[UncleMeat]

This is more "job cannon" stuff.

This works well if you don't urgently need income and have significant additional job prospects. The power imbalance between employers and employees means that "just avoid the businesses that exploit you" is not an option for a large number of workers.

The only way to actually defeat exploding offers is collective action.

[sammorrowdrums]

Perhaps you’re correct, but I’m not saying don’t take an offer from the company. More an advice to accept a little risk that the exploding offer won’t explode and carry on with your job hunt. My advice above was to keep as many cards in play as you can, and recognise where you have leverage (which includes sunk cost of qualifying you as a candidate to hiring company), and try to maximise that leverage as it normally gives you a better return than any in-role pay rise and promotion prospects once you start new role.

Recognising you don’t have much leverage and have no option but to be exploited is a sad reality to have to accept, but of course if your job prospects are not great then that can be the case, and then maybe at least you can wait until the last day before you accept an exploding offer, where you have more knowledge of how the rest of your interview pipeline is progressing.