

Google just stole my employee #3 - felixdennis

I offered a job to an applicant recently and signed the employment contract yesterday.<p>The candidate phoned me today indicating that he just received a Google offer. He offered to stay if I insist on enforcing the contract.<p>I told him to take the Google Offer because there is no point in forcing someone to stay whose heart is not here.<p>I had a previous experience where someone who accepted an offer but flaked out at the very last minute. I'm just surprise to see that I would be competing with Google...<p>Your thought?
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dangrossman
If someone's on the market, they need to apply to multiple positions to make
sure they find something in a reasonable time. You should assume anyone
interviewing with you is also interviewing elsewhere. Some of those other
companies may make offers, and since they interviewed around the same time as
you, they're going to come around the same time as yours. "Flaking out at the
very last minute" indicates normal job search activity, not a flaky applicant
or poaching competitor.

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felixdennis
Thanks. How do you deal with this situation:

1\. The candidate signed the 1. offer and 2. employment contract and backed
out at the last minute 2\. Rejection letters were sent to other applicants

Should employers always be on-guard of employees leaving at-will? On the slip-
side, since employee can quit at anytime when a better offer shows up, should
employer be able to fire any employee at-will when a better offer (cheaper and
better candidate) shows up on the table?

I find this very tricky and lopsided. It appears that when company layoffs
people to cut cost, they are labelled as evil. On the other hand, when
employees jumpship when a better offer comes around, it becomes "it's the
logical thing to do". This biased view doesn't seem to be very fair.

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jfoster
Never reject good candidates outright. Call them. Let them know they weren't
chosen for the role, but ask if you can invite them to apply for future roles
that might be a good fit. That saves you in situations like this and feels
much better for the very capable candidates you don't bring on board.

~~~
felixdennis
Thanks. I will do this in the future.

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ScottWhigham
Signing an offer letter, to me, is very old school - it's not a legally
binding document that says, "You must come work for me for x days" as we all
know. The offer letter is really more for the candidate - it spells out
clearly what your opportunity is. It's their last chance to have _you_ spell
out the job, perks, and PTO on paper. So his/her signing the offer letter is
really his/her mentally saying to themselves, " What he said on the phone and
during the interview is represented here - no surprises... This is a good
opportunity. It fits me. I'm doing it."

The part that sucks the most is the you sent out the rejection letters
already. I think that's just sort of "par for the course" sometimes. It will
happen to you always and forever. I had someone sign my letter, show up and
work for one day, and then email me at 9:00AM the next morning to tell me that
she had re-joined her previous job as the head manager. She had told me during
our interview that her boss really wanted to keep her but just couldn't come
up with the money. Well, clearly the boss came up with the money and more.
What can you do? Nothing. You start over. Yes, you can go back to your other
candidates but I tend to not like doing that. After all - this was the best
candidate. Why settle for #2? I'd rather just start the whole process over and
find someone else completely.

My advice: have good training and solid policies in place that help _you_
churn faster. Also have solid hiring plans and work hard to uncover what you
can. It will pay off in the long run.

~~~
ScottWhigham
And FYI - the headline here is absolutely and totally off-
base/inaccurate/scandalous/you-name-it. No need for that...

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ScottWhigham
I'm surprised this comment received a downvote. Did Google "steal" your
"employee"? Of course not - it's a linkbait/lying title chosen by OP to get
more attention. Period.

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outside1234
Welcome to the game! :)

The good news is that you are reaching high quality folks if Google wants
them.

Make sure they understand what they are getting into. Google is great (I'm a
Xoogler) but they will be toiling in a very large machine and will have a very
narrow locus of responsibility. There is nothing wrong with that -- but make
sure that's what they want versus a broader startup role.

~~~
felixdennis
:) I guess this indirectly validates our hiring standard.

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7Figures2Commas
I wouldn't look at it that way. Perhaps it shows that you were able to verify
the candidate's technical chops, but it also shows that you didn't do a good
job assessing the candidate's motivations and career goals.

If you're hiring your third employee, it's probably safe for me to assume that
your company is relatively young. Google, obviously, is a big, established
company.

While you almost certainly cannot compete with Google compensation-wise, there
are plenty of things startups like yours can offer that a big company like
Google simply cannot. Playing up these intangibles, and identifying candidates
who are truly interested in those intangibles, is something you can't afford
not to do with early hires.

Put simply: you need to look for candidates who are excited about becoming
Employee #3 at a young company, not candidates who are excited about getting a
great job at _any_ company.

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orangethirty
My thought? Welcome to the business world. Wait until an employee starts a
competing business.

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felixdennis
Thanks. I agree that it is a good lesson. Prior to these experiences, I always
thought that HR goes like this:

1\. Interview 2\. Make offer 3\. Candidate accepts offer 4\. Signs employment
contract 5\. Done

Now, it seems that nothing is certain.

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orangethirty
Allow me to LOL. Employees are hard to manage, and will follow your lead. If
you are unstructured and disorganized so will they. Start by being your own
best employee and then have people follow your lead. Then train them to work
just like you do. And then leave them the fuck alone.

The hiring process is very hard, and is usually the thing that ends up burning
most businesses out.

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joelmaat
After working at Google for a while, I think this person, unless he is really
lucky, will end up looking elsewhere to find a more satisfying job. You could
pick any random Engineer at Google, and end up with someone unsatisfied with
what they are doing. If they are good, then you can steal them away. Or maybe
not. Maybe they are constantly spammed with job offers.

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meerita
You just were about to hire a mercenary. My guess is, most of the people will
go like this unless they contact you to work on your company because they
first believe on your product than the money they can win.

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alanchavez
I'm facing a similar situation in which I've job offer from 3 big name
companies and I don't know which one to accept. Those 3 jobs could easily be
my 3 dream jobs :( Tough call.

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glitch273
First world problems.

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alanchavez
LOL. That's exactly what my friends told me.

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AznHisoka
It's purely a rational option. You can't blame them. It's a dog-eat-dog, zero-
sum world. One person's rational action benefits them and hurts someone else.

~~~
felixdennis
I agree. I believe in free economy and freedom of action. However, it just
seems that if employers do something like this, they will be immediately
vilified.

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OGinparadise
Stole? Nah, they made him a better offer and he chose them. (Unless they had
inside info and used it against you. Or something like that)

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felixdennis
Obviously, the word "stole" is not used in the literal sense here.

Mind you, an employment contract has been signed with the candidate. However,
I'm not upset at the candidate because he was apologetic.

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facorreia
Your choice of words, "stole" and "my" implicates a mindset that is not very
aligned with the reality. They didn't steal. He was not yours, but free. He
evaluated his options and made a choice. Now, we could find fault in his
character for signing a contract and breaking it soon after. But startups
offering below market compensation packages would do better not thinking about
employees as their property.

~~~
felixdennis
I think you guys are taking this too seriously. Take a chill pill.

Realistically, there is nothing a startup can do to compete with Google for
employees unless you are a founder/co-founder.

You guys can't be seriously about thinking that I was actually pissed off at
Google for this?!

While we are making good money, I was just shocked that we would be competing
with Google for talents since we are so tiny.

