Offer

For a long time, the end of the interviews was treated as the end of the hire. Tell the candidate they passed, ask when they can start, done. Terms were a few sentences over the phone, and the first time anything was written down was the employment contract signed the day after they showed up.

Things came apart at the very end often enough. After months of saying compensation could be worked out later, a company would finally name a figure and find it $7,500 below what the candidate had in mind, with the two sides holding different ideas about the level as well. Three months of hiring evaporated in one phone call. The quieter failure was more common still: the candidate says yes, the seat is held for them, and a week before the start date a message arrives saying they aren't coming.

An offer turns that last stretch into a documented process with a deadline. It lists item by item what the company is proposing, attaches a date for the answer, and puts both sides in front of the same document. It also makes visible something that had always been true — the company that spent months evaluating the candidate is, at this step, the one being evaluated.

From the day the final interview result is in through the candidate's answer, this usually runs in six steps.

1. Settle it internally — level and money first. Decide where the candidate lands inside the pay band, the salary range defined for each level, and check the result against what current employees make. If there's a reason to go above the band, get that approved now.
2. Check in advance — ask the candidate about current pay, expectations, and whether other processes are running. If another company's answer lands in two weeks, the deadline has to account for that.
3. Deliver it verbally — a call comes before the document, so the number can be said out loud and the reaction heard. Hesitation at this point can still be addressed before anything is sent.
4. Send the document — write down what was agreed: role and level, base salary, the terms under which a bonus pays out, the amount and vesting conditions of any equity, the expected start date, the probation period, and the response deadline.
5. Negotiate — the candidate asks for a change to the money or the start date. When the number can't move, companies often trade on something else, like the start date or the timing of the first review.
6. Accept and confirm — a signature fixes the start date, and preparation for the new hire begins.

Sending without a deadline is the most common mistake. "Take your time" means the candidate answers after every other result is in. Three to seven days is typical, and when the candidate is genuinely waiting on something, the honest move is to hear that out and extend. Squeezing the deadline to force a fast yes can lift the acceptance number for a while, but it lifts the share of people who change their minds before the start date by just as much.

The hiring manager decided the role was needed, so they supply the reasoning behind the terms. The people team places the candidate within the band, checks internal balance, and prepares the document. Going above the band or attaching equity needs the founder's approval. The call is usually made by the hiring manager, since the candidate is better off hearing it from someone they'll actually work with.

The timing counts from the final interview.

1. Two to three days after the final interview — internal agreement is done. Take more than a week and the candidate assumes rejection.
2. Same day or the next — the verbal delivery.
3. One or two days after the call — the document goes out.
4. Three to seven days after that — the response deadline.
5. Four to eight weeks after acceptance — the start date. A candidate who is employed has to give notice and hand over their work.

That last stretch carries the most risk. During the month between acceptance and joining, the candidate tells their current employer they're leaving and gets a proposal to stay. Go quiet during those weeks and the news arrives days before the start date. A short message every couple of weeks — asking how the handover is going, passing along what the team is up to — measurably reduces how many people fall out here.

"The offer went out, and the deadline is next Wednesday."

The terms have been delivered and an answer is due by then.

"We lost that candidate at the offer stage. Even the top of the band didn't get there."

The number was pushed as far as it could go and still didn't close.

"I'll give you the numbers on a call first and send the document tomorrow."

The standard sequence: hear the reaction before anything is in writing.

Hiring the third engineer at Pagedeck came down to two finalists, both of them running processes elsewhere. Theo pushed hard for one of them after the technical interview, but when Grace checked the top of the band, the figure landed only slightly above what that candidate already earned.

Mia moved on other terms instead. The start date was pushed back to when the candidate wanted it, and the document committed to a first review at six months. That adjustment was available only because the candidate had asked about exactly those two things during the call. Lead with the document and that one becomes a rejection email sent after reading a single line.

The most common reading is that an offer is an acceptance notice. From the company's side the decision has been made, so it feels finished. But the decision has moved to the candidate, and the hire isn't real until they say yes. Treat it as a notice and you send the document, go quiet, and wait — while the candidate keeps talking to other companies. Hold the seat, reject the other finalists, and then get a no, and the search starts over from the beginning.

The other assumption is that matching the number is the whole job. Money is what negotiation talks about, so it looks that way. In practice a fair share of rejections sit outside it: the scope of the work turned out different from what the interviews described, it stayed unclear who the candidate would work with, or being pushed for an answer in three days was itself the reason. Checking those three is usually more effective than finding another $1,500.