Dear Liz,
I’ve been job-hunting for four months and your articles have been an invaluable source of advice and moral support.
I know I have marketable skills because I helped my last company grow from nothing to $10 million and then get sold — that’s why I am job-hunting now. Now that I’m on the market again, I get interviews. I just haven’t gotten the right job yet.
Since the end of November I’ve been talking with a $40 million vendor in my area. They make an online training platform. It’s considered a decent product but not one of the best in its category.
I was polite but relatively blunt in my Pain Letter to the CEO and he called me back right away. We had a good talk that day and since then, I’ve been to their facility four times.
The first time I met the CEO and the VP of Marketing. Then I went back and met the CTO and the CFO for lunch.
The third time, we had a “brainstorming session” with a whiteboard and scoped out my role — the CEO, VP of Marketing and a few other people were there.
Then last week the CEO wanted to have lunch with me alone. I asked him “What is the next step in our process? I am eager to get started — if you need my help.”
He said “We do need your help!” We defined the role very specifically and agreed on salary and bonus. He said “We’ll get an offer letter in the mail.” That was last Thursday, so the offer should have arrived by now.
On Friday the VP of Marketing asked me about my availability to go see a customer in two weeks. I said that would be fine – but I don’t have a job offer. I mentioned that I was waiting for the offer letter. He said he would check on it.
Then the CEO called me and left a voice mail message last night. He said “Let’s talk tomorrow.” What does he want now?
Does it require a call with the CEO to communicate that I haven’t received the offer letter he promised a week ago? I’m not going to beg him to hire me. I’m somewhat fed up, in fact.
I am tired of waiting for these folks to make good on their promises. What should I do?
Thanks,
Brett
Dear Brett,
A lot of job-seekers feel your pain! You have done everything correctly.
You held the CEO’s feet to the fire and he said “Yes! We’re going to hire you — our offer will be in the mail.”
Still, if you like and trust these people it would be silly to drop out now. Give them the benefit of the doubt, instead — but as you do, factor in the recent confusion and your doubts about the sincerity, and if appropriate shift the terms of the deal in your favor.
Call your CEO back and say “For sure, let’s talk! I am eager to book my travel reservations for that customer visit and talk about whatever you want. I don’t have the offer letter yet. Should I come in and sign it in person to speed things along?”
The biggest change a working person can make is to get altitude on their career and see every job opportunity as a consulting gig, because that’s what it is in reality.
You are doing exactly that. You spotted this company and said “Maybe these people have pain. I’m a pain-solver so I’ll send them a letter to find out whether they have pain, or not.”
They did. They saw you as the solution or a big part of the solution to their problem. You talked business terms and came to an agreement.
Now you need the ink on the paper to make it real. Until that happens, nothing else can happen — and that is the only message you have for your CEO right now and until you’ve signed on. However, you have an unsettled feeling in your gut and no one could blame you for that.
I would not say that these folks have stepped over the line into Taking Advantage of You territory but they are right at the edge of it. Your offer letter was due, the date was missed and no one has inquired about it.
Yet they contacted you about other topics. That is shoddy, at the least. It does not show the right level of sensitivity to your situation.
With this new information, your posture can shift and I hope it does. Now you need more assurance from these people than you did before. Before you accept a full-time job, scope out a consulting project. You just got laid off. When you solve the immediate problem will you get laid off again?
You don’t need that. It would be better to define a consulting project, complete it and take stock of the relationship and other opportunities that may have emerged for you by then.
You are stepping into your entrepreneurial persona — the way all of us must do, now that full-time and long-term employment are shrinking away like the ice floes.
It is a big step to re-negotiate your job offer as a consulting agreement, but in your next conversation your CEO may give you the rationale to do that — or he may suggest it himself.
If you are hesitant to say “Forget the offer letter — now I need a consulting agreement,” perhaps the pain of your recent separation from your last job will remind you that every job is a temp job these days!
You don’t have your offer letter a week after it was promised and that could be the fault of our dear post office but I doubt it. You have the right to re-negotiate the deal and I recommend that you do.
Make it a three-month consulting gig. Longer is not better for you. Scope out what you can do in three months and price it at a premium.
You are growing new muscles. Every working person is doing the same thing, some faster than others. It’s new territory for all of us.
We are seeing more clearly how we fit into the larger business world and how we can claim more power in the hiring equation — and why we must.
All the best,
Liz
Source:forbes.com
