TL;DR Job offer rescinded after asking for 1 DAY to think and wanting to negotiate a low-ball offer. If your gut is telling there are red flags, you need to listen and run!
Applied online Nov 2019, phone screen and in-person interview in early Dec with the hiring manager (HM) and CIO. The interview went well, they spoke about the growth dept. was going through, what the role would look like IRL, and was quite excited about the challenges and possible growth. 5 days later, I received the standard HR email "thanks but no thanks."
In late January, I received a call from the HM saying I was a top candidate and if I was still interested. I was extremely surprised, but I said sure. Since so much time had passed and had been written off by them, I requested another meeting to remind myself what was interesting about them. The 2nd meeting with HR went well and was told all about how great their culture was and their benefits.
Within a week, I received a call with a verbal job offer. I asked to have a day to think about it and discuss with my family since the salary was lower than my target and there were some red flags I needed to analyze. For example:
1. During the interview:
a. the CIO (who was skype) asked me how is was that my LinkedIn hair color was different than IRL. Weird, umm… hello, salons.
b. they started talking about moving to a better office totally ignoring me. Rude, the exchange could’ve happened privately as to not waste my time. Seemed like the HM may have been showing off.
2. When the HM called me in Jan, she asked about salary. She insisted I give her a number despite asking what the pay scale for the position was. She refused to answer and broke the CA law saying the employer must provide a pay scale once asked. I gave her my range and she asked if it was negotiable since her range was quite a bit lower. Of course, since there are other benefits that can make up the difference and she agreed.
3. The HM seemed to get demeaning several times.
a. I expressed the level of responsibility is more than the title gives credit. She proceeded to cut me down, saying I would be incapable of certain tasks.
b. We played phone tag several times and she made a snippy comment about being hard to reach. Yet, I always called back on the same day, but I ALWAYS got the VM and was maybe called back a day later.
c. After asking for a day to mull the offer, she said something to the effect of “OK, if that’s the case, I’m still going to continue in my recruiting process.” Like asking for a day to think is unreasonable.
4. She couldn’t answer basic questions about the hiring process, like what does the background check entail, why a drug test, why she couldn’t send me in writing her verbal offer detailing the salary+benefits. Everything was always HR policy’s fault, like she couldn’t do anything.
I called back the next day and, as had been the trend over a 3-week period, VM answered. I left a message that I was excited to accept the job offer but wanted to address some concerns. The following afternoon, I received a call from HR rescinding the offer.
To say this is shocking is an understatement but I feel as if I just dodged a massive bullet. Especially, if an organization would do that because I wanted to negotiate a subpar offer.
