Is it risky to negotiate a job offer? Could it be rescinded?

Risk can be looked at in two ways — for you as the candidate or for the employer. Let’s step back and look at the process. For you as a candidate, the time you put in equals the time you spent putting together a targeted resume through researching the company and the role, preparing for a phone interview and the roughly 30 minutes you were on the phone, and then the preparation for in-person interviews and the one hour to multiple hours talking with the hiring team. 

For the employer, the commitment is even higher. HR and the hiring manager got together to discuss the open position and agreed on a game plan to fill it. The employer then had to review tens if not hundreds of resumes to find the candidates that were most qualified for the role. The next step was to conduct phone interviews with those candidates that were on the short-list of possible qualified candidates. That list was then winnowed down to the best qualified for the role. Next, there were in-person interviews with anywhere from two to ten individuals.

You have a lot of time invested in the process. The employer has even more time invested in the process. Therefore, while there is a risk to anything you do, both sides are heavily invested to get to a successful conclusion. 

As a candidate, remember that the employer wants you. While the employer may be okay with their second choice, you, of all the people looked at, are the one that is felt will be most successful in the role. The employer would like to see the payoff of its time and effort in a wonderful hire. That is a very good place to be.

But you must also remember that like any shopper, the employer wants to pay the least and get the most. 

Therefore from where I stand as both an HR professional for the majority of my career and as a Career Coach, not negotiating is riskier. The risk for you is that you will leave money on the table that you could have had if you had strategically negotiated. I say strategically, as it is important to go into any negotiations knowing what the market rate is for the skills you offer (which you can find using glassdoor.com or salary.com) and as importantly, what areas of compensation and benefits are important to you. For further information on often overlooked compensation and benefits, please read my blog post.

Also, know that in some occupations, such as sales and account management, negotiating is almost expected, as it is a demonstration of how comfortable you are with negotiations, especially if it is part of your job.

As for the question of whether a job offer could be rescinded if you negotiated, anything is possible. In my many years in HR, though, I have never once seen it happen.

I am starting to hear more and more about Artificial Intelligence causing tremendous job losses in the future. What can I do to AI-proof my job?

This is a great question to ask. For those that are not aware, Artificial Intelligence (AI), sometimes also referred to as machine intelligence, is the ability of computers to be programmed to make decisions that otherwise humans would do. Siri, which was introduced initially with the iPhone 4S in 2011, uses voice recognition technology to answer questions and do tasks and is an example of AI. More and more companies are integrating AI into their business strategy. It can bring a better customer experience while also reducing operational expenses. The Harvard Extension School, in a blog post, points to many benefits of AI for both consumers and businesses. They include data analysis, consumer behavior forecasting, fraud detection, personalized advertising and marketing, and customer service, either via the telephone or chatbots. According to the Harvard Business Review, the business areas where AI will have the most impact is in manufacturing, marketing, and supply chain. Even in areas like accounting and recruiting, there is the start of AI being incorporated to do journal entries for businesses and conduct job interviews.

So what can you do to AI-proof your job? The better question is what can you do to increase your skills so that you become more valuable to a business than a machine. The McKinsey Institute has estimated that 400 to 800 million jobs may be eliminated due to AI by 2030. AI is initially being targeted for those tasks that are more mundane and repetitive. Machines can do these tasks faster and with greater accuracy. Therefore, you need to keep adding to your skills to be able to do those jobs that will require a higher level of complexity and decision making. Let’s go back to the accounting example. People in jobs that process expense reports may find that work will be automated and those jobs could go away. There will still be the need, though, to oversee the expense report process and make judgment calls when there are issues that need to be resolved. Therefore, those that can excel in those areas would still be needed. My advice would be to stay current on emerging technologies and make sure you are tech-savvy. Additionally, soft skills, the ones that computers cannot replicate, will be very important. Relationship building, creativity, and problem-solving will all be even more important and valuable skills to be able to demonstrate to an employer.

Do you think ageism is rampant for people looking for a job?

Do I think some people have been denied an opportunity for a job solely due to their age? Yes. Do I think everyone over a certain age that gets rejected for a job is because of ageism? No. 

I have talked to many job seekers that feel that they have been qualified for a position but have not moved forward in the process due to being perceived as too old. Because no one will outright tell a candidate that they were too old for a job, job seekers come to this conclusion either through how they were treated in the interview process or by the assumption that they had the right skills but were passed over due to a bias against them because of their age. Certainly, in some industries, like tech, there appears to be a culture of youth and masculinity, the “bro culture” that seems to eschew women, minorities and yes, older people. Yet in others, there are many “white-haired” people visible on company websites and in the media and seem to have a good mixture of generations in the workforce.

I have been involved with the hiring of many 40+ aged people as well as the rejection of many 40+ aged people. Those that were rejected, and sometimes by managers younger than them, were rejected for many reasons. Sometimes it was about skills — a candidate had not continued to develop needed skills, either soft skills or technical skills. Sometimes it was about money. A candidate wanted to be at the top or over the salary range for the position, and there were other, equally qualified candidates, that would not cost the company as much. Simple economics. Sometimes, the older candidate did not fit the company culture and not due to age, but due to differing expectations about the work and environment. As you can see, these can all be legitimate reasons that have nothing to do with age.

So until all businesses and managers are made to hire in an ethical manner based solely on the merits of an individual, what can a candidate do that is over 40 and looking for a job? Here is what I advise.

1. Make sure that your resume is modern. Do not include a career objective or “references available upon request.”

2. Do not put graduation dates from high school or college.

3. Only put on your resume your experience from the past 10-15 years unless there is a role beyond that which is relevant to the position you are seeking.

4. Only put on your resume technology that is relevant for today.  If you are not current on Microsoft applications, take a class or go on YouTube and learn. 

5. A perception some people have of older workers is that they are inflexible. Demonstrate in your interviews how you deal with change in a positive way.

Most of all, do not apologize for your age. Demonstrate that you bring value to a company because of it. In my career, I was hired three times by managers that were younger than me. I demonstrated in the interview process that I knew my stuff, and I would partner with each of them to achieve that company’s goals. All three of these managers were great to work with, and we had a very successful and productive work relationship.