Ask HN: Have you ever had a job offer rescinded?
I already accepted a job offer, and I'm at the stage of background check.
In the criminal background check I have a speeding ticket (driving at 41 MPH in a 30 MPH zone) which remains unpaid, and there may be a bench warrant. I let my soon-to-be employer know about this situation, and they didn't mentioned a word about it.
Also, I have bad credit (in the 400 FICO) because I don't have enough money (that's why my speeding ticket remains unpaid), and the money I earn from my current employer is not enough (I make $12/hr as a Software Developer...), some times I make just enough money to pay rent and utilities.
I'm afraid that my soon-to-be employer might want to rescind the job offer, which will take me back to the start.
52 comments
[ 3.1 ms ] story [ 106 ms ] threadI've proved soon-to-be employers that I'm smart enough to make much more.
I don't want to bad mouth my current employer, but they don't appreciate software development and in general, there are not a lot of software development career opportunities here.
As for your question, I haven't had a offer rescinded and the only time I have heard of it happening is because of a major issue, such falsifying credentials/degrees.
No tech companies, no headquarters of any kind.
The company that offered me a job is a big company (5000 employees) and is among the fastest growing companies in the US, so it would be a huge bummer if I got my job offer rescinded, I just can't stop thinking about it.
I didn't even know there were developer jobs anywhere in the country that pays $12/hr.... but hey, free market right? whatever you are willing to take:)
Then I went to college and in my first semester, the research director offered me a position to develop software for their research projects.
After I left college, I've been working for an advertising agency 1 year now developing more CRUD applications for local companies.
So "real world" experience (in other words besides doing research and my summer internship at a top national laboratory) I've only got 2 1/2 years of experience.
I really should blog about this..
I know a guy 1 year out of school charging $80/hour. Businesses pay for stuff getting done, not experience.
I pay more than three times this for developers that work through Odesk, elance etc.
Furthermore, if you became a freelancer / self-employed contractor, then they become your customer - definitely no background check needed.
My advice: Find some temporary work, but start investing in your long term career. Make a web portfolio. Start blogging. Post youtube videos when you learn new stuff. Opportunities will start coming. Get your income up, pay off your debts/tickets and don't ever talk about that stuff ever again.
I did have an offer rescinded for other reasons (I'm good at talking my way out of opportunities). Don't do the same :)
I'm just not good at freelancing, I tried it for a short time and hated every single minute of it.
Thanks for your advice!
The need to reduce the risk of hiring a bad employee should not come at the expense of the privacy of all employees. The risk should be on the business to make the interview process tougher, to reach out to their connections and check the person's references, to follow their hired employees carefully to make sure they're not embezzling or muffing things up.
In the meantime you might want to try sites like elance to see if you can pick up some side work to help pay the bills.
The company that offered me the job offer told me that they will not be doing any reference check on me.
Even companies that don't do severance will pay out when they rescind an offer, because it makes them look horrible. Since it sounds like there's nothing embarrassing on her (it was just a case of a random hit) she could easily get $75,000. (Most bad reference/rescinded offer cases make plaintiff look somewhat bad and come in around the $20-50k range; but in her case, they don't have anything on her.)
I have to get away from the keyboard now...
I could have done community service instead, but I didn't.
I didn't take responsibility for the ticket, and I just let it go. There's no excuse.
I know there are no excuses, and I've been irresponsible. However sometimes bad things happen to good people, and it's been a rough year.
Before that score I used to have a score in the range of 700.
Living at home is not an option. I have had bad luck with roommates they all turned out to be drug addicts or extremely loud.
Cable TV is included with rent, I do not even have a cellphone because I don't want to be spending $70/mo on that.
Then again, I'm not making excuses for that, I already have a plan to repay all my debt, and I'm starting next paycheck whether I'm moving forward with new company or I stay with my current employer.
I agree that unless he's in dire circumstances, he should pay off the ticket. And yes, a credit score in the 400s is pretty awful. From a strategic perspective, he should do it in order to have one less thing to worry about. However, I don't know the OP and have no idea what his financial constraints are. I do know that life is very (and unfairly) difficult for some people, and moralizing as if it were all their fault is ridiculous.
> South Texas (Rio Grande Valley)
Yes, wondering how he knew that confused me enough to pull up his comment history.
But to be fair, I don't think everyone reacts as negatively to this type of criticism as you do. At least, I don't immediately think of it as moralizing and unnecessary. If I was in the situation of the OP, having someone reply harshly would probably inspire me to get things together. But then again, I'm not sure most people are this way.
Point. I also tend to defend others more ferociously than I defend myself. I've been taken farther into the public than I'd prefer and I don't feel a need to hide that I've made bad decisions (mostly, a few terrible picks regarding companies) in the past.
That's what happens when you speak your mind and do your research: The pitchforks come out. Don't disagree, don't judge, and for the sake of all that's right on the internet, don't offer advice when it's clearly needed.
Perhaps leaving HN for a while would help many of us. Step back, smell the flowers, save the rest of us some of the internet rancor that shouldn't even show up here.
newbie12's made very insightful and somewhat unexpected observation. I personally value such observations a lot.
Even if newbie12 is wrong about his insight and recommendation - I still enjoy reading it. And if newbie12 made that recommendation to me personally - I would appreciate such recommendation even more.
Now compare newbie12's comment with your own: your comment is rude, provides zero insight, and attempts to silence newbie12 for all the wrong reasons.
Sorry. I think I need a break from HN. Trying to be the savior of the tech industry is an exhausting job, and that was a case where my anger spilled over inappropriately.
If it happens, and you have an offer in writing, the words you want are promissory estoppel. A good lawyer will get you 3-4 months in severance, should it happen. Rescinding an offer makes a company look very bad. Have an attorney handle that negotiation, should it get to that (and it probably won't).
You have to threaten to sue because if you threaten to blog, that's technically extortion and you'll lose all the leverage you have.
Regarding reliance, I believe you are technically correct; however, you can certainly include the time that you would have been job-searching, and also the loss of the existing job.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/12/business/employers-pull-ap...
The course in question was a very "off-topic" humanities elective, and my thinking at the time was "oh well who cares," but when the head of the company found out, he went apeshit. He was a normally very mild and friendly guy, and that's the only time I've ever seem angry at all, but he was very, very angry indeed, he didn't try to hide it.
I honestly (at that time) couldn't understand why—after all, any CS education I received was exactly the same, with or without that humanities elective or a degree—but he made it clear that if I didn't get a degree, and soon, I was out. [It probably wasn't the lack of a degree per-se, as there were other people on staff with similar jobs without degrees, but I imagine he felt deceived / lied to because my original application had naturally anticipated my graduating normally.]
So ... I took a calligraphy class, graduated the next semester, and all was well.
[I'm quite glad I took that class actually, the knowledge and skills I got there have served me well over the years. So in a way, it was a good experience... >< ]
a) will you get detained?
b) are you a danger to any employee in/out of the office
c) is your morality "flexible" where they need to worry with trusting you with information / anything.
d) are you on drugs right now, or high risk of getting on them
1) You will be required to provide community service
2) Your future wages will be garnished until you've paid the fine.
3) Your fine will be reduced to something you can pay.
There is absolutely nothing so poorly planned as having an outstanding warrant for your arrest. The next time you get pulled over, you will go right to jail. You can't predict the timing of that, but you can "fix" this problem on your own schedule if you just go in and deal with it.