Disclaimer: I don't work for any company yet. So, I don't have my own Blind ID, which is why I am using my friend's to post here. TLDR: Do NOT waste your time in interviewing with Verkada. In multiple occassions, they are first extending an offer, and then rescinding them showing an excuse of decrease in headcount. If you have an open offer from them as you are reading this, most probably you are sitting on a ticking time bomb that can explode any time. Who am I?: A Ph.D. in Computer Science who is graduating from a top US research lab this year. To retain my anonymity, I am not mentioning my specialization. I am an international student who'll be holding an OPT. Like other work visa holders, OPT holders, too, cannot stay jobless for more than 60 days before they are deported. This is important, because under the current market condition, it is many times harder for a fresh guaduate to land at a job, regardless of their merit and qualification, when the market is full of an experienced pool of talents, laid off by the IT giants. If a job offered to a fresh graduate like me is pulled out all of a sudden, the impact would be disastrous. What did Verkada do with me?: I am providing a timeline of events below. Instead of mentioning the exact days of the week, I am indicating them as "Day X", while keeping the number of days between two events intact. - [Day 1]: Recruiter reached out to me - [Day 21]: Chat with team lead to check for role fitness - [Day 28]: Technical screen. I requested the recruiter to speed up as I was expecting two parallel offers - [Day 33]: Five onsite rounds - [Day 35]: Recruiter informed about the positive feedback, scheduled a call the day next - [Day 36]: Recruiter verbally discussed about the compensation, promised to send the offer letter the next day - [Day 37]: Offer letter was not sent, pinged the recruiter, no response - [Day 38-39]: Weekends - [Day 40]: Verbal offer was rescinded before noon. I was informed, to my utter surprise, that the position got axed on Day 37 by their "leadership" What did Verkada do to others?: This incident happened in February. The pulled off the same trick in the same month with at least two others. Why were their offers rescinded? You guessed it right! The same excuse of the decrease in the headcount. - https://www.teamblind.com/post/Need-referral---MS-grad-with-backend-exp-tiVFMh2N ("... completed Verkada SWE onsite with good reviews but ran out of headcount...") - https://www.teamblind.com/post/Snowflake-Apple-Snap-Oracle-Tesla-HP-OpenAI-Referrals-zqBM1yYN ("... had an offer from Verkada engineering but it was rescinded due to headcount...") Conclusion: Clearly, their administration is terrible. Not only they are creating troubles for potential employees, they are unreliable and unethical as well. To play devil's advocate, it can probably happen once. But three times? That, too, in the same month? Every time with fresh grads? And after pushing them through all the onsite rounds? And after having the "so-called" positive feedback? I'm sure the Blind community can spot the pattern here. Would you risk yourself to work for such an employer with the possibility of getting axed by their leadership at any time? Ask yourself. TC: A big zero. I had a parallel offer that saved my ass. #verkada #rescind
What was your paper offer for tc comparison?
Doesnât sound like they rescinded the offer, sounds like you never received it. (If itâs not in writing itâs not an offer.) The fact that it happened three times and not just to you means itâs not personal. Theyâve probably started a hiring freeze. That being said, I can understand your frustration at not receiving the offer after the time you put into this.
I think verbal offer or written offer does not make much difference in this case. In today's economic condition a written offer does not mean anything either. It is at will employment and can be rescinded at any point. It just have the salary part written. So, an email confirming that someone has very good positive feedback and they are willing to extend an offer is probably sounds like same as that of a written offer. Also, it's not my frustration. I have other offer. So I thought that it's my ethical responsibility to convey about what happened. So others can be aware of that. They are very bad reviews about this company all over blind. And, this just adds up another incident.
Your âthinkingâ that doesnât make it so. And I could drive a truck through the holes in your logic: *You, yourself, just stated you were told âthey are willing to extend an offerâ. That means you hadnât received one yet. * You state that youâre not frustrated, yet the title of your post originally stated you needed to âVentâ(did you change that? Tricky little bugger) * In another reply you state that a hiring freeze shouldnât affect so many people. Thatâs how hiring Freezes work. * And lastly you try to muddy the waters by stating that employment is âcontract at willâ, so it wouldnât have mattered if it was a verbal or written offer anyway. That is also untrue. While you can rescind a written offer for any reason that is non-discriminatory, those impacted can sue for damages if they can prove they have suffered financial losses as a result. I hope one of the things you learn from this experience is that an offer isnât real until you have it in writing.
An offer is NOT an offer till you receive it in hand. I got layed off from Meta. Working somewhere else since January. I had 2 verbal offers rescinded and one company said an offer is not an offer till extended out in writing. Even then it can be rescinded due to macro conditions.
First of all, meta laying off people is totally different from Verkada rescinding different offers in a months span. For example, after Meta went on hiring freeze, I never heard that they randomly interviewed people and then rescinded their offers. Verkada rescinded the offer within two days. Don't you think it is fishy? They didn't know two days before about the headcount and they already rescinded other offers even before that. Verkada is a startup which recently had a huge series D round. And, if they are on hiring freeze they should not have interviewed people. That mistake can happen once. Not thrice. Everytime they interview and rescind offers, it just means they are not serious, they are not in sync with their upper management and it's okay for them to waste everyone's time. All these rescinding offers did not happen on the same day. So, definitely it's utterly unethical. I would expect from a series D startup to be more serious about hiring people.
Everyone is reducing headcount, this could happen quite often. Adjust your expectations, this is not big of a surprise
This is pretty common at this point, I started recruiting in November and had multiple companies cancel mid-interview because they had to reduce headcount. It not unethical, better to just cancel the interview as soon as they know than extend and offer and rescind it.
Dude, you got axed in the exec review. "No more headcount" is just their way of saying "it's not you it's us" while in reality there's just something about you that some exec didn't like.
Grow up dude, this is just the reality of current job market, not to mention they never extended an offer so there is no rescission. Also they should be glad that they didn't end up hiring someone who uses ad hominem attacks easily.
You never had an offer. Recruiter can tell you about interview outcome and get your opinion on comp. Actual offers need to be approved by execs though.
Thanks for making the post!