TCW #035 | How to buy yourself more time in your interview process (to land multiple offers)
When you have multiple interview processes in parallel, you might need to slow one down (or speed one up) to land one or more offers and improve your negotiation position.
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This week, I’ll teach you how to buy yourself time in an interview process.
Multiple offers is one of the best ways to get leverage in tech job searching. You always want to land at least one job offer to give yourself optionality and put yourself into a stronger negotiation position.
Knowing how to speed up or slow down an interview process comes in especially handy when you have multiple opportunities in multiple stages. You usually need one to catch up to another so you can try to land multiple offers simultaneously.
It’s the fine art of enacting delay without losing momentum or enthusiasm for your candidacy.
Let’s dive in.
🐢 Option 1: speed up the slow process
Speeding up your slower interview process is hands-down much easier than trying to slow down the fast one. Here’s how it goes:
Let the slower process know that you’re moving forward in another process, but you’re still keen on the role and ready to move forward with their process.
Ask if there’s any way to accelerate and offer to create more availability if needed.
Be prepared to move fast, and don’t be too upset if they just can’t move any faster.
Now that you let the cat out of the bag about your other interviews, expect that you’ll be asked about the status in every future conversation with the recruiter. A small tax to pay for the ability to land two offers in quick succession.
Word to the wise: This is the easiest strategy, so try this approach before you try Option 2 or 3.
🐎 Option 2: slow down the fast process
Slowing down the faster of the two processes is the harder and riskier approach, but sometimes it’s the only way. Your challenge is to slow down the process without accidentally signaling a lack of interest or engagement with the role, team, or company. Some tactics you can use to slow things down:
Space out your interviews more
Provide limited scheduling availability for the next steps, explaining that you’re in a bit of a crunch time but you’re still excited to complete the process.
Ask to take your next round of interviews in chunks (for example, if there are 3 interviews, do one this week and two next week).
Lie and say you’re going on vacation (not recommended, but trying to be exhaustive and, yes, I have seen people do this with success).
Ask for a delayed start or more time on take-home assignments. Explain that you have other urgent life or work commitments right now but are still excited to complete the assignment with either more time to complete it or by starting later (after you get time back from the other peak work).
Lower your SLA on responsiveness. Take an extra day here or there, but not a week to respond to your contacts at the company. This tactic should only be used to buy you little chunks of time, not weeks.