How to Reject a Job Offer

I have a friend who found himself in a bidding war. Two companies claimed to want him. He wanted one company. He wanted to be the Division Manager for Operations at a food giant. One company had him on their private plane visiting midwest locations while the other drove him around in a town car and placed him in a corporate apartment they have overlooking Lake Michigan and Lake Shore Drive. I wanted him to take the corporate apartment – it was so gorgeous, I wanted to move into it myself. It was 4,000 square feet with an uninterrupted view from the Bahai Temple to the Gary Steelmills. He even had a private elevator. He wanted the private jet so he was pulling the other way – until one of the managers told a very off color joke that made my friend very uncomfortable. He was worried about working there after that. He didn't want to be affiliated with something that he knew might limit his growth at that point.

My friend decided to take himself out of the running by sending a letter to the recruiting manager indicating that he didn't think he was the right fit for the company. He hadn't gotten the offer from the company I liked, but he said he was sure that he wouldn't like spending all day with that guy at the first company, private jets or not.

I mentioned this to my manager at the time, and she couldn't believe what he had done. She explained that a move like that is not the move of a professional at that level. She said he should have kept his options open, gotten the offer from both companies and expressed regret but taken the offer from the company he wanted, after an offer was provided. I had been proud of him for standing his ground. Now I was afraid he would never get an offer that he could accept.

Eventually, he does get the offer from company B along with the apartment, the town car and the driver. Things go very well there and he moves up the ladder to head Operations. At that point the President of company B spends some time with him and explains that they had been hesitant to hire him after the way he blew off company A. This was very surprising to my friend because he had certainly never mentioned that the other company was interviewing him for fear that they would lose interest. The President explained that the interest from the other company was exactly the reason they liked him so much. The two companies were rivals, they traded employees back and forth all the time. My friend explained how he became disenchanted with company A.

The President of company B explained that he was aware of the ploy. It was apparently done at several companies with facilites in areas of the midwest that are not as liberal, or as prepared to see diversity at the senior management level. My friend was a little floored to think that people are still being tested in this day and age, but there it is. The President was a little more gentle than my manager was, but he explained it this way.

It's naïve to think that senior managers in the same industry aren't friends. They went to school together, traded info, hook-ups, discussed philsophies, and definitely trade stories on employment candidates. Since you never know who knows who, it's best to assume that everyone knows everyone and treat everyone with the care you would a close relative. The interview you blow today may lead to problems down the road from companies that you don't even have on your horizon right now. Take a longer view of your career, you'll be stuck with it for decades.

Even Recruiters Get the Blues

Last weekend I had dinner at Joe's with some of my recruiter friends that I mentor. They need assistance finding what they want and are getting desperate. On the other hand I have client applicants who are looking for the right job and they are getting desperate also. I asked a couple to drop by the dinner so that we could all see why nothing was working.

My recruiter friends are experiencing a hard time reaching the qualified candidates and making sure they understand the process of obtaining a job. That's right – recruiters get the blues! It's not like the old days – now a prospect places their resume online and companies call you – but you don't give you the job right away – there are steps:

Screening – usually a recruiter screens the applicants by phone. In my day you talked to them in the evening or over the weekend when their boss was out of ear shot and you could get to heart of their responsibilities. You got to know them – we used to place bets on which of our candidates a client company would hire because we sent the best we found after beating the bushes like the Weather Girls on a manhunt. Now, applicants are contacted by robocall or several assistants who leave messages with your family members. Please make sure the family members are prepped – a lot of family members can make it hard on the applicant if they fail to take a message or don't contact the applicant when the recruiter calls. It's first come, first served, and the applicants who answer their own phone and are able to talk about their experience usually are the first through the door and the first to have the interview and get the job. Back in the day parents took a call from a prospective employer much more seriously – I don't see that as much anymore.

Resume – make sure that resume is polished – ask some other people to look at it. They will notice the typos that you passed over. Ask someone in your field to read it. Not only can they help you polish it, but they might know of a job that you never heard about.

Group appointment – this is usually a test or an elimination tactic to root out those who are really qualified and may do well. Come early, not on time. If they ask you to bring verification material – bring it! If you come in saying your dog ate it or you forgot, the ejector button on your seat has already been pushed. If you're looking for a job, you should have the following at the ready: proof of identity – a state issued driver's license or ID card, proof of eligibility to work in the US – the list was recently expanded, but you can't go wrong with the old stand-bys – your current or expired passport, or a copy of your certified (that means government issued) birth certificate and social security card, proof of education – a bonded copy of your transcripts, your college degree, your high school diploma, or your GED certificate. Many companies are still hiring on the spot, so don't get left behind. Use this time to gather these items and have them ready to present. Don't be the one standing outside with your nose pressed to the glass.

Personal appointment – if you get this far, the situation is yours to lose, so don't lose it. Please go in with the right frame of mind. There has been a recent rash of applicants coming to interviews intoxicated or in some other state of ill-preparedness. You shouldn't have to be told that coming to an interview with a hang over or coked up is a losing proposition. I realize its rough out there, but you can't win if you don't play. You cannot afford to be afraid to go through the interview process.

Now, let me get back to that resume for a second. My friend's daughter, who is looking, and has been for several years, gave me her resume and it was literally incomprehensible. I don't have enough room to list all the things that were wrong with it – she has it posted everywhere from ladders.com to Snagajob.com and she then mailed it all over the globe. It assaulted my eyes like a zoot suit! I tore it in a million pieces and had the waiter bring me a plate so that I could burn it.

It's no joke out there, and some of these mistakes can be avoided. I'm happy to help anyone who needs it – just give me a call.

Everyday Should Be Jackie Robinson Day

 

 

I had a chance to see an advanced screening of “42”, the story of how Jackie Robinson integrated Major League Baseball in 1947. My advice is to go without hesitation, but take your tissues, and plan on having a glass of wine afterwards – it's a great movie, but it is hard to watch that special brand of hatred that just never seems to be subdued...

This account of just SOME of the things Jackie Robinson endured is a lesson in restraint the likes of which we can't really imagine. The fact of the matter is that Robinson was truly a diamond in the rough. I don't even know anyone who could have endured the taunts, the endless indignities that he suffered to take away all of the excuses that had prevented baseball from being a sport all Americans could participate in. As you look around the baseball parks of today and see a rainbow coalition, remember that one man made it possible – before the bus boycott, before Brown vs. the Board of Education, before the Military was integrated, way before Title IX, someone convinced Jackie Robinson to take one for the nation. He should be on everyone's gratitude list.

Put yourself in his place for just a second -

You want to get married, you are barnstorming with the Negro Leagues making the most of your talent in the only place you are allowed to play, you're doing minor league football in the off season, and you've just given up track. Suddenly you are asked to take on one of most incredible tasks of all time – integrate white baseball, and hold your tongue and turn the other cheek when ridicule rains down on you like a flashflood – what would you do? I'm sure that even with the thought that he would be able to make a decent living, he also had to think that this task was too big for him....

You will note that there are no complaints about the liberal use of the “N word” in this movie. I saw “Django Unchained” and it's a toss up which movie used the word more. Between that, being tossed out of restaurants, being threatened with arrest, and with being barred from hotels, I really don't know how he dealt with it. You hear stories about how ethnic stars had to seek shelter in the home of friends and in little known motels that dotted the highway when they travelled because they were about as welcome as a plague of locusts at the five star hotels of the day. I remember BB King telling us that he stayed at the Palmer House because Hilton hotels were among the first to allow blacks to stay there.

The man who got this experiment in deferred appreciation going was Branch Rickey, the General Manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers. Haunted by the realization that he could have done more to help minorities in the past, Rickey decides to try and make amends, and at the same time win some more ball games by searching for the right person at the right time. Only Central Casting could have created a better candidate than Jackie Robinson. While he was a surprising candidate to some, Robinson hadn't been known for turning the other cheek as much as he was known for standing his ground. He understood, however, that if he didn't learn how to call on his better angels, it would have only fueled the fire that has kept us out of the mainstream for far too long.

Recently, the First Family hosted a screening of the movie and invited Robinson's widow, Rachel, who was also well depicted in the movie. Michelle Obama stated that she didn't know how the Robinsons endured in the face of such hatred. If you think like I do, you want to ask Michelle the same question – right?

April 15^th is Jackie Robinson Day – please join me in wearing a #42 jersey in honor of a real American hero.