A client of mine is posting for a director-level position at a real estate development and property management firm. The company posted the job on their website, LinkedIn and Indeed. In less than a week, they received more than 60 qualified applicants. They only need one person. This is the story of how they got there.

The screening process reduced the field down to four candidates. We then scheduled and completed interviews. Next, it was time to make a job offer.

Post-interview contact

Normally, organizations will tell you their hiring schedule during the interview. If they do not, it is definitely OK to ask. In the followup calls from these interviews, the HR manager let the top candidate know the company would like to make an offer. In this case, he also told the other candidates they had not been selected.

This is not always what happens. For example, if there are two or more candidates that are viable choices for the position, the HR manager would have pursued the offer with the top one while keeping the other candidates warm, just in case it did not work out with the top candidate. Usually this is done by stalling or delaying responses.

Sometimes, though, HR managers will actually pursue further conversations with multiple candidates, but this can be tricky to manage and is not usually advisable.

The salary

Internally, this position had a hiring range. That range was the low salary to the midpoint of the range. The full range existed, but the goal was not to max out the salary at the offer. That would leave room for the employee to grow into the role, get raises, etc.

Conversely, the budget was there to go higher just in case the candidate was that qualified. In this case, the top candidate was not that qualified, so the team thought to offer the middle of the hiring range.

The team felt comfortable offering her the midpoint. But before anything specific was said to the candidate, the HR manager asked her what she expected now that she knew more about the role, the organization and the team. He pushed her to come back with a number. This is great because it gives the organization so many additional levels of insight on the candidate.

This candidate came back with a number that was below the midpoint of the range. The team then had to decide whether to give her that amount or give her the higher midpoint. Because of their company culture, it was an easy decision: give her the higher midpoint.

However, in most other cases, this is not what happens. Usually the organization will offer the lower amount. Also, in many cases the candidate comes back with a number that is higher than the team planned to pay. That is when an actual negotiation takes place.

In such cases, the supervising position — in this situation, the VP — works with HR on a firm ceiling, then allows a negotiation to take place. For another position in the same department at this client, the negotiation failed because the candidate wanted more money. Because of that, the HR manager went down his list to the next candidate and began the process again.

Check in next time as we outline how to use this information when applying for your next position.