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Comment by strictnein | Hacker News Reader

> "Quite honestly given your questions [about vacation policy] and the fact that you are considering other options, [we] may not be the best choice for you."

I had a very similar experience. Job offer was basically on the table and then they balked because I mentioned that I had another offer (at a larger company, which they seemed shocked/annoyed with) and I had a question about parking at their new offices. The current offices had free parking, so I had simply asked if the new ones would too. The response was very cold (must have a been the source of internal strife, I guess?). An hour later I got a call saying they were no longer interested.

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It is always the case that you are better off learning that the company is dysfunctional before your acceptance than after.

It still hurts, of course.

Both of your points I find extremely surprising. I've found that mentioning that I have other offers makes me a more competitive pick (this reflects my experience when I was a recruiter as well), and that's very weird that they balked at your question about parking. Honestly you probably dodged a bullet.

That's been my takeaway too. Company was purchased by a huge private equity firm last fall (KKR), so I probably would have been out of there by now regardless.

Mentioning that you had another offer can be tricky. Did they ask you if you were seeing other companies? Did you just put it out there? Did you put them on a deadline?

Mentioning that you have another offer is seen as a negotiating tactic. Then they have to compete/bid against the other offer, and you are removing some of their leverage/power. A strong reaction to such a move can be to cut off the interview, so to regain back their power.

I think they may have asked me, although, to be honest, I'm not 100% how it came up. It wasn't me putting them on a deadline though, I just try to be pretty open about things in general.

Yes, you're correct. But it's best to walk away from companies who try to own you to that level. If a good company respects and wants you, they are completely OK with giving up some of their leverage in order to gain your trust as well as they can.

I've had a company bail on me when I asked about what their policy was on working on open source / side projects on weekends! You never know. Different companies get squirrelly about different things.

Just to play devil's advocate here, in many cases the reasons stated for refusal are only one part of it.

In his case, the author doesn't seem to have had an offer on the table. Perhaps the interviewer felt as though the candidate was trying to negotiate too much, too early in the process. Perhaps the interview didn't go over all that well?

Wow!

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