Forum Moderators: LifeinAsia
A former employer, one that treated me like absolute dirt when I was there, now wants to hire me as a consultant for their website.
I worked for this firm 15 years ago, before it even considered a Web presence. The firm was widely known within the field as a resume stain, and had run through half a dozen people in my position over the past decade. I quit rather than take a demotion, after I learned that the employer was interviewing replacements for me while I'd been on vacation the summer before.
After leaving, I taught myself Web development, met with dozens of former firm employees who shared their horror stories with the firm, found some great, profitable, award-winning gigs with other firms and learned to enjoy my career again.
Now... I've gotten an offer from the firm to consult on a Web project. The person making the offer knows I worked for the firm before... but does not know that I did not leave a "happy camper." In fact, none of the managers who were there at the time I was are still with the company.
Here's my question. Do I....
A) Find a creative and emotionally satisfying way to tell the firm to kiss my ---,
B) Take the deal, jacking my rates into the Stratosphere in an effort to recoup some of the bonus money that the company kept from me when I left,
C) Get over my past with the firm, give 'em another chance, take the deal and charge a standard rate?
What would you do, or what have you done in similar circumstances?
TIA.
What would you do
I think a lot would depend upon what your other options are. If you have no other contracts lined up and you have a family and a house with a mortgage, I'd say take it at your normal rate.
If you have other consulting options and don't need the money then it might be best to pass and recommend someone else for the job, since you still seem hurt about the way you were treated there in the past.
I would not do option A. As you said it is all new managers so why be mean to people who want to hire you? It's a small world and you never know where these new managers may end up working in the future. When I was a hiring manager for a big company that many people wanted to work for I had a couple of resumes show up from people I'd worked with a decade earlier in a city 500 miles away.
[edited by: Jane_Doe at 7:18 am (utc) on Jan. 24, 2008]
Get over your past with the firm, give 'em another chance, take the deal, whilst jacking the rates into the Stratosphere and asking for payment in advance. If at any point they fail to pay, you find a creative and emotionally satisfying way to say goodbye.......
In fact, none of the managers who were there at the time I was are still with the company.
Act like a professional and treat them just like any other potential client. However, given that they withheld money from you before, that's already a strike against them, so make sure you avoid a situation where they could do it again.
If you suspect the way you was treated was more than just a personal issue with your boss at the time, then see who the current senior execs / board members are. Just make sure you are being rational whatever you decide.
