Ask HN: Have you ever had a job offer rescinded? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Have you ever had a job offer rescinded?

19 pointsalanchavez50 comments

I already accepted a job offer, and I'm at the stage of background check.

In the criminal background check I have a speeding ticket (driving at 41 MPH in a 30 MPH zone) which remains unpaid, and there may be a bench warrant. I let my soon-to-be employer know about this situation, and they didn't mentioned a word about it.

Also, I have bad credit (in the 400 FICO) because I don't have enough money (that's why my speeding ticket remains unpaid), and the money I earn from my current employer is not enough (I make $12/hr as a Software Developer...), some times I make just enough money to pay rent and utilities.

I'm afraid that my soon-to-be employer might want to rescind the job offer, which will take me back to the start.

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Yes a very good friend working in finance had an offer rescinded at this stage. They won't tell you why, although if the credit score is the reason they are legally supposed to send you an letter. Seriously, though, 400 FICO is appalling, I've never heard of a score that low in real life. You don't have bad credit because you don't have enough money, it is because you are living beyond your means. Stop making excuses. You are making $23K, which is enough for a single guy to live on in South Texas (I survived on a similar amount out of school). You need to get organized and take care of your business, including the speeding ticket. If you are a developer you should freelance to earn extra income-- that can actually lead to a better full-time job. You also need to downside your apartment-- live at home if that's an option, or get roommates. Also get rid of cable TV. The good news is that FICO scores can rebound pretty quickly.

I think your comment is appalling. How the hell would you know he is living beyond his means? Maybe there are perfectly legitimate reasons he can't take on extra work. Maybe he is dealing with illness and medical expenses or God knows what.

I have to get away from the keyboard now...

It doesn't sound like that's the case, and there is NEVER a reason for an employed person to allow a simple speeding ticket to turn into a bench warrant. I've struggled with these kinds issues in the past and the way out is to step up and take responsibility for your financial decisions.

You're right.

I could have done community service instead, but I didn't.

I didn't take responsibility for the ticket, and I just let it go. There's no excuse.

well it's not 400 but it's in the 400 range.

I know there are no excuses, and I've been irresponsible. However sometimes bad things happen to good people, and it's been a rough year.

Before that score I used to have a score in the range of 700.

Living at home is not an option. I have had bad luck with roommates they all turned out to be drug addicts or extremely loud.

Cable TV is included with rent, I do not even have a cellphone because I don't want to be spending $70/mo on that.

Then again, I'm not making excuses for that, I already have a plan to repay all my debt, and I'm starting next paycheck whether I'm moving forward with new company or I stay with my current employer.

[Redacted by author / uncivil]. How the fuck do you know that he's living beyond his means? Or that he lives in South Texas?

I agree that unless he's in dire circumstances, he should pay off the ticket. And yes, a credit score in the 400s is pretty awful. From a strategic perspective, he should do it in order to have one less thing to worry about. However, I don't know the OP and have no idea what his financial constraints are. I do know that life is very (and unfairly) difficult for some people, and moralizing as if it were all their fault is ridiculous.

He must've stalked his comment history. At one point he says:

> South Texas (Rio Grande Valley)

Yes, wondering how he knew that confused me enough to pull up his comment history.

But to be fair, I don't think everyone reacts as negatively to this type of criticism as you do. At least, I don't immediately think of it as moralizing and unnecessary. If I was in the situation of the OP, having someone reply harshly would probably inspire me to get things together. But then again, I'm not sure most people are this way.

But to be fair, I don't think everyone reacts as negatively to this type of criticism as you do.

Point. I also tend to defend others more ferociously than I defend myself. I've been taken farther into the public than I'd prefer and I don't feel a need to hide that I've made bad decisions (mostly, a few terrible picks regarding companies) in the past.

No need to "stalk" anything, said comment is on this very page.

If the end result of the comment means the the OP is in a better position after next months paycheck, then some stark words are the most valuable thing he can here right now. If you can't afford to pay for a speeding ticket you are living beyond your means, technically speaking.

Douches like you are one of the reasons I'm considering leaving HN.

That's what happens when you speak your mind and do your research: The pitchforks come out. Don't disagree, don't judge, and for the sake of all that's right on the internet, don't offer advice when it's clearly needed.

Perhaps leaving HN for a while would help many of us. Step back, smell the flowers, save the rest of us some of the internet rancor that shouldn't even show up here.

There's a difference between doing research and making judgmental statements based upon assumptions. $23K is probably fine for a single guy. What about a man with children or aging parents? Medical bills? Most of the advice given is very good, but there's no reason to accuse him of living beyond his means and making excuses other than to kick him while he's down.

Michael, you are wrong on that.

newbie12's made very insightful and somewhat unexpected observation. I personally value such observations a lot.

Even if newbie12 is wrong about his insight and recommendation - I still enjoy reading it. And if newbie12 made that recommendation to me personally - I would appreciate such recommendation even more.

Now compare newbie12's comment with your own: your comment is rude, provides zero insight, and attempts to silence newbie12 for all the wrong reasons.

You're right that I overreacted to him.

Sorry. I think I need a break from HN. Trying to be the savior of the tech industry is an exhausting job, and that was a case where my anger spilled over inappropriately.

If they know about the issues, and are proceeding with the background check, then they won't freak out upon encountering this in the background check.

In the meantime you might want to try sites like elance to see if you can pick up some side work to help pay the bills.

Just a side note on the ticket. Go get that fixed. Go into the court, tell them you don't have the money and let them decide what to do. One of three things will happen:

1) You will be required to provide community service

2) Your future wages will be garnished until you've paid the fine.

3) Your fine will be reduced to something you can pay.

There is absolutely nothing so poorly planned as having an outstanding warrant for your arrest. The next time you get pulled over, you will go right to jail. You can't predict the timing of that, but you can "fix" this problem on your own schedule if you just go in and deal with it.

My wife had a solid job offer rescinded a few years ago. She got the whole "welcome aboard" speech and everything. However, when attempting to check an old reference, the person she listed as her reference wasn't available and so another guy who'd she had never met decided to give it instead. He gave an entirely fictional and terrible reference for no apparent reason. They had never worked together, had no history or anything yet this guy decided he would just mess someones life up. Anyway, even after explaining that to the potential employer they still didn't care and rescinded the offer. Life is weird sometimes.

That's totally awful.

The company that offered me the job offer told me that they will not be doing any reference check on me.

Did she get a settlement for it?

Even companies that don't do severance will pay out when they rescind an offer, because it makes them look horrible. Since it sounds like there's nothing embarrassing on her (it was just a case of a random hit) she could easily get $75,000. (Most bad reference/rescinded offer cases make plaintiff look somewhat bad and come in around the $20-50k range; but in her case, they don't have anything on her.)

Why not sue the guy for slander? It did real and measurable damage, the potential employer has a record of the conversation, and the former employer has the true record of her work there. Seems like a slam dunk to this non-lawyer.

IANAL, but that sounds like the a textbook definition of libel. If it happened as you said, it sounds worth pursuing

To answer all the questions about sueing etc. The job she interviewed for was in the US, but her previous job where the guy gave the bad reference was in the UK. Also, we had no idea who actually gave the reference because we could find no record of the name he gave to them. I assure you, if we could have sued someone, we would have!

I wouldn't worry too much about a unpaid speeding ticket and low credit score. At least not in terms of the pending job offer. It is natural to feel nervous at this stage. The fact is, you really want the job and you see it as a big break. Hang in there and update this thread when you find out either way.

You make 12hr as a software developer, that is very interesting

That is very sad :) That's another reason why I'm looking for another job.

I've proved soon-to-be employers that I'm smart enough to make much more.

I don't want to bad mouth my current employer, but they don't appreciate software development and in general, there are not a lot of software development career opportunities here.

Where are you located? (General area if you don't want to be specific). Also how many years of experience do you have?

As for your question, I haven't had a offer rescinded and the only time I have heard of it happening is because of a major issue, such falsifying credentials/degrees.

South Texas (Rio Grande Valley).

No tech companies, no headquarters of any kind.

The company that offered me a job is a big company (5000 employees) and is among the fastest growing companies in the US, so it would be a huge bummer if I got my job offer rescinded, I just can't stop thinking about it.

Highly unlikely. Not sure you'd want to work for a company that wouldn't hire you over a speeding ticket anyways. Send me your resume if they end up rescinding your job offer.

I didn't even know there were developer jobs anywhere in the country that pays $12/hr.... but hey, free market right? whatever you are willing to take:)

Doesn't the oil boom down there mean that everyone is hiring? Surely EOG, Baker Hughes, etc. have jobs that pays better than $12/hour, even if they're in something tangentially related to software development, like IT.

I've been working in software development since I was in High School; I started at a small agency in my hometown developing CRUD applications in ASP and PHP for local companies.

Then I went to college and in my first semester, the research director offered me a position to develop software for their research projects.

After I left college, I've been working for an advertising agency 1 year now developing more CRUD applications for local companies.

So "real world" experience (in other words besides doing research and my summer internship at a top national laboratory) I've only got 2 1/2 years of experience.

> I've only got 2 1/2 years of experience.

I know a guy 1 year out of school charging $80/hour. Businesses pay for stuff getting done, not experience.

Very.

I pay more than three times this for developers that work through Odesk, elance etc.

I have but not because of the background check. I went to a job interview once where the guy I was interviewing with offered me a job on the spot, and he would send the formal offer the next day. The next day I got an email saying that he had changed his mind.

You could make 3-10x $12/hr on Odesk. You can get a cell phone for much less than $70/month.

Good grief I'll pay you $12/hr just to write some doc strings on my functions.

Your employer doesn't need to know anything except what they ask for. I have never had a background check or a credit check for a job.

Furthermore, if you became a freelancer / self-employed contractor, then they become your customer - definitely no background check needed.

My advice: Find some temporary work, but start investing in your long term career. Make a web portfolio. Start blogging. Post youtube videos when you learn new stuff. Opportunities will start coming. Get your income up, pay off your debts/tickets and don't ever talk about that stuff ever again.

I did have an offer rescinded for other reasons (I'm good at talking my way out of opportunities). Don't do the same :)

I have a web portfolio, I have three blogs, and post YouTube videos regularly for my blogs. I have commited code to large open source projects, and have released some other projects on my own.

I'm just not good at freelancing, I tried it for a short time and hated every single minute of it.

Thanks for your advice!

I agree that employers are way too nosy these days. Drug tests, background checks, credit score checks are personal; employers shouldn't be able to request them even. It should be taboo, like asking religion.

The need to reduce the risk of hiring a bad employee should not come at the expense of the privacy of all employees. The risk should be on the business to make the interview process tougher, to reach out to their connections and check the person's references, to follow their hired employees carefully to make sure they're not embezzling or muffing things up.

It is not just a personal matter if someone has a criminal background or routinely doesn't pay their bills. Credit scores are a statistically significant indicator of other kinds of behavior-- for example, people with better credit are also likely to be safer drivers, which is why insurance companies use them.

Never lie on applications, and companies do background checks because of PCI reasons. For instance, if you said you had a college degree and you didn't, you'd most likely not be hired. However, if they know you didn't have a degree and you didn't say you had a degree up front then most likely you're fine. Regarding PCI, if you're a felon they can't hire you. As far as I know, most companies don't look at credit score.

The NYT just did an article about how employers will skip over potential hires that have bad credit, especially in a time of high unemployment when they have the option of being choosey.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/12/business/employers-pull-ap...

My first job out of college, I interviewed and got the job before graduation. Then I failed to finish one of my final courses, and thus didn't receive a degree (I was short 3 credits).

The course in question was a very "off-topic" humanities elective, and my thinking at the time was "oh well who cares," but when the head of the company found out, he went apeshit. He was a normally very mild and friendly guy, and that's the only time I've ever seem angry at all, but he was very, very angry indeed, he didn't try to hide it.

I honestly (at that time) couldn't understand why—after all, any CS education I received was exactly the same, with or without that humanities elective or a degree—but he made it clear that if I didn't get a degree, and soon, I was out. [It probably wasn't the lack of a degree per-se, as there were other people on staff with similar jobs without degrees, but I imagine he felt deceived / lied to because my original application had naturally anticipated my graduating normally.]

So ... I took a calligraphy class, graduated the next semester, and all was well.

[I'm quite glad I took that class actually, the knowledge and skills I got there have served me well over the years. So in a way, it was a good experience... >< ]

Main concerns of background checks:

a) will you get detained?

b) are you a danger to any employee in/out of the office

c) is your morality "flexible" where they need to worry with trusting you with information / anything.

d) are you on drugs right now, or high risk of getting on them

I had a similar experience interning at an internet marketing company. I definitely feel ya and hope the best for you. :)

I'm just updating the post... the company didn't rescind their offer, and I'm happily employed now!!

Relax, you'll be fine. Nobody cares speed tickets and bad credit, except your future in laws.

It's unlikely that you'll have a rescinded offer over this, unless you're applying for a bottom-rung job. Having bad finances isn't on the same level as a felony conviction for dealing drugs.

If it happens, and you have an offer in writing, the words you want are promissory estoppel. A good lawyer will get you 3-4 months in severance, should it happen. Rescinding an offer makes a company look very bad. Have an attorney handle that negotiation, should it get to that (and it probably won't).

If he can't afford to pay a parking ticket, he probably can't afford a good lawyer.

I am no lawyer, but I think promissory estoppel only applies if you relied on the job offer in some way... for example, if you terminated your lease, resigned from your current job, or something like that.

Hard to say. Companies can rescind offers for business reasons (i.e. plant closing) and that's legal; but personal rescission is not something the courts like, and it's terrible PR. They'll settle.

You have to threaten to sue because if you threaten to blog, that's technically extortion and you'll lose all the leverage you have.

Regarding reliance, I believe you are technically correct; however, you can certainly include the time that you would have been job-searching, and also the loss of the existing job.

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