Rescinding job offers is peak tech
Tech companies are trying to reduce costs so quickly they’re rescinding offer letters. It’s alarmingly out-of-touch and reminiscent of the tech industry meme: move fast and break things.
The details: Established tech players like Google, Coinbase, Redfin, and Twitter are abruptly pausing their hiring. The brakes are being pressed so hard and so quickly that some companies (especially Coinbase) are revoking offer letters they’ve already sent out to candidates who accepted a job. It’s a reflection of the economic volatility currently happening in the industry, along with a recent bear market. It might not be illegal, but it’s certainly an asshole move to rescind an offer letter.
Go deeper: Interview processes in the tech sector take time: sometimes 1–2 months from start to finish. While that process is slow, executive requests to pause hiring are whiplash quick. Combined with poor internal communications between departments and hesitation to layoff currently-employed staff, rescinding offer letters seems like a natural first step to reduce costs and hunker down.
But it does come at a personal cost to candidates who already accepted those offers. Axios reported in one example that a candidate had already turned down offers from other companies and now has to start interviewing from square one. Brand recognition also takes a minor hit online too, as candidates post on LinkedIn that their offer letters were revoked without a heads up and are looking for work.
Why it matters: It’s disappointing to have an offer rescinded, but indicative of how job hunting requires candidates to spread out interviews across various companies. Putting all your eggs in one basket (even if that basket seems really great) is a rookie move. Interviewing at multiple places allows you to compare pros & cons of each, and now it also gives you a fallback incase they pull the rug out from under you. If the salary on paper seems too good to be true — right now, it might be.
Read on:
- Revoking job offers is an increasingly common cost-cutting strategy (Axios)
- Coinbase Offered Them Dream Jobs — and Then Took Them Away (Wired)
- Bear Market Sends Grim Signal of Economic Fears (NY Times)
- Twitter freezes hiring, rescinds some offers as top execs depart (Axios)
- Companies like Twitter and Coinbase have rescinded job offers to save money. But they’re paying a price (Forbes)
- Rescinded offers leave would-be Coinbase employees scrambling (Axios)
