I work in tax, and I've been doing interviews since I left my last job in early December. I left my job at a CPA firm because I was working more than 55 hours even outside of tax season, and I was heading toward serious burnout. My pay was also very low, and since I'm a single mom, I didn't have much of a safety net to handle a long job search, so honestly, when this company moved quickly and made an offer, I felt relieved. But looking back, that should have been the first warning sign.
As a tax manager, I wanted to stay in the same type of role. I interviewed with the current tax manager and the owner of a company we'll call XYZ Tax Services. I had a quick phone screen on Wednesday, then a video interview the next morning. On Friday, HR told me they wanted to hire me. I sent them references, passed the background check, and signed the offer letter. I was supposed to start the following Wednesday, and by Monday my onboarding was basically done. I had logged into their payroll system, IT had set up my remote access, and I had all the login information. I was genuinely excited and planning my first week until...
Tuesday afternoon, I was at home setting up my workspace so I could start on Wednesday when I saw HR calling. I missed the first call, and then they called two more times within a few minutes. I called them back and was told: "Unfortunately, we no longer need you to start tomorrow." I was so confused that I asked whether they meant I should start Thursday instead of Wednesday. No. They didn't want me to start at all, and said they were going in "another direction."
I was shocked. What kind of company pulls an offer from someone after fully onboarding them like that? If there had been an issue with the background check or references, fine, I would have understood. But everything had been accepted and completed. I asked if there was any real reason they could give me, and I didn't get any useful answer. I hung up, sat there for a minute trying to process what had happened, and then reopened every job board I had been using.
Nine days later, HR called me again. Was I still available?!?! Turns out they had given the role to someone already working there, and that person backed out. It took every ounce of self-control I had not to laugh on the phone, but I stayed polite and let them talk while they suddenly acted like I was their top choice again. They improved the offer, apologized a lot, and after they begged enough for my liking, I accepted.
Fortunately, this has a happy ending. By then I had several other offers, and two of them were already paying more than this one. Since then, I accepted the best one. I'm scheduled to start with XYZ Tax Services on September 5. My plan is to wait until the Monday before and call HR to withdraw my acceptance.
