Reneging on job offer - both ways

Most of the time you get a feel for the guy interviewing you. Maybe I've just been lucky in the past, but not every salary is negotiable and that's the chance we all take.

Small paper I worked at, the EE takes me out for drinks after my day of interviewing. Once we've had more than a couple of drinks, he slides a piece of paper across the table and says "This is all i can offer you."
I thought that shit was so cool, and it was more than I thought, so I didn't go through the negotiating bullshit.
Years later, an SE calls me after an interview and makes me an offer. He's a pretty decent guy, but I get a feeling that he's holding back. So I ask for more and get it.
I think it's a gut feeling when it comes to negotiating and I'm sure it's bitten more than a couple of us in the ass before.

 

Hey, let me be perfectly honest.

In the example I cited above, the move was from one place with a relatively low cost of living to one where it was pretty high.

The money that they offered me was probably about 80 percent more than I was making. I thought it was all the money in world.

It was my wife who said, "Hey, look at the cost of living, we've got a new baby, and there's no way you can take it. We need at least this."

I thought it was crazy to ask for more, and this was a top five paper, a dream job. I didn't want to screw it up.

But I asked it, and they didn't even blink, not even a counter offer. Gave me what I asked for.

If they're good people you want to work for, they understand how it works. If they don't, you probably don't want to be there anyway.

I got better in the process.

 

My one instance regarding this thread came when I was heading down Desperation Road after a layoff from a suburban. Found out there was a desk opening at a Metro in the next county. I inquired about it, went in for the editing test and during the interview, the SE said, "Our experience is that guys from suburbans -- I admit you all work hard -- just can't cut it here." I told him all I wanted was a chance, but what I didn't tell him was that I really wanted to punch him in the mouth.
Couple of week later, after my test had been graded, he called and told me, "Well, you did better than I thought on the editing test" and he offered me five tryout shifts. I knew the first day I was as good or better than their other desk people. Then he offers me a temporary full-time position as a rimmer. I did that for five month and I was the top bonus winner in their quirky desk bonus system. He calls me into his office and says he got to let me go. I said, "You know, in the bonus system you created, I was the top bonus winner for the past five months. I know there are a lot of different elements that go into putting out the section, but I'd think that after five months, you could say that the section is better on the days I work than on the days I don't." His answer was, "You went above and beyond our expectations, but our needs have changed. We don't have a position. We have to let you go."
It turns out that one of the other rimmers, who filled in on layout on occasion, wasn't very good at that and they had to use the position I was going for to cover for that person's inadequacies. So, I was out and somebody who didn't do their job very well was still in.
The desk chief went to the SE and complained. He said, "That guy is capable of slotting out our section every night and you sent him away. What the hell?"
There was a lot of other griping about the SE and he eventually was reassigned. The new guy began a restructuring and one of the first things he let the desk chief do was bring me back.

 

This stuff goes on at the metro levels as well. Some years ago, one top 25 department was interested in me for a spot that was probably a half-step down from what I was doing, with the thought that it would be comparable within a year. I'm flown out, interview, tryout, meals ... and the SE is visibly surprised that I didn't want to take a final-answer 10 percent pay cut. No hard feelings, but it made for an awkward and fairly abrupt end to an interesting few days.

 

I accepted a job at a paper I would've been happy to work for. I had another interview a week later at a paper I'd have been even happier to work for.

The second paper offered a few thousand more and I backed out of the first job. Probably not the best move but I didn't want to come out of two interviews with good papers and not have a job at either place. Both were respectable papers and both were many times the size of the small-town rag I was working at then.

And I don't really feel too bad about the whole thing. I'm sure the corporate douches at the first paper would've fired me two days after I started if they decided they weren't making enough money.

 

You're lucky the second place didn't dump you two days after you started, and several days after you shed the first offer.