Accepting a Job Offer before seeing the contract

[tell-me-more]

What if I accept a job offer, but then the contract has something in it I don't like?

Is it unreasonable to expect to see a copy of the contract before agreeing to accept a job based on a summary in the offer letter?

[ChuffingHell]

Not at all. I personally would insist on seeing the contract beforehand.

[cascarelli]

Why agree to something you haven't seen? The job offer should come with a contract of employment and you should be given reasonable time to read and understand this.

[carrie12]

in our company we usually ring people up and tell them we would like to offer them a position and let them know a job offer letter and 2 contracts, reference request form will be sent in the post - the offer will be open for 5 days. we then expect to get your signed contract and ref request form back and then start referencing. Obviously you would have to hint to your current employers that you are tentatively looking at this stage because a ref request is going to turn up- i would never hand in my notice until my references have come back ok.