and not so much for the candidate, because they run the risk of the candidate accepting the job, promising to take themselves off the market and simply ignoring that instruction. A bit like with house-buying, where your absolutely “definite” buyer melts away for no reason at all. Or rather because they have seen something better. There is not much you can do about the situation, except that the more pressure you put on, the more it is going to happen. Would I ever advocate a candidate going down this route? No. But I recognise that there are times when a candidate has to think of their career, and not of the niceties of the situation. You haven't joined, you have been put in a difficult situation so you have told everybody what they want to hear, for the moment. It isn't right, but it happens a lot.