The Offer You Should Turn Down Even When the Checklist Is Perfect
I’ve told candidates to walk away from offers they were excited about. Good title, good money, good company on paper. And I’ve had to look them in the eye, or at least on a screen, and say something that sounds insane coming from the person who gets paid when they take the job: I don’t think you should take this one. That’s not me being dramatic. It’s the job. If I’m not willing to say the hard thing when I see it coming, I’m not actually doing the work.
A checklist tells you the title is right, the comp is right, the company logo is one you’d be proud to put on LinkedIn. What it doesn’t tell you is what’s happening behind the scenes while you’re still in the interview loop, the stuff nobody puts in a job description because it isn’t decided yet, or because nobody’s going to volunteer it to you before you’ve signed. That’s the part I’m watching for. Not because I’m trying to talk anyone out of anything. Because I’d rather lose a placement than watch someone find out down the road that the job they took isn’t the job they were shown.
I’ve Got to Know What You Want Before I Know What They’re Offering
This is how it actually works on my end. Before a candidate even knows the company name, before they’ve seen the job description, before we’ve talked salary, I’m asking about their motivations and their drivers. What do they actually want out of the next move. What does the day to day need to look like for them to be happy in it.
That’s not small talk. That’s the whole foundation. Everything I do after that call is trying to match that person up with a hiring manager whose situation actually fits what they told me. So when something changes partway through the process, when the manager says something offhand, when I see a piece of information that tells me this organization isn’t going to be able to deliver on what this person actually needs, I notice it immediately. Because I built the whole search around that answer.
And when I notice it, I say something. I don’t lie to people. They’re going in for the long haul, and I want them there for the long haul too. So if I see the mismatch coming, I tell them before they sign anything.
I’ve done this enough times to know it doesn’t feel good in the moment. Nobody wants to hear that the offer they’ve been picturing themselves accepting has a problem baked into it. But staying quiet doesn’t make the problem go away, it just moves it to a day when they’ve already signed and it’s harder to walk back. If I know and I don’t say it, that’s on me, not on them.
The Onsite Mandate Nobody Mentioned Until It Was Too Late
Say a candidate tells me they need to be home three days a week because their son plays baseball and that’s non negotiable for them. Then, partway through the process, the manager mentions to me, almost in passing, that starting January first the team is going fully onsite.
That candidate is about to accept a role built around a version of the job that’s already gone. I’d have to tell them. I’d want to tell them. You’re not going to be there as much as you think you are.
Nobody lied on paper. The job posting probably still says hybrid. But I know something the offer letter doesn’t say, and if I sit on it, I’m letting someone build a decision on ground that’s already moving under them.
This is the part candidates don’t always think to ask about, because it feels like it’s already settled. Has this arrangement changed recently, or is it about to. It should be one of the first questions on the list, right up there with comp.
The Manager You Liked Might Not Be There Much Longer
Sometimes the thing that’s changing isn’t the schedule, it’s the person. A candidate takes a role because they clicked with the hiring manager in the interviews. That relationship was part of why they said yes. Then I catch wind that the manager might be moving on, or that something’s changing on the org chart that’s going to land on this person’s desk in the next four months.
What gets me every time is this. The hiring manager usually knows. I’m not going to pretend I didn’t hear it. If a hiring manager isn’t being forthcoming about a change that’s going to hit the new hire within their first four months on the job, that’s exactly the kind of thing I catch wind of and pass along, whether it’s a reorg, a manager transition, or the role getting redrawn underneath them without anyone saying so.
That’s important to somebody. Maybe it’s the whole reason they took the offer. If I know the person they liked isn’t going to be there much longer, and the company isn’t volunteering that, I’m going to fill them in.
I’m not trying to kill the deal. I’m trying to make sure the person saying yes is saying yes to the actual job, not the version of it that existed the week we started interviewing. That’s their call to make, not mine. My job isn’t to make the decision for them. It’s to make sure they’re making it with the same information I have.
The Job You’re Being Sold Isn’t Always the Job You’ll Be Doing
The other one I watch for is scope. I might catch wind that a company is talking to a candidate about a role built around X, but what’s actually going to land on their desk is X, Y, and Z, with X being a smaller piece of it than they think. I’ll ask them straight out. How do you feel about Y and Z? Because I have a feeling that’s coming your way, and that’s something we need to think about before you say yes, not after.
Titles get set early and job descriptions rarely catch up to where a company actually needs someone down the road. The title doesn’t move. The job does. If I can see that coming, the candidate should be able to see it too, before it’s their problem to solve after they’ve already started.
Why I Tell People Things I Don’t Tell the Other Side
I tell candidates and I tell hiring managers the same thing, every time: you say things to me that you don’t say to them. I say that to both sides, and I mean it, because it’s true and because it’s the only way this works.
A candidate and a hiring manager might get two one hour interviews out of an entire process. If they’re lucky, they meet three times. That’s a short courtship for a marriage. I’m the one who gets direct access to both sides, the manager, HR, everyone involved, and to the candidate. So when something rears its head during that process, something that would change how either side feels about the match, I have to share it. That’s not optional for me. That’s the whole reason a candidate should want someone like me in the middle of this instead of going at it alone.
I’ve done it plenty of times. Told someone the checklist looks perfect and I still don’t think you should sign. It costs me a placement sometimes. That’s fine. My name is attached to every match I make.
If You’re Evaluating an Offer Right Now, Ask the Questions I’d Ask
You don’t have a recruiter sitting between you and every conversation happening about your future role. But you can still ask the questions I’d be asking on your behalf. Has anything about the day to day arrangement come up recently that wasn’t in the original conversation. Is the person you clicked with in the interviews likely to still be there. Is the title you’re being offered the actual scope of the job, or a piece of a bigger one nobody’s spelled out yet.
If you’re staffing a role and you already know something is about to change, whether it’s the onsite policy, the reporting structure, or who’s actually going to be sitting in that manager’s chair, tell your recruiter now. A search built on the truth holds up. One built on what nobody said out loud falls apart in month four instead.
About The Author:
Steven Swan is the founder of Swan Group, an executive search firm specializing in technology leadership placements in Biotech and Pharma. With nearly thirty years of experience, he has placed CIOs, CTOs, and senior IT leaders across clinical-stage startups and large established life sciences organizations. He is also the author of The Biotech Brief, a newsletter for technology leaders navigating the intersection of science, business, and organizational change.
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