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I'm a 3+ years experienced Software Developer in India. I left my previous organization during March 2020 and have been working in my current organization since then. My former manager also left the previous organization in July 2020 and launched his own startup. A few days ago, I got a call from him and he asked me how things were going in professional life. I told him that I'm not satisfied with the quality of work in the current organization and will look to switch in the upcoming months. So, he told me that I can look to switch in his startup. He told me that he is the head of the development center of this startup, which was launched by his college friend (director). He further assured me that I will never face the issue of work quality there as the level of work is quite high and his company develops those products which are used by millions of users per second. He also told me that I can go for part-time if not fully convinced.

I told him that I am ready for part-time as I can get to know the quality of work there. But after a few days, he again called me and told me to apply for an interview in his startup as they will give me a superior position there along with the hike according to industry standards. I told him to give me the links of their websites so that I can know and explore more about his organization. I researched and didn't find anything useful. Also, I'm afraid that it would be a bad idea to join the startup in these pandemic times because of following reasons:

  • People are losing their jobs these days.
  • I've to take a home loan after one or two months for my new house. So, joining a startup would be a bad idea and a huge risk.
  • My current organization is stable and provides better job security (although I'm not happy with the work).
  • One not so important reason is that my former manager is from different religion and all their employees I saw on LinkedIn belonged to one religion only (same as his). So, I feel a slight amount of uncomfortability here (which I can't tell him because of obvious reasons).

I want to switch to a product-based organization (better than mine). If he would have been a stranger, then I would straightforwardly reject his invitation by politely saying that Sorry, I'm not interested. But the problem with him is that although I gave him indirect hints of not joining but he starts convincing me whenever I give him any reason. So, I want to reject his job (or interview) offer in a way which would be polite and diplomatic and wouldn't damage my future professional relations with him. Can anyone here suggest something?

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    "wouldn't damage my future professional relations with him" > This can never be guaranteed. Some people just always take things personally no matter how much you wrap it up.
    – Laurent S.
    Dec 16, 2020 at 14:48
  • I also would like to ask: how can you know about the religious beliefs of people through LinkedIn?
    – Laurent S.
    Dec 16, 2020 at 14:50
  • @Laurent S. I've already seen people on linkedin complaining publicly about the new LGBTQ logo. So it might give a hint about religion and beliefs.
    – Doliprane
    Dec 17, 2020 at 10:52
  • Quite a lot of religions are not big fans of LGBTQ, and lots of non religious people also. Sure the postings of people helps getting hints on their personality, still I find it hard to know whether a certain person is religious, let alone which religion, based on that alone. Now I don't think that's the main point in the question, but still I was curious about it...
    – Laurent S.
    Dec 17, 2020 at 11:10
  • @LaurentS.: When I visited Northern Ireland I chatted with two tour guides who said growing up everyone knew everyone's religion in the neighborhood by their last names, which to me was totally opaque (even being Irish descent myself). So maybe something like that.
    – Daniel R. Collins
    Jul 19, 2021 at 2:12

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Just be honest, other than maybe about the religious aspect:

Thanks for the offer of an interview, and I do appreciate that you'd want to work with me again, but given the state of the world right now I'm looking for a role with a larger organisation with a bit more stability.

Please do keep me in mind in the future though - shall we talk again in six months or so?

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