If you're not counter-offered, can you conclude that you're rubbish?

If you try and leave your job, you have a three in four chance of being offered an exciting inducement not to, according to recruitment firm Astbury Marsden.

If you try and leave your job and you don't get any inducements to stay, does this, therefore, mean that you're not worth holding onto and that any prospective employers should think twice about hiring you?

Maybe.

"Most banks will try and retain anyone who's halfway decent," says one senior equity headhunter. "We always tell people to assume they're going to get counter-offered."

"There has been a significant increase in the number of counter-offers this year," says Andrew Hanson, head of financial services recruitment at Robert Walters. "Firms are aggressively seeking to keep good staff within the business."

Even useless people get counter-offers

The reality, however, appears to be that even rubbish people get counter-offers, meaning that they probably bear no relation to performance whatsoever.

"Most line managers will make a counter-offer, even to someone they don't value very much," says Peter Harwood, a partner at Principal Search. "This is because it's considered a failing for them if they lose a member of staff.

"However, having persuaded someone to stay, a line manager will typically start looking for a replacement for that person anyway," he adds.

The very, very best will deter counter-offers

Most headhunters hate counter-offers (they deprive them of fees), and will counsel heavily against accepting them.

From their perspective, therefore, the very best candidates are those who know exactly what they want to do and deter counter-offers from the start.

"It's possible to resign in such a way that won't get one," says the equities headhunter. "You need to go into a resignation meeting very aggressively and say you've made up your mind, you're going and there's absolutely nothing they can do to make you stay."

He also says third tier firms will often be too intimidated to make counteroffers if someone tries to leave for a more prestigious rival.