How to Choose Your Job Deal Breakers
This article is part of the Your Next-Move Profile guide.
Deal breakers are the conditions that would make you decline a role regardless of how strong everything else is. Every candidate has them. Most candidates have not articulated them clearly — which leads to wasted time, uncomfortable conversations and occasionally, poor decisions made under pressure.
Common deal breakers in skilled sectors
- Salary below a specific minimum — a number below which the role simply does not work financially
- Patch or travel beyond a certain radius — particularly for candidates with family commitments or high personal travel costs
- On-call frequency beyond a personal limit — some candidates will not accept any on-call; others have a specific frequency they can tolerate
- Specific shift patterns — nights, weekends, split shifts may be non-negotiable for personal reasons
- Lack of employment stability — some candidates will not join an employer with known financial instability or high turnover
- No training investment — for candidates who have training as a priority, an employer who offers nothing is not worth considering
The difference between deal breakers and strong preferences
Deal breakers are absolute. Strong preferences are negotiable if other factors compensate sufficiently.
The salary minimum is often a deal breaker. The company vehicle is often a strong preference — something you want, but might waive if everything else is right.
Being clear about which is which — for yourself, not just to state to an employer — is the foundation of good job-move decisions.