Exploding Job Offers Are Bullshit

At least push back. It's not unreasonable to say "tomorrow is not enough time; can you give me another two weeks?" If they're not willing to be flexible on a little issue like this, I'd take that as a sign that I should expect that type of inflexibility were I to become an employee.

The best candidates will often have multiple job offers before they walk in to the interview. By pulling stunts like this, companies are basically weeding out the best candidates and ensuring they do get the candidates who aren't sure they'll get anything better. Do you want to work at a place like that? Do you want to work at a place filled with people like that?

There was an article on LinkedIn today about the same topic.

http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20140113134951-69...

Let's separate the world into 2 camps: experienced hires, and college hires.

Experienced Hires should always have a reasonable period, but it shouldn't be definite. By the time you get an offer, you should have a decent enough idea on whether you'll accept it. A week should be enough to consult an attorney, talk to your spouse, and give you firm a chance to counter if you so desire. If you are up front about other places that you're looking at (especially if you were talking to them first) then perhaps you can ask for a week more, but it's delicate. You can't ask for more time if you've been saying "You're the only ones I'm talking to, because I'm not in the market" even if you are coming from a stronger position.

College hires are different, because as a population they are both easier to abuse, and more likely to engage in unprofessional behavior (saying Yes to multiple firm, or reneging). It's in a company's best interest to know which interns are coming back, so they can plan Fall recruiting in an organized fashion. (Do I need to hire 5 more people, or 15?) Schools know that this puts undue pressure on their students. The best schools with the strongest placement offices can make policies that say, "You have to let offers stand until X weeks into the Fall semester." If a firm wants to hire from MIT, they'll follow it. Weaker schools can't get away with this. What happens, then, is big companies that can play the yield game better ("I'll convert 70-80% of intern offers, 50-60% of campus offers, so to get to a class of 18-20 I'll make 10 and 12") recruit at the strong schools, while firms that can't tend to go to other schools, or off-cycle recruiting.

I'm not really against them. I worked somewhere that kept having hiring freezes and they would have made everyone (except payroll perhaps) happier if they made a sequence of short lived offers. Instead, a favored and frequently overqualified candidate would drag their feet and ultimately no one was hired.

I've never simply delayed as a candidate, if I've been less than thrilled with an offer, I've simply stated the terms necessary for me to accept the job right away. Thus far I've either gotten my terms or met about midway with a little time to contemplate the acceptability of the perceived loss.

This makes it far easier for the hiring manager to make a decisions in parallel, request a higher salary for all his negotiations once if necessary, maybe extend a exploding offer to a similar candidate and not have to string along a series of ranked candidates.

I think the author has it backwards. Expiration dates in offer letters are normal, and should always be included. "Bullshit" is the exception: expiration dates that give you only 1-2 days.

In the normal course of things, you want the expiration date to be there because the offer letter (depending on your jurisdiction) can be binding, and you don't want the candidate holding on to it forever and messing with your ability to hire someone in a timely manner.

I usually add a 10 business day expiration, which allows the candidate enough time to consult lawyers/SOs while still maintaining the company's interests.

If you only have funds to fill one job opening; you might want your first choice to answer before your second choice gets too cold.