I’ll never forget this guy I was trying to recruit for a VP of Quality position in NYC. We were in the middle of the process and I was trying to negotiate a $200k salary with confusing stock options.
To this day he pisses me off.
I called to check up on him to make sure that he was still on board with making the move.
He lived in Texas. I was recruiting him to move to NYC. The bump in compensation he was going to get wasn’t actually going to be an increase.
When I finally got him on the phone, he told me that he had just finished up a round of golf with his boss. He was drunk.
It was good to know that he would be responsible for the quality assurance of an implantable medical device that pumps pain medicine into your bloodstream.
The guy pulled off the trifecta. He leveraged my offer against his own company to get a raise and promotion.
Then he bolted a few months later for an even better offer with another company in Georgia.
I was stunned. Here is what you can learn from this guy.
- Interview for several opportunities at once and leverage the offers against each other. If you’re in demand, then embrace it.
- Position the companies in a bidding war for your services.
- Don’t take the offer that pays you the most. This guy actually took the job that was most fascinating and interesting.
- Pick the company that gives you the best opportunity to grow in both skills and knowledge.
Go on every interview you have scheduled. Enjoy the process.
Recruiting the impossible 