Наталя ХандусенкоWork
29 July 2026, 12:47
2026-07-29
"You're too independent": how active social networks and own projects deprived a marketer of an offer
When an experienced professional is looking for a new job, it is expected that his strong personal brand and his own projects will be convincing advantages for the employer. The case of Head of Marketing Yevhen Grebinenko showed that in practice it can turn out quite the opposite: a successful interview ended with a sudden withdrawal of the offer due to “excessive independence”, and then he was sent another offer - in particular, to share his work for free.
When an experienced professional is looking for a new job, it is expected that his strong personal brand and his own projects will be convincing advantages for the employer. The case of Head of Marketing Yevhen Grebinenko showed that in practice it can turn out quite the opposite: a successful interview ended with a sudden withdrawal of the offer due to “excessive independence”, and then he was sent another offer - in particular, to share his work for free.
Job search and an unexpected turn
Recently, Yevhen Hrebinenko worked as Head of Marketing: he managed the team, developed strategic solutions and built marketing processes. However, after the project was completed and his savings were exhausted, he began looking for a new job. The impetus for a new acquaintance was one of his posts on social networks - a girl-recruiter wrote with an offer from a company she knew. It was about a vacancy for a marketing specialist in a B2B company that develops software for the English-speaking market.
Although the level of the position was lower than Eugene's previous experience, the circumstances demanded decisions.
“For me, it wasn’t an interesting story at all. Well, straight forward… but I urgently needed to find something, so I agreed,” Yevhen recalls in his LinedIn post.
Communication with the recruiter, lead, and founder
The interviews were surprisingly easy and professional. Yevhen immediately liked the recruiter as a competent specialist, and then a productive conversation took place with the team leader and the founder of the company. The parties quickly found a common language, discussed technical details, and it seemed that the decision was almost made.
At the end of the conversation, the founder decided to clarify the details outside of the work context:
— Listen, Yevgeny, what are you interested in besides work? How are you developing professionally? Maybe you have some hobbies?
— Hobby… more YouTube. Traveled to countries, shared impressions and experiences. I love it very much! And professionally — it’s LinkedIn. I understand, communicate, sometimes help others.
— Not bad. Do you have a thousand or two audiences there? Do you sometimes write something?
— Well, almost two… I'm writing.
The team showed genuine interest and asked for links to social media and YouTube to review "for themselves." The interview ended on a positive note: Yevhen was promised to prepare and send an offer within a few hours.
Offer revocation: an unexpected twist
The expected stability was shattered the next morning when, instead of agreeing on the details, Yevgen received a message that the offer had been withdrawn. The company decided NOT to continue the cooperation. For the candidate, this was a real shock and caused a stupor.
When asked to explain the reasons, company representatives noted that they had looked more closely at Yevhen's social media and YouTube and concluded that he was... "too independent." The opportunity to travel and public activity seemed risky to them, as the company was looking for a more "calm" employee.
"This is secondary. The main thing is that you write there, build some products. For us, this means that you will come for a few months, and then leave. And we are looking for a reliable employee who would lead another project in the future," the company explained.
Yevhen tried to enter into a dialogue, suggesting that the problem was financial expectations (from the initial ~$2.5k he suggested reducing the amount to $2k), although he later regretted this step. The conversation was put on hold — the company took time to “think it over.”
"Not doing what you love because of work? But let everything be fine in your company... The only thing I don't understand on their part is their shortsightedness. I can teach people LinkedIn, strengthen the processes of lead generation, performance, and personal brands of founders. Since when is expertise a minus, not a plus?" - notes Yevhen.
It turns out that this is not the end of the story: a morning message and a "new" offer
The story took an unexpected turn the next morning. Yevhen received another message from the company: they had changed their mind again, revoked their previous rejection, and made a new offer, but with additional conditions.
It turned out that the company decided to fully utilize Yevgeny's expertise and original work. He was expected to provide free training to two of the company's departments, conduct weekly lectures, and transfer his own intellectual property as part of the new collaboration.
By the way, Yevhen developed an author's system that helps specialists become famous, receive more professional opportunities, and build a career through LinkedIn — Career Builder Framework.
Repeated refusal
Having received such a "generous" offer, Yevhen finally decided to refuse cooperation.
"I'm for helping the company develop — a conditional win-win strategy. But not my intellectual value, the creation of which took me more than a dozen sleepless nights and days of mistakes and victories. Sharing this for free, and even as part of additional conditions for signing cooperation? It would be logical to ask for +40-50% of the initial amount," — explains Yevhen his choice.
He emphasizes that if such fundamental disagreements and devaluation of experience arise at the hiring stage, then further work will not bring anything good. Thanks to advice and feedback from colleagues and the community, Yevhen was finally convinced of the correctness of his decision and put an end to this story.
