As some of you know, S was laid off from his job late last year and he's been looking for a job since then. S is in the finance industry and as I mentioned before it is a great industry when you are up, but can be very volatile if you are down. He's been working really hard looking for something in the past 8 months and he's been close in getting an offer a few times.
In the last 3 months, his old boss at Ungrateful Company (sorry this is what I choose to call his old company) was fired. Shortly after this happened, people from his old company called to see how he is doing (other than his boss, everyone loved him at this company) and to see if he is interested in coming back. Of course S welcomed the idea and this started the process. He flew to NYC and talked to a bunch of people blah...blah...blah... The job sounded really interesting--it is a higher profile job than his old job here in Chicago and this job will be in NYC. A few weeks later (actually, the same day that we got the positive beta) he received an offer. The offer was not what we wanted, which we expected since we figured we would have to go thru some negotiations. To make a long story short, they were offering him the same $$ that he made here(or possibly less depending on his bonus), but only this time the job is in NYC. Now we all know that the cost of living in NYC is a lot more than Chicago, so we were a little offended by that. In addition, S wanted a 2 year guarantee on salary and bonus( in his industry asking for a guarantee is a norm). We especially wanted the guarantee after what happened with him with this company late last year. We didn't want to be in the same boat, S looking for a job a year or so from now.
So after many negotiations, Ungrateful Company came back with a little more money but no guarantees. Again, base on experience, we figured that the guarantee was essential with this company. To make a long story short, they couldn't meet what we wanted and as of right now S is drafting a letter to decline the offer.
I am at a lost, I feel so bad for S. There are times that I wished they never contacted him about potentially going back--he was starting to forget and move on from what happened. But this experience pulled him back. He is so frustrated and depress and he feels like his career is over and I don't know how to help him. I feel so sad seeing him this way and it just breaks my heart. Everyday, I pray that today will be a better day for him, that maybe today we will get a job offer or a job interview.
So, for now, S will continue to plug along, hoping that sometime soon he will find a job that he loves. But for now, I feel that this experience is robbing us from being completely happy about our p. It is sad to say that being unemployed and being p is not the best combination.