Laurie Braddy, a career coach with 25 years' experience, describes a mechanical engineering graduate who lost a job offer after trying to renegotiate salary and benefits following family advice. Once you accept an offer, reopening negotiations can make employers rescind it or lose trust in you.
Foreign. Hey, guys, it's Laurie with career coaching now, and I am back for another interview horror story to talk about. These horror stories consist of things that happened before, during, or after an interview that caused the candidate not to get the position. I've been a career coach and recruiter for 25 years, so I have a ton of. Of horror stories to talk about. And I've just recently started talking about horror stories so that you guys don't make the same mistakes. So this horror story, this was a tough one. This is. Offer rescinded. So there was a candidate. He went in for an interview. He had just graduated with a degree in mechanical engineering. So he goes on this interview with this company that he really wants to get into. Goes on the interview. They like him. He likes them. Them. Everything's great. Salary range, bonus structure, the whole nine yards. This person literally was being handed an offer that, quite honestly, I couldn't believe that they offered him as much as they did. I was his recruiter, by the way, throughout this process. And so he goes in, he interviews, everything's great. They make him an offer. So they make him this offer, which was outstanding for anybody that was a recent graduate with no work experience. So they gave him this great offer. He says, okay, you know, this is a great offer. He was so excited. I thought he was gonna, you know, jump off the. You know, jump in the phone. Jump off the phone and into me, like, oh, my God, this is awesome. He was so excited about this offer. So what does he do? He goes and talks to his family about the offer, which is fine. Most people will talk about their, you know, talk about their offer to their family and friends, and that's great. He was so excited. His mother actually told him, oh, well, they. They must really want you, so you should probably go back to the table and demand more money and different things. So he comes to me and he's like, look, I talked to my mom, and this is what she said, blah, blah, blah. And I said, do not. We are not going back to the table on this. They will resend the offer. I can promise you. I know this company. This is what they have to offer for this position. This is a great opportunity. You. I said, you know, I would not do that. And he said, I really want more money. So as a recruiter and any of my recruiter friends out there who are watching this, you know that you at least have to go back to the company and talk about, you know, you can't just hide it under the table. You have to bring it to light that this candidate now is asking for more money. So I kept telling him, I really think this is a mistake. If you really want to work for this company, I think you should take the offer. Well, he didn't want to. So I went back to the company. I didn't want to do this, but I had to because I'm representing him as much as I am the company. And I presented the company with a counter offer, which was insane as far as I'm concerned. He wanted like 20,000 more. He wanted money in lieu of health insurance because he was still on his parents health insurance. They literally, they said, immediately we rescind the offer, not interested, we're done with this candidate. I which I knew they were going to say that, so I went back to the candidate to let him know they've rescinded the offer. It's over, you're done. He literally was so upset. He's like, oh my God. Okay, I'm sorry, I'll go back, I'll go back to whatever the, you know, the original offer was. And I said, no, no, no, you don't understand, it's too late. You know, they don't trust you now because you presented yourself in a certain way with a certain salary range. The job duties didn't change. Nothing had changed from the original negotiation. He changed it last minute because he talked to his family, they thought, we're gonna get, you know, he should be able to get more out of this company. So he literally was like, I'll do anything. I will write them a letter. I'll do. And I said, you can write all the letters you want. They're done. It's over with this company. You are, you will never work for this company. Company because of what you did, you know, during, you know, once the offer came out and I, I did, I, I feel bad for anybody who doesn't get the position that they want. I really feel bad. This, this person, I felt bad for him. But he did learn a valuable lesson, which is what these horror stories are all about, is really learning valuable lessons. He learned a valuable lesson. You know, when you go into the negotiation process, when you present yourself at a speaker specific, you know, level, whether it's here's what I want in compensation, here's what I want, whatever it is, benefits, comp, the whole comp package, once that's established and an employer offers you exactly what you're looking for, which actually they offered him more in salary. I'm sorry, they offered him more in bonuses, but he wanted those bonuses up front in salary form. And then of course he wanted money in lieu of benefits because he didn't need the benefits anyway. But when you present yourself a certain way and a company makes you an offer based on everything that you presented and that you wanted and you go back to the table, that's almost instantly they're going to rescind the offer. If they don't resend the offer. I would be surprised if they don't. That means either they're very desperate for a person in this role, which means down the road they're going to remember, you know, that you strong armed them or whatever you want to call it, you were trying to shake them down for more money. But if you present yourself a certain way, the job duties haven't changed throughout the whole process. And they offer you what you want. Either take the offer or don't. But don't go back to the table. You know, it's a death sentence. It's a immediate death sentence for you. So anyway, the moral of the story is if you get an offer, the offer looks great, it's what you wanted, it's what you said you wanted. And the job duties haven't changed any since you started the process. Either take it or decline the offer. It's that simple. Again, I tell these horror stories because I don't want you guys to do the same things. I want you guys to learn from these before you make a big mistake that's going to affect sometimes the rest of your life or your career or whatever. So if you. Anyway, again, it's Lori with top talent professionals and career coaching now. And I am an interview coach and I also help people. I coach people to get raises and promotions. All right, check me out and I'll be back again with another interview horror story.
