Responding to Recruiter Regarding Possible Offer
I've been interviewing. I interviewed well with one company, and the company was ready to give me an offer. I told them I was in various stages of interviewing with other companies and would like to decide by 11/26. The recruiter asked me how I would decide. I named some criteria regarding developer tooling/mentoring/on-call. And I also mentioned I would compare numbers if I had other offers. The recruiter also mentioned they would like me to decide so that they know whether to move forward with other candidates in the pipeline, and she would talk with the hiring manager to see if they needed to move faster. She scheduled an additional call with a principal engineer on the topic of dealing with tech debt on Thursday but never got back to me about what the hiring manager said.
This company is high on my list except for possibly one other company I am wrapping up interviews with tomorrow, though I have another company with interviews on Monday. If I pass those interviews, they may want another interview to decide the level to offer me (between Senior and Staff).
How would you advise me to respond?
![Senior Software Engineer [E5] at Meta company logo](/_next/image/?url=https%3A%2F%2Ffirebasestorage.googleapis.com%2Fv0%2Fb%2Ftech-career-growth.appspot.com%2Fo%2Fcompany_logos%252Fmeta.jpeg%3Falt%3Dmedia%26token%3Da7a5bcc0-e178-4b5b-b71e-09bf6c6aefae&w=48&q=75){kind=small}
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Discussion
(8 comments)- 18 days agoTech Lead/Manager at Meta, Pinterest, Kosei
The recruiter also mentioned they would like me to decide whether to move forward with candidates in an interview
What does this mean? Since you're not ready to commit, are they essentially threatening that they'll interview/hire other candidates in the pipeline?
Monday doesn't seem very far away (less than a week since you posted the question). You'll get a lot more signal about your possible options and excitement level after that, so I'd hold off on anything definitive until at least then.
Keep the dialog with the recruiter vague, something like:
Can we chat mid next week? I'll be able to share my headspace in a lot more detail at that point.
Some relevant advice from the negotiation course:
I recommend the "closing the deal" tactic if you're in the final stages and just want to commit to this company where you have an offer.
- 07 days agoStaff Software Engineer [OP]Taro Community
What does this mean? Since you're not ready to commit, are they essentially threatening that they'll interview/hire other candidates in the pipeline?
I'm sorry. Now I see my mistake in the above sentence. The recruiter mentioned they would have liked to have me decide by the end of the week as they had candidates in the pipeline.
The most charitable explanation would be that the team has one open head count for a staff engineer, and if I accept, they would not want to move with other candidates in the pipeline. But I have the same fear that perhaps they would go ahead with other candidates in the pipeline and, if I don't accept, they'll fill the spot when another candidate accepts. Another explanation, given that the company has hired other new hires recently, is that the company doesn't want to be in a position to end up "bidding" for my service as other companies end up using this offer to base their offer. In my experience, there was one time when I had an offer with $135,000 of base pay, and the next company gave me the same base pay plus RSU. And I took the next company's offer without negotiating (which was probably not smart).
- 1
8 days agoTech Lead @ Robinhood, Meta, Course HeroSo far, this situation doesn't seem that bad? You mentioned the 11/26 date, but it doesn't seem like the recruiter/hiring manager are going to make your offer an exploding offer and are respecting your desire to wait a little more (11/26 isn't too far away from now and you are committing to something before the Thanksgiving holidays).
Letting them know that you're happy to reconnect next week to reassure them that you care about them (you can even mention your excitement for the company) as Rahul suggested seems like a good idea.
- 17 days agoStaff Software Engineer [OP]Taro Community
Yeah, this is an interesting angle. In a way, the recruiter is effectively respecting my desire to wait longer. She has said it is reasonable that I want to know my options. However, without an offer, I feel more uneasy because I am not sure if the offer could be withdrawn. I guess technically even a written offer can be withdrawn, but it is nice to have the assurance of an offer.
In the meantime, I have expressed my excitement for the position, mentioned I had gone ahead to schedule calls with a former co-worker at the company, and mentioned that I may close my job search if I see a compelling offer.
- 13 days agoStaff Software Engineer [OP]Taro Community
To wrap this up, the company made an offer to someone else instead. What happened seems that because I sounded hesitant, the company kept interviewing other candidates in the pipeline. Even though I had indicated that I was ready to take an offer, the hiring team still decided that they liked someone else better. Looking back, I should not try to buy time for other interviews to finish until I have a written offer in hand. And I should avoid voicing concerns until I have a written offer. And even then I should sound more positive even as I talked to different people to address my concerns.
- 12 days agoTech Lead/Manager at Meta, Pinterest, Kosei
Bummer, sorry to hear that :(
Those are really good takeaways, though, thank you for sharing. Having the written offer in hand is critical since there's not truly a commitment from the company until then.
So the goal until then is to avoid anything that may 'rock the boat' -- just be vaguely positive about your thoughts (or other offers), until you have the offer in hand.
What are your options now? Do you have any other offers?
- 1a day agoStaff Software Engineer [OP]Taro Community
I don't have have other offers right now, but I hope that changes soon.
- 07 days agoStaff Software Engineer [OP]Taro Community
The recruiter also mentioned they would like me to decide whether to move forward with candidates in an interview
I fixed the above sentence and added that the recruiter had scheduled an additional call.
As a further update, I was surprised that the recruiter did not follow up after the scheduled call.
