Couldn't They Just Extend an Offer?

My GENESIS Consulting gig wraps up tomorrow with a final presentation to a group of people that includes the CEO and one of the Board of Directors (it's a public company). I finished the project last weekend, but yesterday a flurry of last minute changes came in based on what the Board Member is likely to ask, so instead of having a day to relax, I am suddenly in "crunch mode" revising everything. Goes with the territory.

The company asked me to stay over an extra day for a customer meeting, but told me "We want you to attend the meeting, but due to the nature of the discussion, we're not sure how the customer will take a consultant being in the room. Why don't you think about how to solve this problem."

The obvious solution would be to make me a full time employee. And sure enough, I noticed this morning a new req on their web site that wasn't there when I started the project:

Marketing Director - will be responsible for developing and implementing product plans and roadmaps in (my field of expertise) , including identifying target markets and customers, product positioning and messaging, competitive analysis, ROI tracking of portfolios, yada yada...

If they had added that they wanted someone good looking, it would match me exactly.

I suppose the way they're doing this they can see if I am interested first, but I think I would have preferred a hard sell. But with a hard sell they would lose the upper hand in salary negotiations. I'll see where this goes, but it looks like the dance has started.