TLDR: They strung me along without making an offer Full Story: Movable Ink reaches out to me via email after my final group interview to tell me the team “really” enjoyed speaking with me and that they’d like to schedule reference calls. We get on the phone and I explain that I’d prefer to hold off on references until we get to the offer stage, so as to save my colleagues’ time in case things fall through. I then ask “Does Movable Ink intend to make an offer?” to which they replied “Yes, that is very much the intent.” I then proceed to share references, and they schedule calls with my colleagues. 3 days go by. It’s Friday morning. I get on the phone with them to inform them that I am anticipating receiving a competing offer from Company X, so as to be transparent and make her aware of my timeline. They ask for details regarding the competing offer, and I share a salary range. They even encouragesme to ask for extra time to decide if I do get the competing offer. Later that evening, I receive a verbal offer from Company X. Solid base salary, bonus, etc. Good offer. (This is where I began making the mistake of allowing Movable Ink to string me along.) I tell company X that I will need one week to evaluate my other offers, so as to give Movable Ink the opportunity to present me with an offer before deciding. I took their advice and requested more time, under the impression that Movable Ink was working to put together an offer and just needed more time. Fast forward to Monday. Movable Ink calls me to ask for a status update on my offer from Company X, "so that we can be competitive," they say. Again, I only share a salary range. I tell them that I need Movable Ink to make an offer “early this week” so that I have time to respond to Company X. They acknowledge my timeline, and even mention a small increase in base salary to get closer to Company X’s offer. I tell them I'm still interested in moving forward. It’s now Thursday, and I’ve heard nothing back from Movable Ink. I begin to think they have no real intention of making an offer, and are buying time to continue interviewing other candidates. I email them to follow up yet again on whether Movable Ink intends to make an offer. They reply with: “Please let me know if you have time today for a quick call regarding your application with Movable Ink. Thank you!” Not a good sign, we should be discussing offers at this point, not applications. And for the record, I never applied, they reached out to me on LinkedIn. They give me a call and confirm what I had thought. After hearing about my competing offer, they decided to move on to other candidates with lower compensation expectations, without telling me. Never once have I had a company completely back out of making an offer after hearing about a competing offer. I expressed my frustration that I had been transparent about my other offer, which was clearly my mistake. They hadn’t told me that Movable Ink no longer wanted to make an offer, even though they knew I was waiting to respond to another offer. “Well, it is Thursday,” they said unempathetically, not acknowledging that it had been over a week since they first mentioned Movable Ink’s intention to make me an offer. I reached back out to Company X, who informed me that, due to my delay, they have also moved on to other candidates. I learned a few lessons from my interview experience with Movable Ink: - Don’t hold off on accepting a competing offer - Don’t share competing salary info - Don’t share references until compensation has already been agreed upon Good luck!