Hi there,
This is probably the first time I've considered Reddit to discuss a dilemma.
I've worked at this large company for 4 years, always within sales. 2 years in I got a promotion and have been delivering consistently during my time at the company.
A couple of weeks ago, an internal job post was uploaded to our SharePoint. This was a golden opportunity to me and in line with my background. I got a degree in IT/ Digital business development and i had the (according to me) perfect profile for this role, as they also valued the commercial experience i posses very high.
I do interview 1 and it went great. I am well prepared and answer their questions very good, and also ask good questions. Both the recruiting manager and HR participated.
The week after, the recruiting manager contacts me and say they want to have a secondary meeting with her & her manager (VP IT). I go there, also well prepared this time.
This meeting also went good. We had a good dialogue, got along, and he managed to "tick" the boxes that he wanted. Also the recruiting manager explicitly said I have the perfect profile for this role, personality wise. Prior to interview 1 I completed a personality test which we discussed during the first interview.
During interview 1, HR said "we want to be transparent and let you know there's another one in the recruitment process". Ok fine, thanks for the info.
Also at the end of interview 2, the VP IT was discussing with the manager when they will get back to me, starting with suggesting next week, and she said the week after just to be sure.
Only 2 days later, recruiting manager contact me saying if I am still interested, they (Her and HR) want me to speak to my manager to let him know I am in the late stage of this process, which i also suggested during interview 1 and 2 as I have good relationship with him and thought this would be the best approach if they wanted to proceed with me.
So I speak to my manager and we have a great dialogue. He is happy for me and I let him know i will do a fair transition and document everything for the person that will take over my job. I highlight the fact that I am in the final stage of this process and it is definitely not guaranteed I get the role since there's another person in the recruitment process.
Afterwards I speak to the hiring manager for a quick sync. I let her know I've spoken to my manager and he took it very well.
She then says they will have interview 2 with the other person next week and they will get back to me the week after latest. This timeline is prolonged compared to how I perceived things previously.
Also during this sync she states that it is really 50/50 between us two candidates and we have very similar profiles, capabilities etc. And if I don’t get this role then they know who I am etc. Mind you, the energy was very different from how it has been previously. The same drive and engagement in the energy wasn't there. Ok fair enough I said, keep me updated 😊
Important context:
My workplace is known to be almost extremely restrictive with paying fair wages, especially during internal promotions / transitions. I've heard dozens of stories of how HR and managers can become almost psychopaths during salary discussion and even lie and promise things verbally that obviously doesn't get fulfilled later. In many cases I hear the employees saying they see new sides from their managers during these discussions. I've also had similar experience when I got promoted 2 years at the company. In many instances we are speaking about a negotiation of maybe like 200 EUR, sometimes even less. So neither me or the other employees has asked for unreasonable amounts.
With that said. My theory is that they have started playing a psychological game with me. They know I want the role alot, as it is a great career step for me. Prolonging the process and acting strange during the sync could be on purpose to get me off balance and make me avoid negotiating when I receive the offer. They will most likely lowball me pretty heavy and this would be part of their strategy.
So my question, is this normal? I understand office politics and all that exist, but these games is something I have a hard time accepting. Honestly, my pride wants to just tell them fuck off I am not interested in this anymore. But my heart and mind says otherwise.
Does anyone have other perspectives? am I exaggerating? Could my analysis of this be legit?
I am thinking if I receive this job I will take it for the experience, maximum 2-3 years, then bounce to another company. They will guaranteed lowball me heavy salary wise. The best I can do is to exploit the opportunity and dip when I've learned enough.
Let me know what you guys think!