Ask the Headhunter on the Job Offer Fallacy (The #1 Thing to Do)

My friend and one of the best bloggers in the job search and career space, Nick Corcodilos, at Ask the Headhunter, wrote about the job search fallacy yesterday. His post, The Job Offer Fallacy: A Deadly Assumption, is a great (and timely) post.

A week or two ago I was on a call with a friend who had a job offer, turned in their notice at their current job, and the same day had the job offer rescinded because of budget reasons. It was devastating, to say the least. Because they turned in notice they weren’t qualified for unemployment. All because they trusted the written offer. You assume it is real, official, and somehow binding if it is written, right?

Wrong.

This is where real life, real expectations, and real consequences met the job offer fallacy.

Seriously, go read Nick’s post, The Job Offer Fallacy: A Deadly Assumption. Make sure to read the comments… there are some brilliant thought there, as well as some cautionary tales.

What is the #1 Thing to Do to Avoid the Job Offer Fallacy?

KEEP JOB SEARCHING. Keep networking, keep interviewing, entertain multiple offers. Keep going.

Nick talks about the “Ask the Headhunter files.” Here’s one from the JibberJobber files… someone emailed me thanking me for having creating JibberJobber and then said they found their dream job, “could you please delete my account?” I asked if they were sure, and didn’t they want to keep all that intelligence in there for their next job search, which would statistically in the next 2 – 5 years? “No thank you, this is my dream job and I’m close enough to retirement that I’m sure I’ll retire from this job.”

I was happy this person found their dream job. I did as they asked and deleted their account. All of their contacts, log entries, contact info, context, etc. was gone. I hated doing it because I regularly preach about keeping this info for “your next job search.”