How Not to Make a Career Decision
Learning how to synthesize information and make good decisions is very important in life. My assessment is that not many people these days do it well. Consider my latest example…we’ll call this person Anthony.
Anthony completed a three-step interview process with my client. After each step, he communicated his interest and desire to move to the next step. After each step, I probed specifically for concerns. No major concerns. We reviewed benefits and salary in advance. This is the time for negotiation. There’s no point in making a written offer that a candidate rejects. Better to conclude it won’t work early vs. late. I specifically asked, “Do you want the job?” His answer: “All things considered, yes.”
I advised my client to draft a written offer. Upon receiving it, Anthony and I texted several times that afternoon. I congratulated him. He thanked me. He asked if he could sign the offer letter electronically or if he’d need to print, sign and scan to return. All looked normal at this point.
That evening. Anthony texted that he wanted to “meditate” on the offer overnight. [Red flag.] The following morning, he declined – via text. I called to ask why. He proceeded to list concerns which included not fully understanding the role, not being able to work from home right away and a desired salary which literally increased $10,000 overnight.
Anthony had been gathering information via three interviews over three weeks. Plenty of time to meditate. Plenty of time to formulate concerns and seek resolution. Plenty of time to be honest and transparent. Ridiculously poor decision making. Or perhaps just lying. To me, to my client, and perhaps even to himself. We’ll never know for sure.
