A friend of mine recently sent me a message to tell me that his company was hiring for an IT position that he thought was a great fit for me. Ever since my friend started at his company I’ve thought about how great it would be to join him there. There are a number of reasons for this but the top two are that I’d really like to work with him and another old friend of mine and I REALLY like the mission of his company. They are doing great things all over the world and it would be exciting to be a part of it.
As soon as I got his message I started updating my resume to get it current. My mind ran 100 miles an hour as I thought about potential interview questions and how I’d answer them. I started writing down a list of all the major projects I’ve worked on over the last 13 years in IT. Once I had them all written down I then started thinking about how I’d use various examples for the inevitable interview questions like, “Give us an example of a project that you struggled withâ€, or “Tell us about a successful projectâ€, or “tell us about a time that you struggled with coworkers and how you overcame it†etc.. I also Googled “Top 10 interview questions†and looked at a number of sites to see what questions seemed to consistently come up. Needless to say, I was trying to do my best to prepare in case I was able to get an interview.
A couple nights ago I woke up at 3:00 in the morning and started thinking about whether I should take the risk and potentially leave my company after 9.5 years to go to a new company where I don’t have a network of people that know my value and would help me in the event that I was impacted by layoffs. (I have a number of friends who are in senior management roles that have said they’d always find a place for me at my current company). As I laid awake for a couple hours going over all the scenarios, it became more and more clear to me that this might not be the best time to take the risk. We’re currently experiencing the worst recession in my lifetime and there is no sign that we are on the upswing. The voice inside me said I should stay where I’m at and ride out this economy. So, after some initial excitement at the idea of making a move, I’ve now decided not to pursue it and to hang tight until things start to improve.
You decide after the interview and receiving the offer. Not before.
Yes, I would normally agree with you. In this case, since my friend was putting his reputation on the line by recommending me, I didn’t want to have them go to that level of effort and then turn them down. I also really didn’t feel like it was the right move so I opted to not even consider it.
Nobody is safe anywhere. There’s one thing I know – in bad times, your “friends” in senior mgmt are going to look out for themselves, not you. To assume you’ll always have a place at your current company is crazy!
I think you did the right thing. It’s a different environment than it was in 2006. I disagree with the poster above completely. Networking with senior management who know how good you are is invaluable. It’s always nice to “follow” someone to a company who you’ve worked for before, and the best way to keep working is to make sure a lot of people can recommend you.
I also agree with not wasting their time. It’s so funny, when an opportunity like that comes up for me I get the same way — can’t sleep, mind rushing a mile a minute etc.