Negotiated Out of a Job

>> This candidate really has no idea what s/he was considering stepping into at a [small liberal arts college]. While s/he could have done the job just fine, working at a [small liberal arts college] is, above all, about collegiality and teaching ability, and this candidate basically offered [several] counterpoints to her being able to fulfill that part of the college's mission.

It wasn't that the candidate was negotiating, it was that the candidate showed herself to be a bad fit for the hiring college. The salary she asked for may have been "market" but probably not for a small college. The other points were mainly about limiting the amount of time she would be teaching -- which is not what a small college wants to hear.

The fact that they probably had trouble deciding between a few candidates meant it was easy to toss her out of the pile and go with candidate #2.

If I got an offer from a scrappy young startup I wouldn't counter with a list of perks someone might expect at Google and/or a bygone era.

It's signalling. An employer that refuses to negotiate is looking for employees that are easily bullied. If they have lots of candidates to choose from who allowed themselves to be bullied, they can get away with this. Do you really want to work for them? I would consider it good luck to be able to get out of a bad situation before you potentially put yourself in a situation you cannot get out of (because of leases/house purchases, loss of time and money moving for the new job, contracts, etc)

Well, to be fair, she was asking for a LOT of time off above and beyond what was already policy.

That's not going to go over well, ever.

In addition, while they will never mention it, I guarantee that maternity leave question is what killed the deal. Someone thought: "If she doesn't get that, is she just going to quit when she has a child? Crap. We'll have to go hiring again in 2-3 years. Um, no. Let's go to the next person--preferably male."

so i list a camera on ebay for $500. bids come in. someone leaves a message that says, "i'm willing to pay $540 for this over 6mths, with payments starting 3mths from now". if i'm bored i might actually respond to that saying no thanks i'll wait for the auction to close. that someone is also free to make similiar offers to other auctioneers. and take the rejections as insults or something..

"One reader said it was simply a “buyers’ market,”"....

It still seems in poor taste and I'm glad it is public.