The Great Fishbowl Quest #14

Wow.

Good opening for both me and my blogging buddy.

There is a job offer on the table.

I’m grateful for the offer. It was an interview I enjoyed, the people I met on campus were great, and the job would be close to home. Here is why there is no exclamation point on that sentence.

This past week I had an on-campus interview that exceeded the offered job in every category except for being closer to home. I also have my third on-campus interview scheduled for Friday of this week. Now, typically, because I enjoyed the interview and could see myself working there, I would ask for time to make a decision. This way, if the excellent institution didn’t offer (I believe they are only inviting three onto campus), I wouldn’t end up jobless or taking a job somewhere that I didn’t enjoy.

I asked if I could contact them in two weeks. They laughed.

I explained that I had one more on-campus this Friday. They were gracious and gave me this whole weekend to decide.

Keep in mind they contacted me on Thursday.

From what I’ve heard and experienced, this is a rather unrealistic timeline. Typically, when you ask for a specific length of time for a specific reason, you can get it. If not, there is some level of compromise that you can work with. In this conversation, no compromise was made, regardless of the number of options I attempted to provide.

It can mean different things, but at this point in the process, I see it as a bad sign. To me, it says that there is poor planning on their part, high pressure to have me accept before checking out my options, and it communicates a lack of foresight. I was told when I finished interviewing that there would be every effort made to accommodate my timeline as necessary within reason; now I’m being told there is no time for a decision to be made.

Having to make a decision in such a short period of time, I asked if they could tell me what position I would fill. I was told that they weren’t sure if I would be placed in one of two halls. This typically occurs when hiring multiple professionals for the same level of position. However, wanting a quick response from me warrants me having extra information. I was told I could end up in an all-male hall composed of mainly freshmen or a co-ed hall of upperclassmen. These are two very distinct populations. One of which I’d be excited to work with, one of which I’d be somewhat hesitant.

Needless to say, I’m going to have to respond tomorrow declining the position. This is very frustrating, as I did enjoy my experience and could see myself working at the institution down the road. Also, from a practical point of view, having a “contingency” plan never hurts. I know that we don’t tend to talk about “Plan B’s,” but they make sense to have. I didn’t really view this institution as a “Plan B” yet; there is still one other institution I wanted to be able to compare it with.

So…I am officially making the decision to continue this exhausting process and tell a pretty good place that at this moment in time, if they require a response, I’m not interested.