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Comment by cgriswald | Hacker News Reader

> Will my offer be rescinded if I try to negotiate?

> So, if you’re talking to a super small company with one role that closes as soon as they find someone, yes, then they might rescind the offer.

This happened to me. I was perfectly polite, asked for a very modest increase from their severely low offer (after listening to a speech about how they couldn't get any good help), and would have even accepted the position if their response was "non-negotiable". They not only rescinded the offer, but they were ridiculous jerks about it.

> But, to be honest ... an early startup punishing a prospective employee for being entrepreneurial is a huge red flag to me.

That's exactly how I took it.

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This happened to me years ago when I was offered a position at EasyPost. I tried to counter politely and modestly, and the CEO (I can't remember his name) got mad at me, told me I should be grateful that I even got an offer, and then rescinded the offer. It was a pretty big turnoff, and I wound up being afraid of negotiating for another year or so. Nowadays, I realize that kind of response means the CEO is a dick and I'm glad I didn't take that job.

I’m so curious about the state of mind it takes to acknowledge you need to hire expertise, while simultaneously seeing your own need as being a favour to someone else.

It feels resentful, I can’t imagine a bigger red flag than someone who resents having to hire. They’re basically saying they would never even consider approaching you if they had a choice.

You’ll never get a respectful deal out of that, never mind a healthy work culture.

Heh. I love EasyPost's product and documentation, but I had some odd account management interactions with them early on. I later learned via LinkedIn that the emails I assumed were from a customer service rep were actually from the CEO. Go figure.

I don't work with them anymore due to a job change, but towards the end they were doing better on the account side of things, and I still recommend them. Great product.

The correct response is to laugh at them and move on. And mock them on HN.

It's worth being aggressively negative toward such companies, because negotiating to your market value is step one in leading a good life. The fact that they would have you not do this means they don't care about the quality of your life, so you shouldn't care about their company.

This happened to my partner. He was upset and I was as shocked as the author. Another job at a small company. We came to the conclusion that it was an extreme jerk move on the part of the company owner and they did us an enormous favor by removing themselves from our lives. The experience taught me to always attempt to negotiate, if for nothing else than to weed out the insane employers who will no doubt throw you under the bus at the first convenient moment.

> This happened to me. I was perfectly polite, asked for a very modest increase from their severely low offer (after listening to a speech about how they couldn't get any good help), and would have even accepted the position if their response was "non-negotiable".

If their offer was "severely low", then why would you accept it?

Certainly, from their perspective, their offer wasn't low - you would have accepted it!

It was enough to bring you on board.

> They not only rescinded the offer, but they were ridiculous jerks about it.

If what you say is true, and they responded unprofessionally to a polite attempt to negotiate - then you're better off not working there.

My wife had something like that happen to her. Twice. Without even an onsite (at both times she worked across the country) they gave her an offer. In one case she countered, in the other she waited to think it over (though it was still well within the deadline they had given her). In both cases they rescinded the offer. In both cases she feels she dodged a bullet.

Unless the job is something that literally anyone could do I’d be very hesitant to accept an offer without an on-site interview or two.

Just ask for a better signing bonus to offset any short term risk (i.e. if you need to quit because they're hiding something).

Most places stipulate you pay them back the signing bonus if you leave within a year.

I have had this happen twice to me ever, one being a startup that went on to fail, and the other being Amazon. I now work at a different FAANG.

Amazon balked at me asking for $250k minimum total compensation for a position in San Francisco and decided to ghost me when we were in the process of scheduling an onsite interview & do preliminary negotiation in parallel.

Unfortunately for them, they lost a potential top engineer who probably will never accept an offer with them ever again as a result.

I had the same problem with Amazon and it was downright shocking but I'm glad it happened. Now I know to avoid Amazon recruiters.

>They not only rescinded the offer, but they were ridiculous jerks about it.

Well, if their offer was "severely low", they're like a beggar being a jerk at someone who think didn't give them enough money...

In what way did they become a jerk after you asked for an increase?

> They not only rescinded the offer, but they were ridiculous jerks about it.

You dodged a bad company. Not too bad.

Care to share their name? It will save time from getting wasted.

I'd say that if someone can negotiate something significantly better, they're probably not dependent on any given offer anyway.

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