Yesterday a client walked me through their concerns about a job. They’d had a promising first round interview, but weren’t certain they’d take the job if offered.
I have a strong point of view on this. The time to decide whether you want a job is when it has been offered to you. It’s premature to decide before then.
Of course, I wouldn’t have earned my law degree if I didn’t throw in some quibbles and “it depends”. Your time, and the hiring team’s time, are valuable. You shouldn’t waste energy or relationship capital if you know you’re not serious about something.
But until a hiring team really knows and wants you, you can’t be certain which aspects of the job are fixed. Some might be negotiable, once they see how great you are. And you’ll never know as much about the job in the early rounds as you will after you’ve met more people and had deeper and longer conversations. What are the people like? What do they love about working there? What responsibilities might you have right away, and what growth possibilities are there?
You’ll also get smarter, more confident, and more experienced as you move further along in a job search process. Even if you aren’t the successful candidate, you may form relationships with people in the organization — who suggest you to colleagues, or tell you about related positions they think you’d be good at. You’ll practice telling your story and see what resonates with different audiences.
Of course you need to protect your time, your feelings, and your aspirations. And you don’t want to be disrespectful of the needs and priorities of people you connect with along the way. But it’s usually a mistake to assume you know everything about the terms of a job before it’s offered to you.
