Should I accept a counteroffer after resigning?
A massive counteroffer rarely fixes the burnout, lack of authority, or deeper issues that originally made you want to leave. Employers often refuse fair compensation or reasonable accommodations until you actually resign, forcing you to prove your worth elsewhere just to get what you already deserved. By the time the offer comes, you already have one foot out the door and little reason to reward a company that made you fight for basic recognition.
What the numbers show
Counted from the threads quoted below. How we count
- This comes up 632.7× more often in r/careerguidance than across the site as a whole.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
Found another way around this?
Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.
- 1Resigning from the current firmDid this help you?
- 2Evaluating external offers from other established firms or small practicesDid this help you?
- 3Seeking advice from peers on how to evaluate career risks and leadership changesDid this help you?
- 4Rejecting the counteroffer and proceeding to a new company because the relationship is already damaged.Did this help you?
- 5Getting an external offer purely to force management to use a separate retention budget.Did this help you?
- 6Accepting the counteroffer but treating it as a temporary measure while continuing to look for a new job.Did this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“I would've agreed to about a 10% increase initially but they refused to up my salary of any percentage. After applying to other jobs and basically deciding to resign and simply use the time of unemployment to recover, the manager asked me what would make me stay.”source ↗
“My CEO was asked what he was going to do to improve retention and said "we're going to allow HR to give counter offers". So basically: go out and prove your worth. Then we'll consider a raise. Problem is I've got one foot out the door now. Probably wouldn't consider a counter.”source ↗
“If you make me go to all the trouble of leaving just to give me what I should be getting anyway to stay, why would I want to reward you for that?”source ↗
“I have a solid job and like my supervisor a lot, but when I asked to take 11 credit hours worth of classes while remaining at my 40 hour per week job, I was denied and she said I could take 8. Then I met with her and said I'm thinking of leaving the position entirely to go full time as a student and suddenly she could make it work.”source ↗
“By that point, though, I was burned out. I felt like I had taken on a ton of responsibility without the title, compensation, or authority matching what I was actually doing.”source ↗
“A massive counteroffer doesn’t automatically fix whatever caused me to want out.”source ↗