How Raj turned six offers into a Head of Data Science role in five months

Raj had already quit, getting out ahead of trouble he could see coming at his company. He was not in any hurry. He wanted the right job, and a guaranteed placement gave him room to hold out for it instead of grabbing the first thing that came along.

In five months we landed him six offers as a senior director of data science, from companies including Coca-Cola, CarMax, Empower, Corpay and HCSC, plus interviews at 30 more. He took the Head of Data Science offer at Checkmate, because the pay and the role lined up best.

He did not know this kind of service existed

“Prior to joining, I had not seen anything like this even existed before. I didn’t even know how effective it was going to be. There were initial doubts as one would have: is this even real, is this effective? I looked through testimonials and stuff.”

The surprise was that he got to keep going

Most searches stop the moment something acceptable shows up, because you cannot afford to wait. With six offers already in hand, Raj did not have that pressure.

“It changes the game completely in terms of how you go about job searching. It’s almost to the point where, after I accepted, and I had a few other offers, I was like, okay, that could be the end of it. But let’s keep going.”

This is what a wide search buys you. When you have several offers on the table at once, you negotiate the last one against real alternatives, and that is a very different conversation from negotiating with nothing behind you.

The search in numbers

• 6 offers in 5 months, including Coca-Cola, CarMax, Empower, Corpay and HCSC
• Interviews at 30 further companies
• Head of Data Science at Checkmate, chosen on pay and role fit
• Level: VP. Function: AI and Machine Learning