[jt2190]

This. Before accepting any offer, put all promises into writing. Attach milestones, even if you just make them up, i.e. salary will increase when company receives next funding round.

Send this to the employer. If they balk you know know they were just telling you what you wanted to hear. Be wary.

[khazhoux]

I'm not trying to be insulting, but none of what you wrote is realistic.

There's no such thing as putting a promise of a quick-promotion into writing. No company would agree to that, nor should they (what if you suck once you start?). And I'm highly skeptical a company will agree to a milestones-rewards plan for an individual employee.

If someone wrote such a proposal and sent it to me, I'd immediately reject them in the hiring pipeline. And I consider myself to be a very employee-friendly hiring manager.

[jt2190]

> If someone wrote such a proposal…

So, in this scenario:

* hiring manager tells the candidate they’ll get a “quick promotion”, but only if they “don’t suck”.

* candidate responds with proposed clarifications of “speedy” and “suck”.

* hiring manager drops candidate from consideration.

Did I get this right?

> And I'm highly skeptical a company will agree to a milestones-rewards plan for an individual employee.

And yet hiring managers play fast and loose with employee expectations all the time, even if their company would never honor such promises as a matter of policy.

How would you propose a candidate determine whether the hiring manager is making promises in good faith?

[khazhoux]

The only answer is there's no guarantees, and Caveat Emptor.

One of the worst offenses is the one we're discussing in this thread: a HM or recruiter says "We're slotting you at level 4 instead of level 5, because we like to give employees room to grow." That's a BS line -- put me in at 5 and grow me to 6, then! If you hear this line, you just need to understand it's poppycock and make a decision from there.

But basically everything a hiring manager says about a position can turn out to be just wishful thinking on their part:

* The team is most likely not solving a big problem

* The company most likely does not work well together

* The position problem does not have huge room to grow