Work arrangements can be flexible

My friend was the perfect candidate for a job opportunity. He already had the respect of the CEO and the team, a depth of familiarity with the company’s product, and his skills were perfect for the role. He would have gotten the job already, except he was in a different country that the company couldn’t hire in.

He thought he was disqualified and that the conversation was over. I suggested that he get back to them with the suggestion of getting started as an independent contractor. Maybe write it as a forwardable email addressed to the CEO, who could forward along to the hiring manager.

He had also mentioned being open to part time work, so I suggested putting that option on the table to help de-risk the situation for the company, which would make the opportunity more appealing to them. 

There’s no guarantee which way it will go, but these types of considerations are always worth an attempt. It’s hard for a team to ask the candidate to be flexible—the team doesn’t have the depth of processing, and even if they did, it’s difficult to communicate it without sounding exploitative.

If the candidate offers to be flexible though, and starts adding value to a team, things change. The candidate is delivering results and adding energy to the team. The team sees the candidate’s value and will do more of what it takes to keep the momentum going, even if it means additional paperwork or wrangling for them. I’ve once seen a contractor who had worked several years with a team finesse an arrangement where she didn’t have to attend most of the meetings the rest of us had to, simply because she didn’t like meetings (and that was the reason her boss gave everytime she was absent).

But if the team doesn’t get a chance to see the value, then there also won’t be much motivation or leverage for them to start changing their policies—or at least making an exception.

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