Laid Off: Day 28 - The Job Hunt Ends

Posted By Paul

Hi Everyone,

Well I can't believe it, but the job hunt is over. One of the companies I talked to made me an offer and I am taking it. I actually report for work tomorrow (it's still sort of sinking in).

So this time tomorrow I'll be knee-deep in new people, new things to learn, and new challenges. It really is the greatest irony that I had all of this time off and couldn't really enjoy it.

I thought I would add a few little bits of advice for the "offer" stage of the job hunt while it's still fresh in my mind.

-Remember that when a company makes you an offer, there is no harm in taking a little time to think about it. In fact I make it a point to take every offer and spend a day thinking over it just to make sure that I don't make any rash decision. Often companies will be eager to have you accept the offer, but they will also understand if you say: "The offer sounds great, but I just want to take a day to think about it."

-I'm not an expert on this at all, but you can negotiate the offer if you want. Perhaps you would like more money, you can ask for it. Maybe you'd like more vacation time, you can ask for that too. Keep in mind that once a company has made you an offer, they WANT you to take the job so that means you are sort of in a position of power. I say 'sort of' because in my case I was of course unemployed, and was looking forward to having a paycheck again. Still I decided to ask for a little more vacation time (which I got). Generally the worst thing they will say is "No the offer stands as is." So you can negotiate IF YOU WANT. One of my friends was a hiring manager at a company where in order to get approval to make someone an offer you had to approve the budget for the offering salary PLUS 10%. In essence at this company whatever salary they offer you, they are already approved to offer you 10% more, you just need to ask for it. I doubt most companies work that way, but just remember that you can negotiate an offer if you want.

-Feel free to ask questions. Got questions about their health insurance or vacation policy? By all means feel free to ask. I've never found a company that wasn't willing to help you get your questions answered, as it is a VERY reasonable thing to do when considering an offer. In fact most of the times when I deal with a company they seem to appreciate it when I ask questions as it shows that I'm taking their offer seriously.

Well, I guess that's about it. Thanks to all the folks that wished me well, and maybe there will be future posts relating to starting a new job.