hey I just finished interviewing at a small company that should pay decent. but i just got an inteview request for HBO. i have heard i should try and get both companies go give me offers so i can get them to bid higher. my question is timing? do i tell hbo i have an offer if i get one? will they speed up the process? should i tell this other smaller company i need a few weeks to decide? i hear timing is important. but can i control it without losing offers?
Good recruiters ask "where are you in your interview process?" They can rush things along if they need to beat a deadline of yours. Some recruiters won't care or ask.
Timing is important but so hard to control. My suggestion is always this: take the calls and start the conversations and never worry about timing at all until you have your first offer hard in hand. Otherwise you put a ton of unnecessary stress on yourself prematurely since you can’t control companies’ processes, and often hiring processes have tons of delay and dead periods and extra steps, even if things seem close and really positive. Start the convo with HBO, let them know you have other processes ongoing but will be open with them and let them know if any urgency develops on your end, but nothing yet. honesty and transparency is a good thing, and letting them know you others interested also makes you an intriguing candidate