Sometimes you may come across an employer who needs to fill a position immediately and they are desperate. It could be for many reasons.
- Some guy on an important project or task quit without warning due to some “emergency”
- Nearing an important deadline and they are far from done, need more people in the team to finish the job on time
- Sometimes the team realizes they need an individual who has a particular set of skills and no one in the team possess those skills
- They got a new client and a project and they have promised the moon to the clients. Now they need somebody to start working on the project ASAP
- Or it could be some other reason
If you feel you have them by the balls, you can act like you are interested but not that keen or eager to join and use this to get as much of a salary bump as possible.
Of course this is possible when you have done the interview well first!
Story Time:
I had once interviewed at a company located in Mysore who was trying to fill a position fast. I live in Bangalore and the interview team comprising of HR and the team manager had come down from Mysore to interview the shortlist. The technical interview went well, I asked plenty of questions regarding the job and also how long they are going to stay in Bangalore for the interviews.
They were there for the weekend and it didn’t look like there were too many people shortlisted for the interview. I got this feeling from the conversation and the fact that I was the only guy present for the interview at CofeeDay when I came in and when I left. I could tell from intuition there were not many people interviewing for this position. It looked like the position was created at short notice.
Based on this and the fact that the HR doesn’t want to sacrifice their weekends every week to travel out of town to conduct interviews, I had leverage and was at an advantage. Nobody wants to deal with their spouses complaining and whining about the missed weekends.
I had good leverage to negotiate a maximum salary they were willing to offer and the fact that my first round went well, I could go into the next rounds with confidence and an advantage.
Following week I was asked to interview with the VP of the company and travelled to Mysore. During the interview when I asked “When will you make a decision?”. He replied “We have few more candidates. It may take another week to interview and make a decision.”.
I replied “That is not a problem, I have few more interviews to finish, this will give me enough time to make a decision on the offers.”.
I could see him react slightly but managed to hide his surprise at my answer.
What this did was show him I was not desperate or in a hurry to get the job. I had options and I was going to take my own sweet time to make the decision. It showed they needed me more than I needed them. When you find yourself in this situation make full use of it. Don’t be shy or feel greedy. At the end of the day it is a business decision! Nothing less nothing more.
This tip will probably come in handy for folks with experience, they can use this more effectively. But it doesn’t mean it may not help you if you are a fresher. If not today, in future when your career has grown, maybe you can use it when you are switching jobs.
If you don’t do this correctly, you run the risk of losing the opportunity. Use this wisely. It can be very effective.
P.S. I did get the job after another round of interview on the phone with the CTO in the USA (head office). Unfortunately I couldn’t take the job due to some logistical issues. I was actually excited about the job position and the projects I was going to work on.
See you read the PS again! Told you!
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