There was an article on LinkedIn today about the same topic. http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20140113134951-69244073-it-s-time-to-eliminate-explodin

There was an article on LinkedIn today about the same topic. http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20140113134951-69244073-it-s-time-to-eliminate-exploding-job-offers?trk=RSS_Feed_Pulse http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20140113134951-69... Let's separate the world into 2 camps: experienced hires, and college hires. Experienced Hires should always have a reasonable period, but it shouldn't be definite. By the time you get an offer, you should have a decent enough idea on whether you'll accept it. A week should be enough to consult an attorney, talk to your spouse, and give you firm a chance to counter if you so desire. If you are up front about other places that you're looking at (especially if you were talking to them first) then perhaps you can ask for a week more, but it's delicate. You can't ask for more time if you've been saying "You're the only ones I'm talking to, because I'm not in the market" even if you are coming from a stronger position. College hires are different, because as a population they are both easier to abuse, and more likely to engage in unprofessional behavior (saying Yes to multiple firm, or reneging). It's in a company's best interest to know which interns are coming back, so they can plan Fall recruiting in an organized fashion. (Do I need to hire 5 more people, or 15?) Schools know that this puts undue pressure on their students. The best schools with the strongest placement offices can make policies that say, "You have to let offers stand until X weeks into the Fall semester." If a firm wants to hire from MIT, they'll follow it. Weaker schools can't get away with this. What happens, then, is big companies that can play the yield game better ("I'll convert 70-80% of intern offers, 50-60% of campus offers, so to get to a class of 18-20 I'll make 10 and 12") recruit at the strong schools, while firms that can't tend to go to other schools, or off-cycle recruiting.