Every recruiter has faced this situation: a great candidate accepts an offer, and you breathe a sigh of relief — only for them to change their mind within 24 hours.
That exact scenario happened recently. One of our candidates verbally accepted an offer, then overnight chatted things through with their partner and mentioned it to their boss. The boss made a significant counter-offer, and by the next morning, the candidate had withdrawn.
For many hiring teams, that’s a nightmare. Especially for senior roles, where multiple stakeholders have invested four to six weeks interviewing, assessing, and aligning on the hire — only to find themselves back at square one.
Why You Should Always Have Two Finalists
At CN Sales Recruitment, we’ve built a simple but effective safeguard into our process:
we always aim to have two candidates at final stage — and ideally, two who could both be hired.
This does mean more effort from hiring managers. Scoring candidates becomes trickier, and it takes more time to evaluate two strong contenders. But the upside is huge:
If your first-choice candidate drops out, you have a ready-made backup.
You don’t lose momentum.
You avoid restarting a lengthy (and costly) process.
Even if one candidate is left waiting briefly, there are professional ways to manage that — and it’s far better than scrambling to rebuild your shortlist.
Manage Offers Carefully
Another part of our process: we don’t tell final-stage candidates about other offers until we have signed paperwork and a confirmed resignation. That keeps things tidy, professional, and avoids unnecessary pressure or speculation.
The Takeaway
If you’re managing your own hiring process directly, work hard to get two strong candidates to final stage. It gives you options, resilience, and peace of mind.
Because in recruitment — as in business — the best way to handle surprises is to plan for them.