The market doesn't like

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Announcement:

This newsletter - Random Thoughts - is going to make a little bit of a twist. There are only so many topics I can talk about each week before I start repeating myself.

So, we’re going to pivot. I’m going to begin talking about the candidates I speak to on a daily basis. Whether it’s for my day job recruiting for my clients, or for my side hustle doing career coaching.

We’ll break down their situation and go over what’s working for them and what’s not, this way you can learn from their mistakes or see what’s working for them.

…….

The market doesn’t lie.

You’ve heard me say this a million times on X, and I’ll continue to repeat it day in and day out.

You may prefer a certain work setup, a certain title, a particular pay package, sure.

If the market thinks you deserve it, you’ll get it. If they don’t, then you won’t.

It’s as simple as that.

If you need help determining you’re on the right path and asking for something reasonable, take a look at your interview activity.

Are recruiters at least calling you? Are they advancing you to the hiring manager or cutting it off right then and there? Are you getting a decent pipeline of interviews?

If the answer is “no”, then chances are you need to re-evaluate your preferences, at least in the short term in this employer’s market.

Story Time

The Covid-Zirp era really messed with everyone’s heads.

People were not only landing multiple offers at a whim, but they were landing 20% pay increases (often times more) and fully remote. Obviously this wasn’t sustainable as we found out the hard way the past 2 years.

But still, some folks can’t realize it. Maybe they do and don’t want to face the truth. Either way, they’re in for a rude awakening.

I spoke to someone yesterday, let’s call him Jerry.

Jerry and I spoke originally last Spring 2023. He landed a contract gig that paid him 25% more than what he was making (from approx 75hr to close to 100hr) and fully remote. He has less than 10 years of exp as a SWE.

His contract at the time was set to end in September 2023, so he started looking in the Spring in hopes he would land something by then, which was the smart thing to do.

As I was recruiting him, his preferences were very reasonable. Open to hybrid work 2-3x/week, open to making the same rate or even a rate cut, etc.

I submitted him to one of my clients and he received a job offer. Yay!

But then instead of accepting it, he ghosted me for a day, then emailed me a day later and said “I need 20% more and fully remote”.

Obviously this caught me off guard.

He wouldn’t answer my phone calls and requested to only speak via email.

There was a minimal chance my client was going to give him full remote. I may have had a decent chance to get him more $$$ (idk about 20% more, that’s pretty steep). But there is a 0% chance I feel comfortable going to bat for this candidate when he is acting like this to one of my clients.

I let the client know what was going on, we figured he had another offer he withheld from us, and the offer was pulled.

I emailed the candidate the client was moving in another direction, and never heard back from the candidate.

Fast forward to yesterday - the candidate randomly calls me looking for a job.

I straight up said “to be honest I’m not sure I want to represent you given how you acted when I got you an offer. I can care less that you declined. But how you went about it was unfair”

He agreed. He let me know he didn’t land anything. He’s been out of work since September. His savings is running out. And he thinks his resume gap (Sept 2023 - present) is hurting his job prospects.

What can we learn from Jerry

1. No one likes being backed into a corner. I don’t care what advice you saw on tiktok, X, Linkedin, etc. If you’re going to negotiate, treat the other party as a partner, not an enemy.

2. Be reasonable in what you’re negotiating for. This isn’t 2021 anymore. Most people won’t be able to negotiate 20%+ over budget. Most people won’t be able to land remote gigs, especially for companies that are predominantly hybrid. By asking for this - especially in the manner Jerry did - you’re posing so many risks and pushing the client away, not making them want you more.

3. Be willing to walk away if you’re negotiating. It all comes down to leverage. You can negotiate whatever you want if you have solid backup options to choose from. If you don’t, then I’d be careful asking for more.

4. Emergency funds help, until they don’t. Sure, they buy you time. In this case, it bought Jerry from Sept 2023 until today. But they’re running out. So much $$$ lost in opportunity costs since then. If he had been realistic with his job search, he’d have all that money still in the bank to invest or pile more savings on. On top of that, the gap each day he’s been out of work has gotten wider and wider.

5. Don’t burn bridges. It’s great Jerry realized he made a mistake. But there is a 0% chance I will submit him again. At the end of the day, we have to look out for our reputation in the marketplace too. I can’t risk him ghosting me again. Again, it’s one thing to decline an offer, but gotta do it professionally. The way he went about it was completely wrong.

….

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