The other day I heard about a friend of a friend who had been out of work. This was a company move and layoff because of the move. No fault of the employee, and by all indications a pretty talented guy.

Regardless of the talent, he’s been looking and hasn’t found anything for about six months. He is an experienced candidate and he interviewed recently for an entry level role. Not the right fit. The company is interested in him and willing to hire him at the entry level or near entry level rate. This would be a good $40,000 less than he was making before.
It’s a decent sized company and there is room to move up, so my friend asked why he wouldn’t take it. The thought process is, he needs to work and he can move up. The problem is, he re-sets the bar at the lower level. On his next move, internally or externally, he’s at that level and the comp offered will be based on that. It’s a long haul to get back and nobody every buys the story that I used to be at a much higher level so I deserve to jump back there.

Not the right fit is not the right fit and it’s best for everyone involved to move on, extend the search and find the right fit. Out of work is bad, but can be solved. Re-setting the bar to a lower level is a big problem and very difficult to fix.

Todd Kmiec

https://www.linkedin.com/in/toddkmiec/