absolutgcs.org

let’s give a pseudonym to one of the companies i talked to at the stanford engineering alumni job fair. we’ll call them Trouble. they had a table there and a guy was sitting at the table, intensely focused on his mobile. on a lark, i stopped by to drop off my resume and had to actually catch the guy’s attention. you’d think as a representative of a company at a job fair, you would actively try to get people to your table and engage them right? little did i know that my initial uneasiness from this guy’s behavior would foreshadow a ridiculous and frustrating experience ahead of me.

i followed up with an email and the ball was rolling quickly with an interview. i didn’t prepare for the interview… after my experience with other companies i was talking to, i figured i was most relaxed and went in with a clear mind when i didn’t go through a preparation/review process. it worked out well for me, outside of jumbling a linked list question i eventually figured out, i waxed the technical questions. i really liked the engineers that i met with and noticed that the members of the team i would be working with were all significantly more experienced than i was (looked like everyone had at least 10-15 years experience). i felt i could learn a lot from the team. i was a little disappointed that even though i had expressed interest in two different positions, the hr recruiter just pursued hiring for me for one of the positions without really talking about the other one. this is the same hr guy that was at the job fair… when i brought this up during the interview process, it was later interpreted as me not being sure what i wanted to do and became a concern about whether that team could hang on to me.

at the end of the first day, the hr recruiter indicated that the interviewing process was COMPLETE. he told me that i spoke with everyone necessary and they would be able to render a decision based on those 4-5 hours. initial feedback was positive and he expected they would extend an offer. then a day or two later i get a request to come back in to meet with a couple more people. this annoyed me based on our previous conversation, demonstrating more incompetence and miscommunication on the hr recruiter’s part, but i looked the other way given my interest in the company. i made more time in my schedule and went in for the last round where i talked to another engineer, waxed his technical question, and an engineering manager. the conversations went well, there was good mutual chemistry and i was feeling positive about things. i met again with the hiring manager and we had a good conversation that lasted a while as well. the intent to extend an offer was made but numbers weren’t brought up because someone was out of town. when i left the parking lot, i thought that if the numbers lined up right, i could definitely see myself working there.

ah the numbers. so the initial offer came in. and quite honestly, it sucked. it was less than my compensation for ‘06 with my current employer. and that comp doesn’t account for me having finished my MS in August! i felt like there was some sort of disconnect. the HR guy kept trying to tell me what i should be making and what i should expect. he kept relying on his experience with recruiting and generally just talking so much that simply listening to him felt overwhelming (admittedly overwhelmed with noise, not cogent points). my bullshit radar was going off big time when this guy would speak. i replied indicating that i had offers 20% higher than theirs and that i needed them to move 10% for me to consider coming there. i was willing to make a compromise given the potential financial upside of the company since they were a startup. i got more BS about how their a hot pre-IPO company, how people have taken pay cuts “as much as 40k” to come here, etc etc. sorry but I don’t buy into the hype. i’d like someone to explain to me how an HR guy is qualified to know how “hot” the pre-IPO status of ANY company is. youtube? it was hot pre-IPO. facebook? it is a hot pre-IPO… Troubler? what’s the basis for his belief?!

second round, the HR guy comes back with the EXACT SAME FIGURES. i was really surprised. at this point, it didn’t seem to me like they were genuinely interested in hiring me. i didn’t take it personally, i just figured i was either overqualified/too demanding or i wasn’t the exact fit they were looking for. after all a 20% differential in salary is usually close to a whole SALARY GRADE difference (ie: difference between Software Engineer and Mid-Level/Senior Software Engineer). at this point, i reiterated the same 10% difference i was looking for because i felt that was a fair compromise. i wanted to cut through the negotiation BS by picking the middle ground off the bat, figuring there would be less of this BS at a startup since they would be interested in just getting good people in the door quickly.

third round, the HR guy comes back with the EXACT SAME FIGURES. at this point i feel pretty exasperated and realize that maybe there’s some disconnect in communication. i write what i felt was a poignant email to the hiring manager indicating my interest level, providing justification for my salary requirements and requesting they reconsider their offer. that same afternoon, i get a call indicating a 5% bump. i was pretty shocked. first, that it took something as unconventional as what i did to get any movement at all (how much does one need to sell themselves, really?), and that finally when that movement came, it fell short of a number i considered a fair 50/50 compromise. i reiterated my salary requirements and the HR guy said he would take it back to them AGAIN. at this point, his move should have been to indicate this is the absolute final offer, we cannot move anymore from here. but he didn’t… another sign of his incompetence.

what was the point of skimping on FIVE PERCENT? the message that was sent to me is that Trouble is pretty high on themselves and they have a take it or leave it attitude. they didn’t seem to be willing to accept the compromise i suggested which was reasonable and equitable for BOTH sides. i would up 10% and so would they… instead they wanted to dictate the terms to me, which doesn’t send a very good message at all.

the next morning i see an email from the HR guy saying he wants to chat so i give him a call. he tells me the negotiations have “gone from bad to worse”, indicating that the prolonged negotiations have “ruffled some feathers” and that the hiring manager and director think i’m “all about money” and they want to rescind the offer because they don’t think i “fit the culture at Trouble”. i was incredulous. how could i be all about money when i’m considering them in spite of being the least lucrative offer?! they really believed that their 5% movement was such a good faith move that it should have won me over. wow. on top of all that, the HR guy started assaulting the points i made in my email to the hiring manager, including criticizing my educational background. the best line was “we have people who work here who never went to college. they were too good to go to college… we also have ph.d’s” never have i ever suggested anything about myself because of my educational background beyond suggesting that it demonstrates what i’m capable of and that expectations should be high. i’m not going to apologize OR take shit because i went to two of the best schools for computer science in the country. i’m proud of it but i don’t carry that into arrogance.

regardless, during this call i found myself backpedaling during the conversation, effectively trying to preserve the offer. i was so excited about the possibility of deciding to go there after they moved 5% that i was still trying to hold on. i indicated that it was never my intent to offend anyone with my negotiation, that i had absolutely zero indication that continuing negotiations would affect my image and threaten the offer. i was pissed at the HR guy for this because it was his responsibility to keep me informed of how the hiring manager was viewing progress on the negotiations and all i ever got was “this offer reflects where we see you fitting in our organization” which is a bunch of BS. everyone on that team had at least 5 years of experience on me, so our pay couldn’t have been close. when it got to the 5% bump, he should have indicated at this point pushing the issue would be detrimental because it was a big deal for them to move that 5%. i had no such indications.

the HR guy actually had one bright idea, which was having me and the hiring manager speak directly. he called me this morning and we each shared our perspectives. he reiterated a point which effectively was if you’re such a stickler on salary negotiations, you won’t be on the same page as everyone and focused on the success of Trouble (hence the cultural fit comment). it just doesn’t make sense to me because the issues are so separate. i’m looking out for myself and creating what i deemed to be an acceptable risk profile. if the HR guy cannot communicate that effectively from my side and has a problem communicating their side effectively, the breakdown in talks has much to do with his incompetence little to do with my salary requirements and negotiation. yes it was long and protracted, and yes it went on too long but that’s both sides fault, not just mine.

anyway i told the hiring manager that i considered the position “tainted” because of the impression i believe they had of me which was completely inaccurate. he acknowledged they do not believe i’m all about money and they really wanted me on the team. we both knew that b/c of the poor negotiation process it just wasn’t going to work out. i was disappointed given my initial interest level, but glad given how i felt the situation was handled. i would not want to work for a company that would threaten to rescind an offer. that’s just a bullshit tactic. i made the hiring manager aware of the abrasiveness of the hr guy and he apologized on behalf of Trouble and told me that it would be followed up to ensure something like this doesn’t happen again. i respect the hiring manager and apologizing was a classy move, but i feel like Trouble has problems with their recruiting when they have someone like this hr guy working there.

i got some good news this morning. i got paperwork for one of the offers and they came in with better numbers than we had initially talked about. looks good to me… i have some serious mulling to do.