I was scrolling through Instagram recently when I came across a recruiter who confidently advised viewers to never accept a counteroffer. It was a bold statement, and judging by the comments, many people agreed. But it also made me pause.

After more than 13 years in recruiting, I’ve learned that very few career decisions are that simple. I’ve seen professionals accept counteroffers and go on to build long, rewarding careers with their employer. I’ve also seen people accept more money, only to realize months later that the reasons they wanted to leave never really changed.

That’s why I won’t tell you what you should do. Instead, I’d like to share the conversations I have with candidates when they call to tell me, “My employer made me a counteroffer.”

The Counteroffer Isn’t Where the Conversation Begins

Many people assume recruiters immediately try to convince candidates to reject a counteroffer. That’s never been my approach. Receiving a counteroffer doesn’t end our conversation—in many ways, it’s where the most important conversation begins.

As recruiters, our job isn’t to convince someone to leave. It’s to help them determine whether leaving is still the right decision.

When a candidate calls to tell me they’ve received a counteroffer, I rarely start by discussing the amount of the raise or the new title. Instead, we revisit the conversation we had weeks earlier. I ask them to remember what prompted them to return my call in the first place:

• What had changed in their day-to-day work?
• What specific frustrations were they experiencing?
• What opportunity were they hoping to find?
• What convinced them it was finally time to explore something different?

Those answers usually provide far more clarity than the counteroffer itself.

Why Employers Make Counteroffers

One of the most common pieces of advice you’ll hear is that employers only make counteroffers to buy time until they can replace you. While that certainly happens, I don’t believe it’s fair to assume that’s always the case.

Replacing an experienced employee is expensive. Recruiting, interviewing, onboarding, and training take time. Productivity often slows while a position remains vacant, and valuable knowledge leaves with every resignation.

Sometimes employers make counteroffers because retaining a great employee simply makes good business sense. Sometimes they genuinely value the individual and don’t want to lose them. Often, it’s both.

You’ll probably never know exactly what motivated the counteroffer—and that’s okay. The better question isn’t why your employer made the offer. The better question is whether accepting it still aligns with the career you want to build.

Questions Worth Revisiting

Rather than making a decision in the emotion of the moment, I encourage candidates to step back and honestly evaluate a few key areas.

1. Has anything actually changed?

If compensation was your primary concern and your employer has meaningfully addressed it, that’s certainly worth considering. But if your reasons for exploring other opportunities involved limited growth, communication, leadership, flexibility, work-life balance, or feeling disconnected from your work, ask yourself whether those concerns have truly changed—or whether they’ve simply become the focus because you’re leaving.

A counteroffer often comes with sincere promises. The question is whether those promises are supported by a realistic plan.

2. If I hadn’t received a counteroffer, would I still be excited about my new opportunity?

This is one of my favorite questions because it cuts through the emotion. Before your employer asked you to stay, you had already invested time preparing your resume, interviewing, evaluating opportunities, and accepting an offer.

What was it about that opportunity that excited you? Has that opportunity become less attractive, or has the counteroffer simply made the decision more difficult? There’s an important difference.

3. Where do I honestly see myself a year from now?

Imagine you’ve accepted the counteroffer. Fast forward twelve months. Can you picture yourself feeling energized, continuing to grow, and confident you made the right decision? Or do you suspect you’ll once again be wondering whether it’s time to leave? Your answer may reveal more than you expect.

There Isn’t One Right Answer

One of the reasons I wanted to write this article is because career advice is often presented as though every situation has a single correct solution. In my experience, it doesn’t.

I’ve seen employers respond to a resignation by listening, following through, and creating opportunities that encouraged exceptional employees to stay. I’ve also seen professionals accept generous counteroffers only to discover that while their salary changed, their day-to-day experience did not.

The difference wasn’t the counteroffer itself—it was whether it addressed the core reason they were considering leaving.

A Recruiter’s Perspective

One of the greatest privileges of being a recruiter is earning the trust of people during pivotal moments in their careers. Sometimes that means celebrating a new opportunity; sometimes it means encouraging someone to stay exactly where they are. Contrary to what many people believe, those moments aren’t disappointments.

If a candidate realizes that accepting a counteroffer is genuinely the best decision for their career, then we’ve accomplished something just as important as making a placement: we’ve helped someone make a thoughtful, informed decision.

After more than 13 years in recruiting, that’s what I believe this profession is really about—not filling jobs, and not convincing people to leave. It’s about helping individuals find the opportunity that best aligns with their goals, their values, and the life they want to build.

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So, should you accept the counteroffer? My answer probably isn’t the one you’re expecting: It depends.

Not on what I think, not on what another recruiter posts on social media, and not even on the size of the salary increase. It depends on whether, after revisiting the reasons you started your search, you can honestly say that accepting the counteroffer moves you closer to the career you truly want.

Because the best career decisions aren’t made in the emotion of the moment. They’re made with clarity—and sometimes, clarity comes from revisiting where the journey began.

Contact Abel Personnel today to discuss your career path.

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