Gambit

About three weeks ago I got a line on a Technical Writing job here in town. It was a contract position, which meant I would have to go through a recruiter to have a chance at it. I don't normally like to go that way because when you work with recruiters you sometimes end up getting screwed. But with nothing else even remotely shining on the horizon, I felt like I really didn't have a choice.

The people seemed nice enough, but there were problems right from the start. They asked for my salary requirements, which I had already provided -- but there was some kind of confusion and they ended up submitting my name for the position with an hourly asking price that was waaay below what I actually wanted. I brought this up with the recruiter I was dealing with -- but she downplayed it, saying if I did get an offer, I could always counter.

Then there was the whole fiasco with the telephone interview, where basically I was given the wrong phone number to call, and ended up missing the appointed time while everyone scrambled to figure out what the problem was. Long story short, I ended up doing the interview a few days later -- which seemed to go pretty well. The hiring manager at the company said he wanted to move fast on this, so I would probably be hearing something very soon.

This is where things get start to get weird.

The next morning I get a call from a different recruiter asking about the exact same job, but at a much higher payrate.

To be honest, if I hadn't already had the interview I probably would have jumped on it, but I was already one foot in -- and felt like I had a pretty good chance at landing the gig. Switching recruiters at this point seemed unprofessional. So eventually I ended up calling the people who had gotten me the interview and told them the situation. It felt like a good move, like I was building karma with the recruiter while making sure to stand my ground about the money I wanted.

Time starts going by without me hearing from anybody and I start to get worried. So I call up the recruiter to see what the deal is, and she tells me that the company decided to offer the position to someone else.

But there was a twist:

The person they offered the job to had declined the position.

So I start talking to the lady, asking her to throw my hat back in the ring -- when it comes out that one of the problems the other candidate had with the job was that the salary the company offered was lower than she expected. Naturally she countered with a higher offer, which they apparently weren't happy about -- but approved anyways. It just happens that between the time that she countered and the moment they extended the revised offer, she had accepted a permanent position somewhere else.

So for a moment it seemed like things were looking really positive, because the candidate they wanted more or less hung them out to dry, leaving me in a position to sorta save the day for everyone, you know?

An hour later I get a call -- the company wants to extend me an offer

Everything seemed fine, until I found out that the offer was for the original pay rate my name had been submitted with - a figure I had already said was lower than I wanted, but more importantly a number that was a full five dollars an hour less than the counter offer that the company had already accepted from the other candidate.

"Counter them" I said.
"They're not going to be happy about that," she answered.
"Why? It's the same amount they agreed to pay the other girl."
There was a pause, followed by an "..I'll see what I can do."

That afternoon she calls back -- they've rejected the counter offer. She can still get me the job, but only if I accept their pay rate.

I've been unemployed for months. Things are really starting to get tight. I need a job.

..but not like this.

I turned them down.

[Listening to: Nonpoint, "Alive and Kicking"]