This is the dilemma that faces every job seeker. Months and months are spent searching, networking, and pounding endless pavements simply to land leads, let alone interviews. After multiple interviews, there are the callbacks, follow-ups, and countless heartbreaks over positions that were seemingly in your grasp but which...disappeared at the last moment. Then, miraculously, you get handed an opportunity that includes salary, relocation, and a chance to work alongside someone you know and respect.
I faced just this scenario this week, and turning it down was one of the most difficult things I've done in my job search.
For obvious reasons, I can't mention the company or my friend who put my name in the running for the job, but suffice it to say she is someone I respect tremendously and her firm had a stellar reputation. She was able not only to get me interviews but also to raise the salary from its initial range AND include a relo package where there had not been one before.
So, why and how could I possibly turn this down? What could be so terrible that I would decline a solid offer in a particularly brutal job market from a friend who was trying to help?
Because I've learned the hard way what can happen when I don't follow the advice of every job coach: "Trust your gut." Lord knows it's possible to talk yourself into any position when you're unemployed, but the ultimate goal is not so much to find a job so much as it is the right job. (Yes, even in an economy like this one.)
So, why did I turn this down? There were multiple reasons, really. The surrounding area I saw during my visit didn't really offer the quality of life my wife and I are looking for, the relo carried obvious risks, we knew almost no one in the city where we would be moving (a fact that would make things difficult if the job did not work out for any reason), and there were additional issues.
But the biggest reason involved something that had less to do with the job and the firm so much as it did from previous experiences I had had with taking jobs that opened up as a result of housecleaning. This particular opening came about because the entire department had turned over. One person had resigned, another two had been let go, and the fourth and sole remaining member of the team was someone I was not introduced to or permitted to speak with during my visit. When I inquired about talking with him - an awkward experience since no one seemed to want to mention this fellow's name to me initially - I was told he was "unavailable." When I politely pressed to see if I could speak with him any time during the following week, I was told, "Oh, he's going to be at a conference and will be out of pocket all next week."
Bingo. That told me something was seriously wrong with this picture.
To be fair, the company did eventually "relent" and offer to make some sort of arrangement for me to talk with this fellow as part of the consideration process, but to be honest, the damage was done by this point. If I wasn't meeting with this individual as part of my interview process - and if he wasn't even being named during my interviews - then I could only conclude that his time was limited as well & that he, too, would either soon be gone or would have less-than-pleasant things to say. Neither of these scenarios pointed to anything positive. Moreover, if he left, that meant 100% of the department would be turning over; and that was a serious red flag on top of an already questionable situation. Being told I couldn't speak with him for reasons that failed to pass the "smell test" told me something as well. (Tell me the last time YOU went to a conference and were told you couldn't check messages or follow up with people while you were out of pocket. No, seriously. Go ahead. I'll wait...) If I was not being allowed to talk with certain people I would be working with and wasn't being given clear and honest reasons why, there was no way I could accept the position and relocate halfway across the country to accept what sounded like an increasingly questionable opportunity.
So I turned it down. And in the process, I may have unfortunately burned a bridge with my friend who put my name forward for the position and who clearly pulled some strings to get me this opportunity. That bothered me - in fact, it still does. If she reads this, I hope she knows just how much I honestly appreciated all she did - but in the end, I had to do what is so often difficult for frustrated job seekers. I had to turn something down so I could hopefully find something else.
And in today's job market, that is anything but easy.
No comments:
Post a Comment