[yoctonaut]

I disagree with the writer's conclusion that one should't mention other interviews or other offers. In my most recent search (after a layoff), my best leads were two companies who'd gotten in touch while I had been with my former company. One came in with a low offer, which I declined--they countered with a higher one. That was also followed up by the other company coming up with a higher offer. I told the first company about it, and they ended up exceeding the other offer.

My experience may have differed from the author's because of how I presented the situation. He says, "So I told both of them that I had other offers and they must give me a revised and a better offer." That reads a bit smug to me. The way I said it was, "I'd like to work with you guys, but I'm looking at an offer from (other company) that's $X higher. How can we make this work?" I mentioned some concerns and reservations I had about the other, what I liked about each, and they came up enough to make a difference.

I didn't ask the other company to counter--I think that I would have worn out both companies' patience and probably had the same result the author had. In the end, money was important, but fit was also important, and if one of them had been a clearly bad fit, this process wouldn't have been productive.