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Book a demo (opens in a new tab)An accepted offer starts a countdown during which the candidate still works for a company that now knows they are leaving. Plan against the joining date.
In markets with 30 to 90 day notice periods, an accepted offer starts a gap in which counter-offers arrive, competing processes finish and enthusiasm decays. Treat notice as a screening question asked in the first conversation, and ask two separate things: what the contract states, and whether anyone in their team has negotiated it down. Track joins rather than offer acceptances.
In markets with two-week notice, an accepted offer means the role is essentially filled. In India it means a countdown has started during which the candidate remains an employee of a company that now knows they are leaving and has three months to change their mind.
Plans built on the offer date rather than the joining date will be wrong by an amount that looks like bad luck and is actually arithmetic.
Notice period is a screening question, not an offer-stage detail. It is factual, it takes ten seconds, and it changes which candidates are viable for a role that needs somebody in six weeks.
And it is two questions rather than one. What the contract says, and what the candidate believes is negotiable. Those are frequently different, and asked together you reliably get only the first.
| Ask | Not | Because |
|---|---|---|
| What does your contract say your notice is? | When could you start? | The second invites optimism. The first returns a fact. |
| Has anyone in your team negotiated it down? | Is it negotiable? | Precedent is knowable. A general question returns a hopeful guess. |
| Would you buy out the balance, or need it bought out? | Are you flexible on the start date? | Buyout is a specific mechanism with a specific cost. Flexibility is a mood. |
| What would your employer do when you resign? | Any concerns about the move? | Names the counter-offer before it exists, when it is still discussable. |
A ninety-day notice a candidate will negotiate is a different proposition from one they will not, and one question separates them.
Buying out notice is normal and worth understanding as a lever rather than an exception. The candidate pays the balance, or the new employer does, or the two split it. Whether an employer permits it varies, and precedent inside their own team is the best available evidence.
Where it matters is roles with a genuine deadline. Paying to compress a start date is often cheaper than the cost of the seat being empty, and it is a conversation almost nobody has because the notice period is treated as a fixed property of the candidate.
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