Exploding Offer

As a senior intending to graduate next May, I have spent the last three weeks in a veritable revolving door of interviews with various companies (generally consulting firms, banks, and engineering companies). To give a little background as to the timeline, most companies recruiting engineers here at UIUC are between the first and second rounds of interviews right now, while several have yet to even start first round interviews. Since I applied to — literally — each and every company that would accept my application through my career services website, I’ve had a flurry of behavioral and technical interviews, both via phone and face-to-face. So far, a healthy number of companies have invited me to advance to at least the second round, and I am awaiting further contact from many of those companies. Two of these companies rank in the top 10 of the Fortune 500, a third in the top 20.

Last Thursday, a small technical consulting firm (Company X) with excellent sustained growth figures invited me to their office for an extremely promising third and final round interview. This firm was already #1 in corporate culture/work environment on my list of potential employers, and my enthusiasm was only bolstered given the glowing response to these final interviews. Afterwards, I turned my attention to the recruitment processes of other firms, confident and happy that I would be receiving an offer soon from this one.

Indeed. Today I received an offer — an “exploding offer” — from Company X. An exploding offer is generally an offer that grants an appicant very little time to make a decision — in my case, three days, but more generally any deadline within less than two weeks constitutes an exploding offer. Often, they are coupled with an “exploding bonus”, which is a signing bonus whose dollar value diminishes each day. Such offers are an aggressive yet sneaky recruiting tactic used by companies who wish to circumvent the competitive nature of a bull job market by precluding the applicant’s freedom to weigh various options. Hell, I can hardly blame them. If I were an up-and-coming company looking to snatch some valuable recruits from the bigger name firms, I’d probably do the same thing: throw money at them before anyone else has, and require an answer before anyone else can. I sense a degree of cutthroat from these aggressive recruitment practices that is both loathsome and admirable: qualities shared by most successful businesses.

Many schools forbid employers to employ this sort of recruiting technique. Their outlook is that a student without sufficient time and resources cannot make an informed decision, and an informed decision is often better for both the student and the companies that have extended offers. Further, aggressive recruiting tactics such as this leverage a position of power all employers already hold over applicants to apply undue pressure.

Presently, I find myself in the throes of such pressure. I am anticipating offers from the following:

• the consulting arm of a Big Four firm
• the country’s largest technical solutions provider
• the consulting arm of a large global electronics company
• a major international bank
• the most respected engineering corporation in the world

There is about a 50% chance that, even if I had offers from all of the above, Company X’s offer would still be the one for me. The starting salary is higher than the other companies tend to offer, the firm’s culture is outstanding, and their small size guarantees me a tangible role in the company’s future. However, I am uncomfortable with the pressure they have opted to apply to us as applicants. I intend to ask for more time, of course, but now I’m pondering simply signing the offer, then reneging later if necessary. It’s really an ethical dilemma, but it’s one created by Company X’s own questionable practices.

Update 10/19/05: I spoke with the director of Engineering Career Services regarding my exploding offer, and he let me know that this sort of behavior is firmly against our policy. The University follows the conduct standards of the National Association of Colleges and Employers:

The Principles Committee recommends that employers who make job offers at the beginning of a semester consider keeping their offers open until the end of the semester so that students can fully explore other opportunities and, ultimately, make the wisest decisions for all concerned.

Further, the university pushes for offer deadlines of December 1st, which is six weeks away! I will discuss the issue with Company X and, that failing, the dean will contact them on my behalf. Here’s hoping.

Update 10/24/05: Good news! I wrote my recruiter at Company X (attempting to sound professional, of course), and they agreed to defer my offer until November 18th. Zeus created email to please me.