Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm not trying to be insulting, but none of what you wrote is realistic. There's no such thing as putting a promise of a quick-promotion into writing. No company would agree to that, nor should they (what if you suck once you start?). And I'm highly skeptical a company will agree to a milestones-rewards plan for an individual employee. If someone wrote such a proposal and sent it to me, I'd immediately reject them in…
> If someone wrote such a proposal… So, in this scenario: * hiring manager tells the candidate they’ll get a “quick promotion”, but only if they “don’t suck”. * candidate responds with proposed clarifications of “speedy” and “suck”. * hiring manager drops candidate from consideration. Did I get this right? > And I'm highly skeptical a company will agree to a milestones-rewards plan for an individual employee. And yet…
One of the worst offenses is the one we're discussing in this thread: a HM or recruiter says "We're slotting you at level 4 instead of level 5, because we like to give employees room to grow." That's a BS line -- put me in at 5 and grow me to 6, then! If you hear this line, you just need to understand it's poppycock and make a decision from there.
But basically everything a hiring manager says about a position can turn out to be just wishful thinking on their part:
* The team is most likely not solving a big problem
* The company most likely does not work well together
* The position problem does not have huge room to grow