The process ran seven weeks. Five interview rounds, a take-home presentation, and two reschedulings by the hiring manager at zero notice, both explained as internal emergencies. He went through every stage without complaint.
At four-thirty on a Friday afternoon, the recruiter sent the formal offer. At the bottom, in bold: it expired Sunday at midnight.
He asked politely for an extension until Wednesday. He wanted to read the twenty-page non-compete and work out what the health insurance deductibles would actually cost him — with the company's own office closed for the weekend, so nobody could answer questions.
The recruiter called back twenty minutes later, sounding annoyed, and said leadership valued decisive candidates.
He wrote that exploding offers have nothing to do with business urgency. They are a way of pushing a candidate to sign before they can finish interviewing anywhere else.