Cogito ergo scribo

I've yet to organize the photos of my Kuching trip. Hope i won't forget most of the things that i've seen and experienced on the trip when i finally get down to writing it. For today, i'll note down what happened to the job offer that i had declined.

The HR lady called me last Friday as promised, when 贝 and i were lost and trying to find our way to a tourist attraction. As expected, her hiring manager didn't agree to increase the pay to the amount i had requested, and the manager who interviewed me also refused to offer me the senior position. She then asked me again if i indeed didn't wanna re-consider their offer. Even though i was rather grateful to this HR lady for conveying my request to the managers and doing her best to persuade me to take up the job, i was actually rather pissed at how the thing turned out. I thanked her and once again declined the offer. And so, that was finally the end to this job interview.

Good luck to them on their continued people search (i've seen them advertising for this post for many weeks before i applied), and good luck to me on my continued job hunt.

Incidentally, a colleague of mine told me about her job hunting story today. She has tendered her resignation and will be leaving the company at the end of this month. She said her next employer also offered a salary that was lower than her expectation, attributing the reason to the situation that our current company is facing. I found it really illogical.

Yes, our company is in troubles and the future is uncertain, but that has nothing to do with the employees. Furthermore, she joined the company after the case had started. Why her future employer thought that working in a beleaguered company is a valid reason to slash the salary they offer is beyond me. All i could see is that they were exploiting the situation because they thought the employees must be begging to leave the current company.

Then i thought about the interview that i went to. The first thing the interviewers told me was that they weren't looking for a technical person. They emphasized again and again that this wasn't a pure IT job but something that required both IT and business skills. I fit the bill well, as i'm a business IT person, and had worked in the same line of industry before. In fact, they found me suitable too and that was why i was selected.

However, when they made the offer, they gave me something that was out of my expectation, quoting the reason that i only had three years of experience in IT field. Hmm, isn't that kinda contradicting?

First, you said this wasn't an IT job and you wanted someone with both business and IT skills. Then, you totally discounted the person's business background and said that she only had few years of IT experience and thus wasn't up to mark to be offered the senior post. Ok, please enlighten me on what was it that your were really looking for? IT, business, or both? DUH!!!

I couldn't help but suspected that they had the same mentality as the future employer of my colleague. Maybe in their mind, i was the one who was more in need of a job and thus they had the upper hand. They thought that i should be grateful to be given the chance to leave a troubled company and join an established MNC and thus i didn't have any bargaining power. Well, if they indeed thought that, then i'm thankful that i don't have to work for a company that jumps on the chance to exploit employees rather than sought after the people with the right skills.

Ok, am i starting to sound like sour grapes? Whatever. I just need to justify how this thing turned out so that i won't feel discouraged. The fact is that it's hard not to feel so, after having gone through rounds of interviews and requests for references, but all i got in the end was a lousy feedback of "you aren't good enough". I feel so bad towards my references as if i've let them down. It's especially demoralizing to a person who's in constant self-doubt.

No no no no no, i can't start doubting myself now. I'm good. Always have been and always will be. I'm good, i'm good, i'm good. I gotta believe in that. I must.

Labels: rant, work