I recently have spent over two months working through the process for a job I really wanted. During that journey I’d made mistakes that I feel are worth sharing. Hopefully you can take these lessons to heart.  If you are ever in a similar position you won’t repeat them.

Mistake #1, I stopped looking

The first mistake was to stop looking. I still responded to recruiters, but let them know there was something in the works that was exciting and “should fall into place soon.” During that time nearly 25% of the 60 jobs I’d saved on LinkedIn have expired. It is easy to rationalize that I’m looking for the right opportunity.  That being said, I don’t recall ever going this long without something right falling into place. And the reality is that when you don’t have multiple choices the negotiating power decreases. You also could end up in a space where you aren’t as sure of the one you are about to commit to. The more positions you’ve seen the more certain you will be of the one that is right.

Mistake #2, I didn’t give all the details to the recruiter

The second mistake was that I didn’t communicate enough about my excitement and interest to the external recruiter. Now I see opinions that recruiters are challenging or flaky, but the truth is that most have been worthwhile to work with. The one for this opportunity has gone above and beyond. They are the kind of person that when I need to find talent I know who I’d want to contract with for the search.

In this case I was on step 5 of 7 in the interview process, probably 5 weeks into the journey. Turns out another candidate for the role who was at the same stage received an offer from a different firm. He went to the hiring manager for the role I wanted and said “I want to work for you. Here’s the other offer I got and what it takes to get me on board.” They needed the position filled months ago and decided it was better to go with the sure thing than to continue the evaluation process. (And believe it or not – this candidate signed the job offer then ended up going somewhere else!) If I had let the recruiter know how bad I wanted this one, plus not made the next mistake this twist could have caused them to rapidly accelerate things with me instead.

Mistake #3, I didn’t properly articulate my compensation goals

That last mistake was not properly articulating my compensation requirements. I had asked for details on the health coverage.  Also as well as to confirm that I’d only be in SF while coming up to speed as well as when it was relevant or would make a difference. The hiring manager said this was his desire, but he needed to confirm with someone else that this was okay. He also said he’d track down a benefits brochure to send me. I had asked for these details nearly a week before the other candidate gave them that ultimatum.  The answers would have been very important since they would have a large impact for me.

Now in hindsight you might say “But they never got back to you!” The reality is I could have positioned it like this: “If the healthcare coverage is similar to what I had at Fastly, and the onsite expectations are as we initially discussed I’d like to see a base of $X.” This way if the coverage was not as good or if the onsite requirements changed to requiring set days in SF (which impacts my quality of life as well as decreases my effectiveness) I could then discuss or renegotiate.

I am going to be just fine.  In the week since I stopped being so invested in this opportunity I have applied to more than 25 roles where I’d be a fit and find the work interesting. Averaging an interview or discovery call a day right now and I know I’ll find what I am looking for. But perhaps things could have happened faster if I’d handled things different in these three areas. Hopefully there was something about my experience that you can learn from!

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