Roadmap to the Executive Suite

What To Do If Your Job Offer Gets Pulled Back

October 20, 2022 Claudia Miller Season 2 Episode 19
Roadmap to the Executive Suite
What To Do If Your Job Offer Gets Pulled Back
Show Notes Transcript

So you have a job offer, you just gave your two weeks' notice to your current employer, and then the company you are transferring to suddenly pulls back the job offer. What can you do about it? How do you avoid being in this situation?

This scenario is so common and very possible in today’s market. And I want to share this episode and help you take a proactive stance should this happen to you. I will share the reasons why companies pull back and how you can avoid companies that may pull back job offers. I will share my thoughts on legal actions you can take should you find yourself in this situation. I will also share some strategies that can help you when a company pulls back its offer.


In This Podcast We Talk About:

  • The reasons why companies pull back job offers.  
  • What legal actions can you take against companies that pull back offers?
  • What to do when a company pulls back your offer.


About Me:
I started my career like many people do: in an entry level role making around $35K a year, was the first to arrive and last to leave, putting a 110% into my job…But it wasn’t enough.

I was consistently being passed up for promotions and realized I was being underpaid compared to my colleagues.

I knew that in order to get ahead in my career and be able to make the money I wanted… to support the lifestyle I wanted…something had to change.

So, I started investing in myself. I worked with a career coach, resume writer, read every career book that I could get my hands on, enrolled in career courses, and studied colleagues wo seemed to be crushing it in their careers. And after investing over $20,000 in resources, coaches, and books…and spending thousands of hours over five years…I realized that many of the common advice out there did NOT move the needle when it came to advancing your career!

Instead, I handpicked and carefully selected what worked to create my now signature program, 90-Day Job Offer, that is unlike anything that is out there. I wish a program like this existed when I was going through my career advancement and salary negotiations. If so, it would have been a fraction of the cost and saved me over four years of frustration of trial-and-error.

Since then, my clients have taken my ready-to-use resources to advance their careers in 90-days or less, and secured on average a 56% increase in salary (to date my clients have received $30,000 - $140,000 in additional earned income per year)!!

I help women in technology land fulfilling, high-paying jobs at a company that values and appreciates them. I’m on a mission to help women in tech collectively earn over a $1M in the next year.

Will you join me?

Links Mentioned:

Get to know more about My 90-Day Job Offer Program here:
https://keap.page/fxp705/template-accept-payment-mobile.html 

Click here to apply to work with me:

https://form.typeform.com/to/tsdGyg2x 

Roadmap to the Executive Suite: https://www.roadmaptotheexecutivesuite.com/ 

Looking for your next job or brand new career in construction, manufacturing, and hospitality? Check out Hire360 here:

https://hire360chicago.com/ 



Claudia Miller:

Welcome to roadmap to the executive suite podcast, a place where we talk about accelerating your careers all tailored to the ambitious woman. We're here to have fun, feel empowered and get actionable steps to get you closer to your dream job and salary, no matter where you are in your career. I'm your host, Claudia Miller, Athena, career coach and corporate trainer who helps ambitious women get the jobs they want, almost getting them up to $100,000 in salary increases. I've been featured in Forbes MSNBC, and Business Insider put me there Top Global list of top innovative career coaches, and the creative 90 day job offer program where I teach career driven women like you my proprietary strategy on how to land a job you love in less than 90 days, all while getting 30 to$100,000 in salary increases, no matter if you're just starting in your career, or you're ready to pivot into the executive suite. My clients have been able to move to the next step in their careers successfully pivoted into new industries without having to take a pay cut and broke it into management without any prior experience. I'm coming to you with a new episode every week on Thursdays with mindset job search, interview skills and sound negotiation advice with actionable strategies you can implement today to help you get ahead in your career. Now let's get started with this week's episode. I'm excited for today's topic. Although I'll admit all the topics I talked about, I'm excited to talk about them. That's why I chose them. So for this one, today's topic is what to do if your job offer gets pulled back, meaning what should you do if your job offer gets rescinded? So that's probably every job seekers worst nightmare, getting their job offer pulled back, especially after they put in their two weeks notice at their current employer, you're probably asking yourself, Is this even legal? They promise me I went to the interview process, I spent so much time preparing for it. Everything looks good. You extended the job offer and now you're pulling it back? Is this even legal? What are you supposed to do now? Especially if you declined or rescinding your candidacy at other companies? Maybe they you were interviewing, you know, what should you do? Now what is best practice. So today, I want to talk about reasons why companies pull back their job offers, what you can do about it legally, and how we can avoid situations like this to the best of our ability. Now I like to take the proactive stance, and I like to focus on what we can control. Since we can't control everything, I'll focus on what we can control. But I wanted to give you a premise of the situation so you have a full understanding of it. And this episode is all about helping you land the job you want, even in a volatile market that we're in at this moment. So why do companies pull back their job offer? Well, it can be for very multiple reasons. And at least for this one, I'm going to say two legal reasons. There are multiple legal reasons why unfortunately, companies pull back the job offer. So let's dive in. There are actually five top reasons why a company may pull back the job offer. One, it could be that you just didn't pass the background check or the drug test. I know that in some areas, some drugs are illegal, but in others it isn't. So companies that you're applying for, find out where they're headquartered in. And usually you have to go by where the company's headquarters is based off. So if it's not legal in that state, you may have to take a drug test, even though it's legal in your state. So make sure you keep an eye out on that. When again, background checks, that could be a reason you just didn't pass a background check. And the company has a legal reason, or legal motive to rescind or pull back that job offer to you didn't respond by the deadline. Job offers usually have a in the letter of time specified by when you need to respond to. So if you don't know that deadline, you can always ask the recruiter or the hiring manager or whoever is extending that offer. When do you need an answer by or what's the latest I can give you a response that will you know and also reviewed the job offer letter to figure out what is that that light that way you can respond by that timeframe. Three, it could be something you did it didn't rattle off the company very well. Maybe your manager reached out to you and you said something inappropriate through email. Maybe you posted something on social media and then you know the hiring manager or HR seven within the company, saw your posts were offended by it and then now they just don't feel like you might be a good fit for the company. So just an FYI just keep an eye out on activity, how you interact, you still always want to maintain that level of respect and it's still workplace. So maybe if they invite you to a happy hour before you started your job. You know, always be careful. We're still in a professional setting. This is not the place in time to talk about very inappropriate things or say inappropriate jokes that might be okay with your friends, but maybe not in this setting, and you haven't built rapport. So be wary of that. And again, what you post on social media for, it could be just a company setback. And we've seen this a lot, it could be from financial reasons, maybe the company lost the big client, maybe policies in place are impacting the company in a negative way. As we can see, there's been a lot of stuff happening, especially within the tech space when it comes to chips and everything and supply chain and policies in place. So you just want to keep a pulse in the market to see how it's been performing. And again, is your company is acceptable to a lot of these policies, again, in a negative way. It can also be an acquisition, your company is getting acquired, or you're the acquirer. Usually, when a physician comes along, they stop hiring practices, because they need to integrate both companies, then they need to assess if there is people doing the same work, and if so, somebody's got to go. And maybe they'll let them go. Or they just reroute them to another department within the organization. But that could be another reason why a company may pull back the offer. And sometimes not everyone is aware that the company has been acquired or they're acquiring, usually, that's only visible to certain handful of people, and maybe your hiring manager didn't know. So that could be a very big reason why they pull back the job offer. And then five, it could just be a disagreement among decision makers. Maybe they're trying to figure out, no, it's this role even needed, or which will kind of take a priority for one of my clients, she was interviewing, and she brought up a good point and almost like a gap in their hiring practice, she brought to the point that legally per you know, this regulation body, they had to have X position in place before she should be brought in. And no one else brought this to mind, because no one asked the questions that they should. But my client was prepared and ready. They then agreed and realized that they needed to fill in that position first, before she got her role. So that's why they pull back the offer. And they said, Hey, we notice and realize that you're right, we could actually get sued, and we can get in big trouble. We need to hire for this role have this set in place. And then we can hire for this position. So those are the top five legal reasons why a company can pull back their job offer. And then you want to make sure that you know which one of those reasons as you have been impacted by this or you want to prepare yourself in case something like this were to happen. And I know overall, being in this situation is uncomfortable, frustrating and very painful. Especially because you invested so much time and effort you put in that two weeks known as your current company, maybe you pull back from some of the other interviews you're doing. And then now you're left with nothing. So if you've been a victim of getting your offer rescinded, or you want to learn what you can do, if this ever happened to you, then you want to pay close attention to the following. So here are the four things you can do. If you ever get your job offer pull back. One, you want to email the primary contact, and different companies have different settings. It could be you've been contacting the hiring manager this whole time. Or it could be that you've worked with the recruiter the whole time, you want to make sure you contact that primary person and email them and ask to speak with them for 15 minutes to learn more, a lot of the primary contact is less likely to be honest with you through email, because it puts them in the company at risk. But they're more likely to be honest with you over the phone. So you want to get on a 15 minute call to figure out which one of those five reasons they pull back the job offer. Is there something happening in the company? Did they lose that big client? Did they get impacted negatively, and they're trying to stay conservative because of some of the policies that may be inactive. So you want to understand the reason why. And that will help you in navigating the next step, which is to look for opportunities within the organization and ask him you can be put in contact with the recruiter and or hiring manager for current open roles. Not if the reason why the pullback up offer is because you've been acquired and there's a higher phrase among two organizations. Well, it's probably not going to make sense for you to ask some others any other job opportunities because everything's put on hold at this point. But you can always ask them, Do you have any other companies? Or do you have any context recruiters that you feel like I can reach out to that may have opportunities for the jobs that I'm looking for? Typically, recruiters and hiring managers know other people in the industry. I know for some of my contacts, one recruiter can have access to 1015 recruiters at different industries, different verticals, different departments, different organizations. So they to have a community so be able to tap into them. But again, if we know that internally, there's just not going to be any opportunity. You don't want to ask, is there any other department within the organization that are hiring at the moment. So that's why you want to make sure you find out the reason why. Because it's for whatever good reason, maybe they said, Hey, we identified that we need to hire for this role before we enact and hire for this role, then you can ask, you know, is there any other organization, you think it'd be a good fit based on my background and expertise, again, that one recruiter can bring you five to 10 other opportunities. So you want to make sure you ask them, or you can ask them to get you connected to someone else. If you already got a job offer, you're already good fit at this point in time, as long as again, you didn't fail the background check, or you didn't post something inappropriate or did something inappropriate to someone within the organization. But for the most part, you were already hired because you were qualified. And something unfortunate happened. And then they're more likely to help you because they know the situation they put you in is very uncomfortable. And then three, don't take it personal. Again, as long as it wasn't your fault. Like if you know, there's something that's going to show up in your background check, be vocal about it, be upfront, mentioned that during the interview process, yes, it might cost you the interview. But again, it's also going to cost you at the end, once you do a background check after the job offer. And it puts you in a very uncomfortable situation. My recommendation is always be honest in the front. And if the company is okay with it, you continue moving forward, and you know that that won't longer be an issue. So if as long as it's not, like I said anything, something you did miss out your actions and your background, just don't take it personal things happen. Like I said, we're in a very volatile marketplace, there's a lot of things happening, policy wise, there are organizations out there that are doing hiring freezes, there's a recession looming in and people tend to tighten up their wallets, they tend to be more conservative. So things do happen. But there are ways that you want to be able to protect yourself and diversify your opportunities. And I'm actually going to dive into that in a little bit. But I just wanted to bring that in, don't take it personal. And I know it's easier said than done. But just know that one, you want to get that clarity on why they pull back the job offer. And if it's nothing that you did, then understand that it's out of your control. And I rather you focus on things that you can control. Looking for your next job or brand new career, hire 360 provides opportunities in construction, manufacturing, and hospitality through organizations like the Chicago Transit Authority related Midwest and starting, they get started today with training, mentorship, and more at hire 360 chicago.com. Now for if you're on good terms with your previous employer, what you want to do is ask if we can extend your notice period, some companies will be happy to have you work for an additional few weeks. Now, if you're like I don't want to go back there. But I'm willing to work another three to four weeks until I get my next job and get interview started rolling in, then have the conversation. But again, that depends on what your relationship was with that company with that manager, the opportunities and how you left off. I know for some of my previous employment, they would have been happy me in my time there and some even offered, if I can work part time for them. Until you know, they were able to get back to speed. Because I was moving in and I had to do a lot of that transfer knowledge. So have that conversation. And again, it's on a per case basis. So now that you know what to do after you get the job offer rescinded, here's what you can do to protect yourself and avoid the situation to the best of your ability. Again, none of us are mind reader's, at least I'm not. And I tried to make sure like what can we do to stay proactive, and even avoid getting into a situation like this? At the best of our ability. Like I said, this can happen out of nowhere, if it's a policy change, that can disrupt the market overnight. I mean, I don't have insights. Instead, I ended up with the general public. And again, when it happens, it's usually very prompt and swift. So now that you know what to do after the job offer, here's what you can do to protect yourself and avoid a situation. One, you want to start reviewing the company and its financials and activity. So does the company tend to have layoffs or restructures on an annual basis? Had they lost a big deal client or they're getting acquired? I mean, sometimes by the time that paperwork is signed, they announce it. So keep an eye out within that specific company or that specific industry you're in. Look at what's happening in the industry overall. Are there any policies or changes that can negatively impact the company or disrupt the marketplace? That could be another good indicator to help you understand, hey, do I need to protect myself? Should I shift my focus to more recession proof industries? What transferable skills do I have that can fit those industries versus where I'm currently in? Because right now, you know, 60% of the companies within my industry aren't just doing freezing hires or doing layoffs or restructures. You also want to start putting in Google alerts for companies or industries that you're in so that will you're always In the know, every morning, make a habit of it, change it. And, you know, you could check your email, whenever it is that you wake up or from your bed, I started looking one of the Google Alerts is a company I just applied to, did I just get a Google alert that they just got acquired? Or did they lose a huge client? Or did they get a good partnership with another big company, and they're looking to create over a new product or service to the marketplace. So those are the things that you want to stay consistent. And in the note, like I said, I rather just automate this instead of you going in physically, every single time, I rather just create a Googler, and then have it straight to my inbox. I review it and then I can assess, hey, is this good, this is bad, or is this no change in the marketplace. So that's a really good strategy for you to implement. Now, next thing you want to do is you want to network with internal employees at your new company, where you received a new job offer. So Acme offers you extend the job offer great, you want to start networking with people that currently work there and say, hey, you know, I'm, you know, I just got hired at Acme Company, and I'll be starting my wanting to network and tap into your expertise, to learn more about the company and organization overall, to give me a head start, you know, before I start my day, before I start my job, you know, Would you be open to a 1520 minute conversation? And then that's when you can ask a little bit more about, you know, how has the company been impacted since COVID? They might say, Oh, my God, we've laid off so many people. It's crazy. I'm surprised I'm still standing. Or it could be you know, what, it's actually been great. We've had an increase in business, and the company has been hiring a lot. And there's been a lot of opportunities. You can also ask, What's it like working at the company? You know, how long have you been here? You know, can you tell me a little bit more about the department? Or what are the biggest goal for the department? Or what are the biggest challenges, you also want to reach out to people that used to work at that company, and like, more likely, a little bit recent, not someone that left five years ago, but maybe someone that left in the past three to six months, and connect with them and say, Hey, I would love to get your insights into the company, I saw that you worked on X company, and I'm about to start, but I will love your expertise and insights into the industry and the company itself. Ask them why they leave the company? Did they leave for ladder row? Or did they leave for promotion? I mean, those are things that you can typically see on LinkedIn. It could also be that you can ask them, you know, how would you describe the culture at the company, one of my clients asked this of a previous employee, and they shared that the company tends to do secret layoffs, to layoffs, you need to have a certain percentage to be considered a layoff. And if it's under that percentage, it's considered a restructure. So usually, layoffs tend to get more publicity than restructure. So what companies do is instead of doing this big layoff, they do little layoffs, or restructure. So that way, they don't get any news media coverage. But my client found out that this company has to do secret layoffs, or they do layoffs every single year around this timeframe. So now they know that insight in that Intel into the company. Also they might say, hey, because we lost our biggest client, and I knew there wasn't gonna be any upward mobility for me, so I had to go elsewhere. That's probably good to know. The next thing is you want to continue interviewing after you've accepted the job offer. Just because extend the job offer, we know that it's not always going to stay that way. So if your interview with other companies continue to interview with them, maybe they give you a really great offer. You never know what can happen and you want to keep your options open. This is what I mean by diversifying your opportunities, not until you finish the interview process. And if they extend it, I mean, it's up to you, you can also resend back your candidacy and that offer that company. Remember, it goes both ways they can pull back the job offer you can pull back your candidacy for that role as well, depends on the legal terms when it comes within the contract. For the most part, both parties can win a lead leave from that job offer. So continue interviewing and always ask, you know, by one is the latest you need a response by and then that, again, gives you a little bit of cushion and helps mitigate risk while you're waiting for your new job to start. So you want to almost create an overlap. And you know, those are different or three different ways on how you can protect yourself to get as much overlap as you can about the company, the industry itself and how to create yourself a little cushion to really protect yourself in case they do pull back the job offer. So I hope that none of you will never have to deal with such thing dealing with a company that pulls back your job offer. I don't want anyone to go through this situation. But I do want you to prepare for it in case it does happen so you know how to protect yourself. And if you've been impacted I am so sorry to hear that. I hope that some of the strategies here can help you in understanding what you can do. Moving forward, meaning with a company that pulled back the offer, identifying why it happened, but also how to protect yourself in the future. And these are some of the examples on how I help my clients stay proactive when it comes to their job search, and giving them back control in their careers. Even in this volatile market right now, my clients know exactly what to look for, in order for them to avoid unstable companies and industries. So my philosophy is let's control what we can, let's look at the data. And let's even avoid going into companies or even interviewing companies that are not financially stable, that have lost declines that are in a very volatile industry that is going downhill and there hasn't been any growth these past few months or years. I rather my clients avoid those industries, and go into industries or companies that are have been performing really well that are thriving or growing, are creating partnerships, that immigrant explode their growth. I want my clients and I want you to focus on those industries, because there are always winners and losers. Even during the recession, there are organizations and companies that thrive. And that's been their biggest growth, because that's when they able to shine and really able to be successful because they tend to do well during a recession. So focus on those companies and industries. Do your due diligence study, get your company insights, do that research stay up to date. And again, mitigate risks, continue interviewing with those companies, even after you accepted the job offer. In case this company pulls back the job offer, you're still having opportunities you're interviewing with. And if they were to pull back the offer, well, then you still have companies you're interviewing with, and that you haven't put to rest because you've actually kept those conversations. So I hope these strategies that I share with you helps you in your job search and has sparked some ideas on how you can protect yourself and mitigate risk. There are other strategies that you can learn in my career coaching program called 90 day job offer. And my program, it helps you stay in the driver's seat and help you land a fulfilling job while getting paid more. And like I said, my clients on average get a 56% salary increases. And my clients have received up to $140,000 in additional earned income. And I actually just recently had a client get a 75% salary increase. So these are great stories that I have for you that have been recent, I don't even talk about case studies or situations pre COVID. At this point, just because the marketplace has gotten very competitive and saturated. All the stories you hear from me are from the past three months to two years, I don't got anything far back. Even I like to even only bring up case studies from 2021, just because things change a lot very quickly. But if you're interested in applying or to see if you're a good fit for 90 day job offer, I've included an application link, we can find that if this is a good fit for you. I only work with clients that I know that I can help. This is my business. So I take brand very seriously. And I only work with clients that I know I can help. And if you're like well, if you can help me, you can apply to work with me and then we can assess if we're a good fit together. All right, I hope this was helpful and let me know which one of those insights that I just share and strategies did you find most valuable? All right, take care. Did you know I have started 100% free Facebook group dedicated to making job searching easy for career driven women and help them master their interviewing, networking and start negotiation skills. And we're doing free weekly trainings covering everything from how to sell yourself to increasing your salary by 30% minimum. Plus, you'll be in there with a network of other ambitious women. So make sure to join us by texting us the word join 28449951523 And we'll see you there