Posted: February 23, 2026You’ve handed in your notice. Your employer comes back with more money. Now what?
It’s one of the most common and most consequential situations a construction or engineering professional can face. You’ve gone through a recruitment process, you’ve accepted an offer, and then your current employer suddenly finds budget they couldn’t locate before. The counter-offer lands on the table, and the decision feels a great deal more complicated than it did an hour ago.
At Sonas Technical, we’ve navigated this moment with hundreds of candidates across every level of the Irish construction and engineering sector. The patterns are remarkably consistent. And the data, when you look at it honestly, makes for sobering reading.
Why Counter-Offers Happen
Let’s be clear about what a counter-offer usually represents. In most cases, it is not a sudden recognition of your worth. It is a short-term retention measure driven by the inconvenience and cost of replacing you. Hiring a replacement, factoring in recruitment fees, onboarding time, and the project disruption caused by your departure, is expensive. Matching your new salary is, in many instances, cheaper and faster.
That is not cynicism. It is simply the commercial reality of how most businesses operate. Understanding that context matters when you are weighing your decision.
How Irish Construction Employers Typically Respond
In our experience placing professionals across contractors, consultancies, and public sector bodies throughout Ireland, counter-offer responses broadly fall into a few categories.
The most common response from larger contractors is a salary match, sometimes with an additional sweetener such as an accelerated review date or a vague commitment to a more senior title. These firms typically have more financial flexibility and are also acutely aware of the cost of losing experienced site staff mid-project.
Smaller firms and SME contractors, by contrast, often respond more personally. The counter-offer may come directly from a director or owner and may lean more heavily on loyalty, relationship, and the candidate’s role in upcoming work. These conversations can feel more compelling in the moment and are often harder to walk away from.
Public sector and semi-state bodies operate differently again. Structured pay scales mean a true counter-offer, in the sense of a salary uplift outside of agreed increments, is rarely possible. Instead, the response may take the form of a promotion discussion, a role restructure, or an offer of additional flexibility. Worth noting, but generally less financially competitive than private sector alternatives.
The Statistics You Need to Hear
This is the part of the conversation most candidates would prefer to skip, but it matters. Industry research consistently shows that the vast majority of professionals who accept a counter-offer leave their employer anyway within twelve months. The most commonly cited reasons: the underlying issues that prompted the job search were never actually addressed, the relationship with management changed after the resignation, or the promised changes simply didn’t materialise.
We see this play out regularly. A candidate accepts a counter-offer, stays for six months, and then re-enters the market, often having damaged their relationship with the new employer who had already begun the onboarding process in good faith.
The question is rarely “is this more money?” The answer to that is almost always yes. The question is: “does this money change the reasons I decided to leave?”
When It Might Be Worth Considering
We would be doing you a disservice if we told you to categorically dismiss every counter-offer. There are scenarios in which accepting makes sense.
If your decision to move was driven almost entirely by salary and nothing else, you are genuinely happy in your role, you respect your leadership, and the culture suits you, then a meaningful counter-offer deserves serious consideration. Similarly, if a significant personal circumstance has changed between accepting the new offer and receiving the counter-offer, that context matters.
But these are the exceptions. In the majority of cases we encounter, the original decision to explore the market was triggered by something more than money: a lack of progression, a difficult manager, a project pipeline that felt stagnant, or a sense that the firm wasn’t going anywhere particularly interesting. A pay increase does not fix any of those things.
How to Handle the Conversation Professionally
Whatever you decide, handle it with professionalism. If you are declining the counter-offer, be clear, be grateful, and be brief. You do not owe a lengthy justification. Something along the lines of: “I appreciate the offer, but I’ve made a decision and I’d like to honour the commitment I’ve made” is more than sufficient.
If you are accepting the counter-offer, contact your new employer as promptly as possible and be honest. These are small sectors in Ireland. Bridges worth keeping should be kept carefully.
Our Honest View
At Sonas Technical, our role is not to push candidates through a process for its own sake. When we invest time in matching a professional to the right opportunity, we do so because we genuinely believe it represents a step forward for them. A counter-offer, more often than not, is a step sideways dressed up to look like progress.
Trust the reasoning that brought you to the market in the first place. And if you’re unsure, speak to your consultant. That’s exactly what we’re here for.
Thinking about your next move in construction or engineering? Register with Sonas Technical at sonastechnical.com or upload your CV to speak with one of our specialist consultants.