The Unsolicited Job Offer

While many of us are always interested in moving another rung up the magical career ladder, concerned about “exit opportunities”, and generally always having an eye on the next great endeavor, the fact of the matter is few will truly “make it” (enter your own definition of that here). A lot of people talk about job boards, networking and everything else included in a job hunt, but few seem to touch on the rare unsolicited job interview. For that, I present the following story.

It was a rather chilly day in the frigid northeast as we were in the middle of a friggin long cold spell. I was just starting the new year with 2014 goals in my mind, a solid review from 2013 and some renewed ambition since I had taken a few days off over Christmas/New Years. Things were looking good.

My email pinged early on a Tuesday morning from a person I had met about 9 months prior when we had a basic introductory call. “Hey XXXXX, are you free to catch up over lunch sometime in the next week or two?” Sure, why not? My calendar was as bare as Jonah Hill at a pool party so I put it on the calendar for the middle of the following week. Frankly, I really thought nothing of it as these tend to come up on a fairly regular basis and I candidly forgot what this person’s role in the industry was to begin with so a refresher would be welcome on my end.

On an uncharacteristically warm day for this time of year, I set out to my lunch meeting, notebook in hand determined to come away with a few things to help remember who this person was and, just as importantly, how we actually might be able to work together. I tend to take the odd lunch appointment with people far removed from my circle but are good networking contacts that know a lot of the same people; takeaway here is have an agenda for each meeting, otherwise you’re wasting you time. My limited recollection was this person was looking for a company to buy and run through backing from a local family office.

The first thing I noticed was a strange lack of eye contact for the first 10-15 minutes of sitting down at the table in a fancy restaurant. Surely they weren't scanning the room as it was mostly empty. Just a weird quirk I guess. Then came the most surprising words of the day: “Bottom line of why we’re sitting here right now is I want to recruit you. I want to poach you from your current role to do what you’re doing but do your own deals with me. Do I have your interest?” While that might not be verbatim, it’s not far from it as this person was blunt and to the point. Caught off guard to say the least, I managed to stammer out, “Uh, yea sure it sounds like an interesting opportunity but I’m in a really good place right now with a solid team.” No change in facial expression whatsoever, though the eye contact took a 180 and they had a Mark Zuckerberg-like frozen stare directly through my eyes and into my soul. It only lasted a fleeting moment but I could tell they weren't enamored with my response.

Fast forward through the next 25 minutes while I was pitched a very convoluted and erratic explanation of their vision and my role (as a partner no less!) in that vision. On one hand, part of me is thinking they must be crazy. It seemed like an extremely aggressive strategy but that I can be comforted knowing there was enough money on their side to run with this for at least 2 years before we would have to call it quits if things didn’t pan out. Ok then.

What else was mentioned? Signing bonus? Check. Salary commensurate with my current base plus a few % point higher to help lure me away? Check. Bonus incentives for consummating deals, either ours or shopping to other buyers, maybe with a co-investment kicker? Check. Company car? Check. Freedom to do just about whatever I wanted so long as I produced results? Check and Check. So what is there to lose you might ask? Besides everything, not much I guess.

Thankfully, things wound down a bit and I was told to think about it for a few weeks and come back to schedule a meeting to talk about specifics and see if we were both on the same page and that this is a worthwhile pursuit. It did not come off all that crazy and the more I thought about it throughout the rest of the day, the more it seemed pretty exciting. Entrepreneurial risk without having to put up the capital and I still get to do a job in the industry I’m currently entrenched? What’s the downside?

Well, I currently do have a pretty stable situation with my role at my current firm with complete buy-in from the partners to pursue things I really want in our space. I do enjoy the team I work with and don’t have many complaints on my comp (although we all want a bit more, right?)

As I sit here writing this, the next meeting here is the make-or-break meeting and I know I need to go in prepared.

What say all of you? Has anyone been through a scenario like this before? What were the results? For those that took the leap of faith, how did things turn out? Very curious to hear the pros and cons from those that have gone through the exercise ways they found success and scenarios they would prefer to avoid.

No matter what, the strip steak for lunch was delicious.