The Tribulations of a Rescinded Offer

After countless interviews and rejections, you finally receive a legitimate offer. You assume that you're all set. The negotiations have passed, and you sign the letter to seal the deal. You’re hopeful. You would have made it, or so you thought.  They rescinded the offer a week later.  It seems like it's this endless, pessimistic road. That afternoon, your entire mood changes with one email with a few sentences in an electronic document that possesses the power to alter your mood. Their HR team had the daunting task of rescinding your offer due to unforeseen circumstances. Your heart drops, and your mouth turns dry. The reality sinks in, and you

The emotional turmoil is similar to a failed relationship. It’s devastating and heart-wrenching. You try to figure out what went wrong. How do you prevent this from happening again? The sad reality is that you cannot stop rescinded offers from repeating since it's beyond your control. You can control how you react to the situation and how to move forward positively.

How to move forward positively?

Step 1: Be Angry!……Be Sad….temporarily and safely

You’re mad, and you have every single right to be this way. This emotion is completely valid. Let yourself be angry and sad, cry if necessary. Just make sure you do this safely. Don’t cause harm to yourself or others. Do NOT write any negative posts, stories, or snaps on any social media platform, as this will make things worse. To be clear, if you have to ask yourself if it’s negative, 99.99% of the time it is negative. Be angry in private, not in public. Once you set

This part is important to pay attention to because it gives you the closure you need or the ammunition you need to take legal action if necessary. Some reasons are absolute, such as Immigration Laws and other legal issues that prevent you from being legally authorized to work in that area. It’s best to find out these issues as early as possible. There’s only so much that can be done when it comes to visa sponsorship and work authorization. It’s best to make your case as clear as possible from the beginning. Even if you answer the question, “Are you legally authorized to work in this country?” or “Will you now or in the future require sponsorship?”, they somehow fall through the cracks, and employees miss this major checkpoint. It’s not always an immediate filter or rejection. I used to fear these questions because I knew it was the main deciding factor that prevented me from getting the job.

It’s not always the Recruiter’s fault when they miss this detail, especially if they’re not trained to identify or work through these steps. Many recruiters who are not familiar with immigration practices will easily miss this step. They get super excited when they see a candidate who checks all their main boxes: you’re well-educated, have strong experience, and you seem to align with their culture. You’re the golden unicorn, but that one little thing prevents you from legally doing the job. It’s either sponsorship, a prior record, or even just contract obligations from a previous company. It’s annoying because you both want to work with each other, but that little detail prevents the deal.

Although the world is becoming more globalized, unfortunately, labour practices have not caught up with its progress. We were moving too fast; progress tends to be that way, but it’s often stopped by numerous legal checkpoints.

The only way around it is to continuously be upfront about your situation via their application process and your cover letter.

Company Retraction

This is inevitable, especially during this roller coaster of an economic wave. It’s difficult to predict what their health is as they are unaware of the situation. Rule of thumb: treat it like a relationship; if you’re not in a steady, committed relationship with clear guidelines, you’re a free agent. You owe no one any sort of loyalty, and they do the same. You need to keep interviewing and keep applying for different jobs until you’ve reached a point where you’re tied to them via a binding contract that’s signed. This step usually occurs when it’s your first day. Therefore, that means, before your first day, you’re not employed, expect that they will rescind their offer before you even begin. It’s difficult to consistently think about the defence because it blurs your optimistic outlook. This happens often, especially as most people’s stability stems from having a secure job. It’s possible to remain positive and hopeful, but it’s just very hard. It is not impossible. It takes much planning and detail-oriented strategies where you structure your financial situation so that it’s not solely dependent on one source of income, but that’s a different TED talk.

The challenge with a rescinded offer is that it makes you change your outlook on an organization. You begin to doubt their departments and structure in such a way that they lose their credibility immediately. In many cases, it confirms that there is a serious communication issue within their departments, and they don’t sync or work as well as they claimed. Sometimes it’s just unfortunate and unforeseen circumstances, and nothing the company could have done to predict such events. It doesn’t undermine the fact that you received. You must keep pressing on and keep the focus on the end goal. Looking back, what kept me positive was all the situations where adversity was faced, from surviving extreme abuse in primary school, encountering mentally exhausting and painful rejections, to surviving through a global pandemic. I remained positive and held on to that four-letter word called Hope.

It’s always unfortunate when it occurs; however, it’s not the end. Your story doesn’t end there because their organization does not define you. Only you can do that.