How to Handle Multiple Offers (Hint: Don’t Ghost Employers or Text Them Your Rejection)

I like this recent WSJ article on managing multiple offers. Some good tips:

When juggling multiple offers, do communicate with the employers you are interviewing with. Be transparent but professional and thankful; tell them that you are excited and that you appreciate the offer. If you need more time, add that you would like an additional week because you are expecting another offer or would like to finish the process with others. This messaging is quite standard and will not insult anyone. If the prospective employer is not willing to wait, you need to either make a quick decision or recognize they are not that interested in you (they could have a close runner up that they are prepared to go with).
If you ghost an employer by failing to reply or show up or if you reject an offer by text, you are burning a bridge. Failure to communicate respectfully will be remembered for a long time.
If you need to buy more time, you can ask an employer for more details about the offer or the job. Asking about benefits or the cap table will always take time to research, for example. You could also ask to meet people for lunch, which will signal your interest and get you more time since meetings take time to organize.
If you tell your current employer you have another offer, they may counter, but be aware that if you stay, they may doubt your loyalty and derail your career. (See my post on how to bring up getting an offer elsewhere without derailing your career: https://www.susantiensearch.com/genius-way-to-ask-for-a-raise/.)