For some people, a job offer is a massive ego boost. I’ll be truthful - my ego is substantial, perhaps immeasurable, but I never let it cloud my judgment (not my ego speaking I swear). Once a person reaches mental maturity, they should be able to silence those nagging whispers from their ego. An unchecked ego unnecessarily muddies decision-making and can lead to devastating consequences.

This recant is of someone who we’ll call Vic, who was being mentored by a friend of mine, Rachel.

Rachel excels at guiding candidates at interviews for product manager roles. I’m not talking about the stereotypical product manager who lacks the underlying technical knowledge - I’m talking about specialists in their respective technical fields. In other words workers who deserve to climb the ladder.

Alex received a job offer from a Fortune 500 company that would quadruple their current compensation, with the stipulation being that the role got converted to 100% onsite in a high cost of living area compared to his current hybrid role (both in the US). Alex’s response? Asking for more compensation because of relocation but also for a two month deferral! Due to the “holidays.” Why would you apply to a role if you aren’t even going to want to start for 2 months? Why would you willingly get paid 4x less for 2 months??? You could fly back home every weekend with a stopover in Las Vegas, gamble away $1,000 nightly at the casino, and still come out ahead financially! Actually, that’s precisely what you should do - for two months, gamble away the net pay after subtracting the cost of travel and rent. Even if gambling is self-harm, a shift in perspective is all that’s required to not feel those losses emotionally.

Justifiably, this Fortune 500 company did not tolerate any of this bullshit and told him they went with another candidate. They told him that it seems he really cared about the holidays. From my perspective, it’s plain disrespectful to tell someone that you can’t start asap because you want to stay a few months before the holidays?? Not to mention that if the compensation is that high, it signals that the role is crucial to the organization (not MGM hahhaha), they really can’t be entertaining time wasters.