<p>Thank you all, I have compiled a list of questions/issues of concern from all your posts, and have emailed it to her. </p>
<p>Time to let go of it until we hear from her.</p>
<p>Oh teriwtt, believe me, that was not our only expense! She has been living at home while working full time to save money before she moves out. My groceries only have been much higher as she has decided to eat at home for breakfast and dinner, and takes her lunch to work! We love having her home most of the time, but I am ready to really be an empty nester!</p>
<p>Maybe I am too late to the game…Since it’s with the president of the company, I would stick with questions about the job and company - 1) is the company self funded? For how long?, 2) if not, do they have an investor funding them? 3) What kind of growth the company has been experiencing, especially this past year? 4) How is he rewarding/keeping his employees now? (stock, bonus, salary?), 5) What’s her career growth with the company? 6) How is the company doing relative to other firms, </p>
<p>Once she has all that information and is interested, ask the guy who she should speak with concerning the company’s benefits. If he starts to rattle them off on the phone, ask him if he would something in writing to send to her.</p>
<p>Finally, if she likes everything she is hearing, then thank him for the offer and how flatter she is. Let him know that she would like a few days to think it over.</p>
<p>I’m late to this thread, so all I can do is keep my fingers crossed for your D!</p>
<p>Best of luck to her - and you as you wait to hear from her!</p>
<p>These suggestions have all been good ones. Very sound advice. IMO, the most important thing at the outset of her career is to get some experience in her chosen field, which this offer will afford. Fortunately, her life is relatively uncomplicated at this point-- no children to support, no mortgage to pay off-- so she has little to lose and everything to gain. Hope it all plays out well.</p>
<p>
I think it can make a bad impression if she appears to be afraid to work hard if needed.
Basic benefits (like health insurance) are important, but if she wants this job, she should take it. In a small startup, if she is “a keeper”, they will make sure that she is happy once she proves herself.</p>
<p>Too late to sail these words out on that email, but the sentence my H uses whenever the conversation gets stuck trying to negotiate anything re: jobs by phone is, “In my experience, reasonable people can always find reasonable solutions.” Said with calm and a smile; not tensely. </p>
<p>I don’t know why that works, but it suggests that the fine-tuning can happen in their next talk, and indicates his continued interest in the position. It keeps the chemistry very positive on both sides.</p>
<p>OK… an update - we just got off of the phone with her. He’s going to be calling her at 10PM (I think he’s traveling back to their headquarters tonight). I now have the name of the agency, and have been able to look at some of their information. According to their website, it’s seven employees, but they all have many, many years of professional experience. The big guy has some grand aspirations for her, is interested in mentoring her, and it sounds like he has more faith in her right now, than she does in herself (which she only expressed to us, not him). It is quite a step up than what she’s doing now (or has done in other internships/temporary jobs), and that makes her nervous. Of course, this is her personality. While she was in school, after she’d take a test, etc., the more she complained about how poorly she thought she did, the better result she usually had. We reassured her that we weren’t worried about her not being able to learn the job… that that’s what it sounds like this guy is looking for… someone he can teach. The girl she met with Tuesday is the one that mentioned all the benefits she gets, but we encouraged D to get specifics. She also got specifics of what the firm billed last year, and financially it sounds healthy.</p>
<p>At this point, the only dealbreaker she came up with is if they wanted her to work from home (which shouldn’t be an issue right now as they do have an office in Boston). She did this for one of her jobs and realized it does not fit her needs and personality. </p>
<p>Will update you later. Thanks again for all the wonderful CC parent support.</p>
<p>ugh… the suspense continues. She just got an email that they will contact her tomorrow evening. I guess they just wrapped up a dinner engagement after a full day of meetings, etc.</p>
<p>Stay tuned.</p>
<p>teriwtt: Congrats!! Good to hear about Newhouse grads getting hired…good luck with the logistics; I agree that whatever happens it will be great experience…let us know how it goes…</p>
<p>I wouldn’t spend more than 1-2 questions on basics like COBRA or 401k. I would ask “can you go through the benefits” and spend the rest of the limited period on company/career issues. </p>
<p>This is a significant career opportunity with a lot of variability given the tiny size of the co. and she needs to get as much insight as she can to try and forecast 1-2 years out</p>
<p>I agree not to ask about 401k and such. The first step is to get some experience.</p>
<p>teriwtt - good luck! I’ve got my fingers crossed for you.</p>
<p>I’m late to this thread but wish her the best.</p>
<p>A lot of times small startups can’t afford the higher salaries large established companies can but they can offer other enticements -
- getting more responsibilities than a new employee typically might
- getting in on the ‘ground floor’ with a greater chance of accelerated advancement later
- possible stock options or some other significant profit sharing plan. This is a way for the employee that’s sharing the risk to potentially share in the profits. Some people become millionaires at a young age this way.</p>
<p>Downsides -
- greater risk of being let go due to the company folding or being downsized to 1 or 2 employees.
- greater risk of it not being a highly professional atmosphere - i.e. no HR department, no established procedures, etc.
- having to be chief cook and bottle washer and jack of all trades - i.e. having to do all sorts of things one might not expect in a professional position since there’s no one else to do it including maybe some shipping/receiving, cleanup, moving, admin, etc.
- greater chance of personality conflicts since it’s such a small group
- possibility of getting taken advantage of with unfilled promises of increases
- possibility of going unpaid if they run into financial issues
- possibility of working far more hours than a similar position in an established company since there are so few employees in a growing company
- volatility of the position in general</p>
<p>The benefits can easily outweigh the potential drawbacks depending on the personality of the employee. Going for something like this when young and flexible is a good time. I’ve known people who have become millionaires this way but also people who ended up without jobs along with possibly missed paychecks when the company folded.</p>
<p>It’s prudent for her to inquire about the profit sharing potential of a position like this whether it be in stock, partial ownership, etc. </p>
<p>While they might be looking for a quick answer they should be willing to allow her at least a day or a few days to make this important decision. As an employer I’d much rather bring on an employee who had an opportunity to seriously consider the position after having all the facts and then decide to accept it than an employee who didn’t think it through and ends up regretting their decision.</p>
<p>I have a different view on this ‘comp time’ thing. I don’t know much about her job but if she’s out of college, working for a start up, looking to be a professional and build a career…she needs to think in terms of overall salary and overall work load, not hourly pay and comp time. Treat it like a professional or managerial job, not a low-level union post where you clock in and out. </p>
<p>Start ups with younger people are known to work long and flexible hours. What matters is the current salary, the future salary (stock options possibly for one day down the road?), the experience one will get along the way, and expectations about the typical hours one works, e.g. how often people work weekends, how late at night, and is it normal to be emailing work stuff at 11pm (I will assume yes, but all these questions are best answered by actual employees, not the president btw). </p>
<p>Successful people pull long hours and perform beyond expectations-- they aren’t counting hours and compensation in a quid pro quo fashion. They move in the company and grow with it, or jump ship but with lots of experience and connections on their resume when it stops working for them (and it might…start ups can be badly managed or deadends…). </p>
<p>I’m not suggesting she shortchange herself (again you very much need to know the likely inputs and outputs), but if you start off with the mindset of “how much do I make an hour and what if I work overtime” I think you are going into the job like a very low level employee, not a professional looking to build their career.</p>
<p>:) 
:)</p>
<p>She has a job and everything pulled together so much better than we could have ever imagined. The salary is very generous, and they get three weeks vacation (two of personal choice and the whole agency is closed between Christmas and New Years). She gets full benefits - they have a HR agency that handles all of their HR stuff, and they will be contacting her on Monday. She is very, very excited. The founder has done a good job reassuring her that they will not overwhelm her too much, but also said if she comes in and bats it out of the ballpark in just a few months, they will do a salary review before a year. Her title is account executive, which is something she would likely not qualify for, for some time if she were in another established agency.</p>
<p>I (we) keep referring to it as a start up, but the employees that are already there have decades of experience in this area, and like I said before, their billed accounts were quite impressive last year. So I’m guessing they’ve been around for 2-3 years or so (does that still qualify them as a start up?). </p>
<p>And the crowning glory is that they have no problem with her taking an already planned and paid for vacation with us to Florida at the end of March (we would have gone anyway, minus her had she not been able to get away). </p>
<p>She will give her two weeks notice on Monday and start Feb. 8th. </p>
<p>I want to thank you all for bringing to our attention some crucial issues to bring up. Oh, regarding transportation, they will be looking to move to a larger office in Boston sometime soon… a nice office where they can invite clients to and he told her they’d make sure it is on a T-stop as the other girl she’ll be working with also uses public transportation.</p>
<p>What more could we have asked for? This is an awesome way to start the weekend (other than she wants to celebrate but has to go to a funeral tomorrow morning with her roommate).</p>
<p>teri - AWESOME!!! Congratulations!</p>
<p>Wishing her all the best!</p>
<p>You go girl!!</p>