Need the job, but theyre lowballing
I feel for you. Same thing happened to me. Do what I did. Take the job and keep on looking....discreetly, of course. You need to pay the bills in the mean time, and this will take the pressure off of you for awhile if nothing new develops. You're working for them, not married to them. I just keep telling myself that whenever companies cut jobs, they tell their employees, "It's just business, it's not personal." So if you have to cut and run after a few weeks or months if better offer comes along, then it's "just business". Take care of #1 first.
Do you know my husband? Your attitude sounds exactly like his. I agree with you. The hardest part is doing it. I am rather old school, and the thought of taking a job and then leaving it shortly for something better goes against everything I always thought. But, times have changed, and you are right. You have to look out after number one. If you don't, who will?
Goldenniece, if they are very interested in you and the position is what you are looking for, you can negotiate the salary that you are looking for in other ways. One thing you can do is take the position conditionally and that after 6 months you would like a review and increase. This way you are in the position proving your worth to the company. Another is to let them know that in 6 months or a years time you have certain expectations of where you would like to be in terms of salary. You can ask the company what steps would you need to take to get there and document everything. After the specified time, you can set up a meeting and let them know that you have done everything that was required to get to the new salary level and you would appreciate a serious review of your salary with the idea of an increase in mind. Of course, during this time you are gaining experience and also keeping your options open and you won't feel like you are job hopping (so to speak). SherylR TAKE THE JOB. It is easier to get a job when you have a job. Some income is higher than no income. It will not be that difficult once your back in the employment throws for a year to upgrade yourself. I was out of work for 5 months, sort of self inflicted I was screwing off for the summer, but then when it came time I couldn't find anything in the "range" I wanted. So I took something about 20k less than the norm for me...because someone on one of these boards said those magic words. Some income is better than no income. Magic. The job turned out to have some perks like I got to set my own hours and I didn't have to put in a full 40, so I had time to start the side business I had been wanting to start for years...I wasn't tied to any weekend work, or on-call pager duties... I stayed there for about 20 months, to restabilize and establish myself as "working" again and adored the people and might have stayed there longer if my husband had not lost his overtime.... The next job I landed was a 14k increase, followed by a pomotion less than a year into it, of another 5k, followed by regular annual increase and profit sharing of another combined 4k....for a total of 23k more than I was at when I accepted the "lowball" job. Granted we weren't starving and I could afford to take it. That lowball job kept me busy for a while, kept my skills sharp, and enabled me to be marketable again. If I had the decision to make over, I would repeat. Accept the job offer. What research are you referring to? If it' s a salary survey of some sort, I wouldn' t put much stock in what any of them tell you - the general feeling is they tend to be too high compared to the real world. What you need to do is figure out what level of annual income you require and below which you cannot go and still be able to pay your bills, make ends meet, and at least maintain your present standard of living. Whip out the old check book and see what it costs you to stay financially afloat over the last few months. Figure out what your monthly average expenses are, take that monthly average times 12 and you should have a pretty good idea of the level of income you require and below which you cannot go. Let' s call that amount $X and let it represent the bottom of your anticipated salary range. Add about $10K to $X to come up with the top of your anticipated salary range. Call that amount $Y. If the offer that' s been made falls within your new $X to $Y range, take the job! If it' s below $X, just politely ask if their initial offer is negotiable. If it' s not, you' ll then have two choices, either adjust your lifestyle to be able to live on less, since you' re not employed at the moment, or decline the offer and keep living on $0 income. On the other hand, if their offer is negotiable, which it doesn' t sound like it will be, counter by saying that you were anticipating an offer in the $X to $Y range and see what happens. I also think you have to be prepared to state why the job will be worth that much more to the employer based on how well your qualifications - experience, training, skills, education, and/or past job performance match the requirements of the job. When you' re not working - what you think you' re worth isn' t nearly as negotiable an issue as when you are working, so you really don' t have a lot of negotiating power at the moment and you may have to settle for less in the beginning in order to prove that you' re worth more - based on your actual job performance - over time - depending on how badly you need this job.
I got an offer for a job the other day. I really need to get back to work -- I've been unemployed for awhile. And I like the company and potential position. The problem is, I know from research that I'm worth a lot more than they're offering, and they're giving me the impression they are not open to negotiation. Help? | |
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