Talk about a perfectly played game.
There’s no denying that today’s job market is bonkers, with many desperate seekers taking extreme measures to help with their search.
One wise applicant, fresh off a “marathon hiring process,” proved that sometimes less said is better, especially after several weeks of trying to sell themselves to a potential employer.
In a post on r/jobsearchhacks on Reddit, the user explained the tactic he used that earned him a $12,000 higher salary.
After nearly six weeks and four rounds of interviews, “by the time I got to the final call with the recruiter, I was already exhausted and just wanted to see the numbers,” the original poster wrote.
After finally receiving the offer, “… it was about fifteen percent lower than the range we discussed in the first screening call. Usually, this is where people start stuttering or trying to justify why they deserve more but I decided to try something different this time. I just stayed completely silent,” they wrote.
Not only did the candidate not respond to the low offer, but they didn’t utter a word for 30 seconds: “It was probably the most uncomfortable half minute of my professional life.”
“I just sat there staring at my wall and waiting.” Eventually, the recruiter broke the silence and started “babbling about how the budget was tight and how they have great benefits but then she stopped herself when I still didn’t respond.”
Oof, that is not easy to do.
Then, like a perfectly played game of chess, the recruiter offered to go back to the hiring manager to see if they could increase this offer.
“Ten minutes later she called me back with an extra $12,000 and a signing bonus. It was like the money just spawned out of thin air the moment I stopped talking,” the OP wrote. “It is a game of chicken and the person who talks first usually loses.”
Over 1,000 users chimed in on the comment section to praise this soon-to-be-employee for playing the game right.
“It is wild how the budget suddenly appears out of thin air once they realize you aren’t desperate. They bank on candidates being too polite to let a silence hang for more than two seconds,” one pointed out.
Another shared a similar experience that happened to them, unintentionally: “Was given a lowish but not bad offer. Honestly, I was mostly pausing just to write it down and mentally run it past other estimates and offers in my head, but after about 10 seconds, they started sounding uncomfortable and upped the number by about 20%-ish…”
And one commenter put it point blankly: “Silence is the most uncomfortable yet effective weapon in any negotiation room.”
