Don’t Fall For Their Con | JobSearchTV.com
By Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter
I worked for a guy several years ago who tried to hustle everyone. Don’t fall for your new employer running a hustle on you.
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I used to work for a guy who always talked about how much he loved everyone. Love, love, love, love, love you, Jeff, you are wonderful. I love you so and so. You’re terrific . . . and he’d steal a dime from you if given an opportunity. Employers do this in interviewing as well. They talk about, “Oh man, this is . . .your background looks great.” Or “I don’t know. You know you’re missing some things that we’re really looking for.”
In both extremes, what they’re doing is playing games. It’s the game of trying to “finesse you” into doing what they really want you to do. For example, in the positive spin, people let their guard down. They open themselves up even more and reveal things to the employer they probably
shouldn’t reveal because, after all, it’s looking good, right?
In the “Gee, I don’t know tough guy approach” (and the first one is the good guy and this is the bad guy), the bad guy, they beat you up and try and talk with you about what you’re missing and what your deficiencies are so that, in this way, they can drive you down on money.
I had a friend recently who got involved with a negotiation. He was brought in by a guy he knew professionally. Known him for a lot of years. Brought him into a firm, and interviewed him on multiple occasions over the course of a six-month period of time. Then, they come in with a lowball offer. The lowball comes in out of the blue. All along, they’re going, “we love you. We love you. You’re terrific. you’re phenomenal.” Then, they offer him a lot less than what he’s told him he’s been earning and what his value is to them.
So, he circles back into another negotiation. I warned him there was certainly going to be a possibility of this and I encouraged him to keep trying to generate situations for himself because I wasn’t so sure that this one was going to come in successfully. I thought it might but you can’t let your guard down. You’ve always got to be selling because, otherwise, unless you are, the con wins. The con can be, like I said, “We love you. You’re fabulous. You can make such a contribution to this organization. Will you take 80 thousand less?”
or, “I don’t know . . .”
“Oh, please I’m the right person.”
“Okay, we’ll offer you $25,000 less than what you’re asking for. What do you think?”
There are lots of different ways these cons work. So, I want you to always be out there, number one, making sure of your real value and the value in the marketplace and your value to the organization, and, number two, is if they try and “sweet talk you,” “You’re wonderful,” you just keep being out there, selling yourself. You keep marketing yourself. You keep trying to generate opportunities because you can’t be certain that they’re being forthright.
Conversely, if they’re beating you up, “So, will you take a lot less,” “I’m going to drop the price just like you do. If you think I’m worth that much less, this may not be the right thing for me, and I certainly wouldn’t be the right person for you. So if you really think that’s my value, let’s just do shake hands, part as friends and move on,” rather than putting yourself through this agony of pleading with them, trying to show them, you just shut them up already and bring this thing to a happy ending for each of you where you shake hands and go off to do something else.
Now, if you’ve got nothing going on, and you’ve been there on five interviews and this is your best hope, you play out your cards, but, most of the time, falling for the con in, either way, the “I Love You con” or “you’re a piece of dog, whatever,” isn’t worth anything to you.
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ABOUT JEFF ALTMAN, THE BIG GAME HUNTER
Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter is a coach who worked as a recruiter for what seems like one hundred years. His work involves career coaching, as well as executive job search coaching, job coaching, and interview coaching. He is the host of “No BS Job Search Advice Radio,” the #1 podcast in iTunes for job search with over 2400 episodes.
Are you interested in 1:1 coaching, interview coaching, advice about networking more effectively, how to negotiate your offer or leadership coaching? People hire me to provide No BS career advice whether that is about a job search, hiring better, leadership, management or support with a workplace issue. Schedule a discovery call at my website, www.TheBigGameHunter.us
My courses are available on my website, www.TheBigGameHunter.us/courses The courses include ones about Informational Interviews, Interviewing, final interview preparation, salary negotiation mistakes to avoid, the top 10 questions to prepare for on any job interview, and starting a new job.
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