Never count your money
When you’re sittin’ at the table
They’ll be time enough for countin’
When the dealing done
—Kenny Rogers, 1978
Okay, so I am reliving Kenny Rogers for a couple weeks… countin’ money when you’re sitting at the table reminds me of all the candidates I’ve known over the years who thought they were going to get a job offer and then didn’t… in fact, I can’t even count the number of times my candidates have been told they were going to get an offer… promised they were going to get an offer… and then never got one.
I have candidates that assume they are going to be hired when they’re invited back for just a second interview…oh, brother
You can never, ever, ever, ever assume you are going to get a job offer until you do… and even then, until you actually show up for work and earn your first paycheck, don’t plan on spending it… even this week, one of our candidates who accepted a job offer, quit her present job wednesday was called today by the VP who hired her to be told that her job she was supposed to start Monday had been eliminated… so you say, “how can that happen when she had an offer and the start date?”… And I say, “it can happen really easily… they simply eliminated the job”… the VP even called us and told us that he was worried about his job being eliminated…
The lesson is, that while you’re interviewing, never count on getting an offer or being hired… if you think about countin’ money or spending your first paycheck you won’t be focused on interviewing well and even when you interview well you can’t assume you’re going to get an offer until you actually do… if you start countin’ your money before you play your cards, you’re not likely to win… don’t count on an offer while you’re interviewing.
