What should you do if your job offer is rescinded?

Having a job offer rescinded at the 11th hour can be like throwing cold water on a celebratory moment. It’s heartbreaking, panic-inducing and (mostly) totally out of your hands. So what do you do now?

If anyone has learned anything over the last 2 years it’s that crisis management should be second nature to everyone. And yet treading the recruitment boardwalk up until you’re about to start a new job, and it being pulled away, is uniquely crushing to morale, energy, and passion for your industry.

But know that you’re not alone. 

The global tech fraternity is facing a sudden, and rather unexpected, workforce downturn in some sectors. This has been caused, in part, by the combination of long-term effects of COVID-19, the short-squeeze on the tech supply chain, and (as we mentioned in our last blog titled VC funding tightening although tech hiring stays buoyant ) the rapid reduction in startup funding, which has hit the lowest funding numbers in 12 months.

So, faced with a global environment of increasingly stringent hiring, what can candidates do? 

Our advice is 3 fold – know your market, focus on the jobs that aren’t advertised online, and get in contact with specialist recruiters.

Know your market, and remember to be visible!

The importance of market awareness cannot be overstated; from basic interview techniques to mastery of your industry network, taking a real, deep-seated interest in the people, company and trends that dominate your industry is essential if you want to make sure you have a seat and the now-limited tech table. 

In our view, the easiest way to communicate your obsession with your market is to find distinct, consistent ways of showing it. Take a leaf out of the employer brand book and tell stories – tell stories about what your market means to you.

You can do this easily – from making sure your personal brand on LinkedIn revolves around industry talking points, to making sure you frame personal interview answers around market or specific company placement. 

Remember that wherever you are visible to employers, you can leverage your market knowledge.

Focus on jobs that aren’t advertised online.

Not every quality job is advertised online. In fact, a lot of the really great jobs will never find their way onto a job board. That’s because quality roles demand quality hires, and even if your job offer is rescinded, remember one thing: you’re at the mercy of massive tech industry trend shifts (which are not your fault), but you are at the door of an employer for a reason – because you have something to offer. 

So pivot that energy and skill where you are needed!

Often, companies will deploy headhunting tactics by hiring recruiters. So how do recruiters find you amid the noise of clashing LinkedIn profiles, automated sifting tools, ATS data and social media scouring?

You have to elevate your personal brand and make sure you are constantly, consistently curating your employment network to make sure you’re the first person a new potential employee will call.

Contact specialist recruiters.

And what’s the most effective way to augment this newfound industry visibility and personal brand? Seek out those with the greatest, widest, most exclusive industry connections. That, inevitably, will lead you to the door of an industry-specific, specialist recruiter (like us!).

Remember that specialist recruiters are hand-picked by employers because they can do what other agencies can’t – and that’s to find specific, niche, specialist talent. 

Effective modern recruitment (and good recruiters in general) make their money on their adaptability, speed of service, their network, and above all else market knowledge. If a VP of SaaS Sales from a Series B startup suddenly finds themselves treading employment water, who do you think they’ll trust – the generalist recruiter with plenty of scope but little market awareness, or a niche recruiter with their finger on the tech pulse and black book full of peers?

So even though having a new job offer pulled from under your feet can be demoralising and scary, take some heart from how specialist recruiters operate in such a disrupted new normal of working and job-seeking – remember your niche, remember you’re worthy and remember that with a little diligence and a well-curated network you will have offers falling into your lap.

Need help in finding tech talents for a Singapore-based company? You can count on Datasearch Consulting to lend you a hand. 

While the talent market has undoubtedly become more competitive for both recruiters and HR professionals, we remain dedicated to connecting our partners with the right tech or IT talent. 

Connect with us at Datasearch Consulting for more information about our recruitment solutions for tech companies and functions.

Alexis Nicole Amarillo is a Director for Operations & Research at Datasearch Growth, a specialist lead generation firm focused on helping Technology and Data vendors grow. If you would like to get in touch to discuss how lead generation can help your business feel free to reach out on alexis@datasearchconsulting.com for a more detailed discussion.

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