<p>So excited my S just received his first job offer. He is very excited. He had some interviews and a couple of places flew him in in the fall but no offers. So this is very good.</p>
<p>I do have a couple of questions. He was flown to this company and interviewed on Tuesday. Received an offer today, pretty good salary, great great benefits. Major company, lots of room for advancement. Cons: it’s across the country from where he grew up and went to school. He would know no one in that area of the country except for a distant cousin. He has one week to accept the offer.</p>
<p>He also interviewed for another company and they called yesterday and were going to fly him to their site. I don’t know much about the job but I know that it is a smaller company. The dilemma:this job is in the area where he grew up and still has a ton of friends. We moved from the area when he was in college and he would love to go back. He doesn’t think that there will be enough time to interview with this company before he has to make a decision with the first company.</p>
<p>Does anyone have any advice about negotiating job offers. I think that even if he was offered the job close to home, the other job offer would be much better in terms of job advancement and benefits. I know what my H’s benefits (and they are very good) and I talked to my BIL and we were both blown away with the benefit package. I know that is probably not something a new graduate would think about. </p>
<p>His father thinks it’s crazy, just accept the offer he has.</p>
<p>It’s a great position to be in. Congratulations to your son. </p>
<p>My son was in a similar position to your son last fall. </p>
<p>He had a job offer – excellent offer – in hand, with three more pending. They were all in the same city/region. There were two possibilities he might have preferred to the one in hand. He called the other three, and told them his dilemma. “I’m very interested in your company, and the position I interviewed for. I have received an offer from another firm and I have 48 hours to make a decision.” (It might have been 24. It was not a lot of time. All three of the companies encouraged him to take the offer he had. All three said they would have liked to hire him, but they could not extend an offer with that kind of deadline, they just weren’t at that point in the hiring process. He took door #1 and is very happy. He’s keeping the contacts open with the other firms and who knows what will happen down the road. He intends to stay with his current job for at least 2 years.</p>
<p>Agree with cnp…in this market unless the job itself is something he isn’t sure about I wouldn’t turn it down for a maybe. When I finished my undergrad I moved to an area where I knew no one. I had some lonely times but I loved my job and made it work. I eventually joined a gym, made friends and met my husband (who I have been married to for 25 years and counting). Probably the loneliest time of my life at first but looking back on it the biggest growth of my life (prior to becoming a parent) too.</p>
<p>A bird in the hand…
There are phones/ there is skype/ there are churches, gyms and singles website. Your son will meet people with just a little work on his part. I say go for it.
Congratulations to him on pressing forward in his life!</p>
<p>He should still call the company that was going to fly him and let them know he has a job in hand. Maybe they’ll do skype interviews or … ? Never hurts to ask. He could also ask for an extension on the job offer - maybe he could have 2 weeks.</p>
<p>Take the job offer and be thankful that it provides great benefits. If they only gave him one week to take the offer, that means they have other candidates waiting in the wings if the position is rejected. It’s fine that he starts fresh in another city, builds character. Congrats.</p>
<p>We talked to our S again last night. 99% sure he will take the job offer. Not sure if he will interview with the other company. He is very excited about the prospect of working for this company and this is the best time in his life to move to somewhere new. The company has sites all over the US and the world so if he doesn’t like where he is, he can transfer in a couple of years.</p>
<p>So it looks like he’s moving to Texas! Hope the people of Texas are friendly for this boy from Michigan.</p>
<p>Keep in mind that he’ll probably meet people on the job. Jobs that pay well & offer great benefits to new college grads usually expect a substantial on-the-job time commitment. </p>
<p>My d. has a job in the city where she went to school so she has lots of friends around, but her best new friend is a guy who was hired for the same position she has – their friendship makes work really enjoyable for her, and he’s become part of her social circle outside of work.</p>
<p>Deb22 - Where in Texas? DS will be working in Houston for an engineering company. Would be really funny if the companies are one and the same!!! ;)</p>
<p>I’m just outside of Houston (SouthWest). I would be happy to pass along my cell# just in case something comes up where a local “mom” could come in handy!</p>
<p>Roommates! My advice is to do a house share with other people of a similar age so he can meet their friends and vice versa. I did this in London and am still great friends with my former room mates and other friends I met through them.</p>
<p>I also joined a field hockey club (hadn’t played since I was 10!) and made a lot of friends this way too</p>
<p>Now is the time to do it - he’ll have a blast - and such better weather than MI!</p>
<p>Congratulations. You must be doing a little dance. </p>
<p>Just for future information for some parents and students…younshould check with your school’s recruiting office, sometimes they have an agreement with any firm which recruits on campus that must give applicants X weeks or until a specific day to respond, another word, they can’t set a week deadline. What they want to make sure is candidates get to interview with all firms before making a decision, so a firm which has a later interview date would have the same opportunity as firms with earlier interview date. Violation of the agreement (company or student) would prevent them from using the school’s career center in the future.</p>
<p>It’s certainly acceptable for him to ask the first company if he can have an extra week to give them his decision. The company may or may not go for it but the worst they’d typically do is say they can’t do that - they need the decision within the first week. </p>
<p>Location can be significant. I’d have to be in pretty desperate straits to move away from here to many other parts of the country for a job since I like it here so much. The person still has to make their life there so the area needs to be appealing enough, have access to things he likes to do (i.e. a surfer might not enjoy Colorado very much, a person who loves hiking in the mountains should forego Kansas, etc.), and be a place he thinks he’d enjoy living. OTOH there are people everywhere, he’ll meet people at work and where he lives to be new friends, and he can enjoy exploring a new area. It’s also not a life commitment - if he decides he really dislikes it there he can try to get a job in a more appealing area after a year - 3 years when he has experience on top of his educational stats. Also, Texas to Michigan isn’t that long of a plane ride so he can just budget a few trips/year for home visits and you have a great opportunity for some road trips to visit him.</p>
<p>Some benefits are good, of course, but most recent grads don’t go after a job because of the benefits other than the basics which most companies offer. These people aren’t usually thinking of working for the company for 30 or 40 years to take advantage of great retirement benefits for example and even if they were, unless it’s the government chances are those benefits will change by then anyway. At that age the important benefits are reasonable medical coverage and paid vacation/sick days or PTO, and to a lesser extent, some company matching funds into a 401K. I’m not saying that other benefits aren’t nice - just that the average 20-something new hire at the beginning of the career usually doesn’t care as much about them and it’s usually less relevant since there’s a very good chance he’ll change companies within the next 10 years.</p>
<p>The opportunity for growth in the company, both in skills/experience development and promotional opportunities is probably the most relevant thing to him right now (in addition to salary and location). This is the point in time he’s finishing up the foundation he started when he attained his education and will be important for future career opportunities. </p>
<p>I don’t know… I think 20 somethings are aware of benefits… We might not know what they all mean when we see them right away but I think we can recognize what are great benefits and not so great benefits. Example… When I started with my company I was 22 and fresh out of college… They told me that I started with 4 weeks vacation, that they promote from within, offer both 401k matching and a pension that you are fully vested in after only 3 years. And that if I want to get my masters degree, it’s on them. I remember thinking “I don’t know know much about 401k’s and pensions as I have never had them but I do know that it’s good to have them and that pensions are rare…plus 4 weeks vacation to start and you’ll pay for my degree? plus this is a very reputable company that has been in business 200 yrs so job security is at a high and my benefits aren’t going anywhere.” I’m now there almost 6 years, am up to 6 weeks vacation, and am fully vested in all my benefits. Have gotten about 36% worth of salary increases in that time and that’s not counting in bonuses. Last year I made about 60 percent more total then what my starting salary was originally by itself. Still looking into pursuing the masters degree. I’m comparing the pros and cons of doing online classes or attending a local school. If I would have started right away I’d be done by now… haha!</p>
<p>Point being, I think most of us know a good deal when we see one. Good luck to your son!!</p>
<p>If the company is large, then I’m sure that they will have program for new hires specifically to get them adjusted to the new location, help them out with whatever they need, and introduce them to other people in the company in similar situations.</p>
<p>Certainly most of those new grads entering business are ‘aware’ of the benefits - I’m just saying some of these benefits wouldn’t be considered terribly important to many of them - especially the long term benefits like pension, long term disability, etc. Most of these new people would be more interested in career advancement opportunities, educational experience, ability to travel for the job, location of the company, and other more immediate attributes. I think a lot of people entering business today don’t necessarily expect to work at that company long enough for some of these benefits to have much of an impact. Thinks like vacation/PTO, has more of an immediate appeal and even 401K matching funds can have some appeal due to it being ‘free money’. I’m using the term ‘most’ because different people view these benefits differently.</p>
<p>This may all vary depending on the type of company - most of my experience is in the ‘hi tech’ area with engineers, etc.</p>
<p>Congrats to your S. My S was in a similar position a year ago. The company he most wanted to work for was not far from where he had attended college. He went to a site interview and while he was there, they were frantically calling around to get money so they could hire him. He weighed his other options–two jobs in HI but where job satisfaction was lower vs. one that was 5000+ miles away & took the leap. We and he are very excited about his new job in DC, where he will start in a few months. He did ask for a bit more time from each of the job offers so he could weigh the options but he & we are very pleased with his choice and the opportunity to live in an exciting, vibrant area. He is pleased that his new job will offer excellent benefits, including paying for him to continue his education and would have helped him with any ed loans he had.</p>