Negotiating and Accepting the Job Offer
During the past several weeks, you have expended a great deal of time and effort in securing an offer. In some cases, the offer is exactly what you have been looking for. In others, there are areas which you feel need to be improved upon. In either case, there is an appropriate way to discuss the differences in offer and expectations before it is issued to you in writing.
If you are working with a recruiter, convey your issues to them rather than to the company. Several years ago, we worked with a candidate who received an offer to head a computational chemistry group. Rather than using us to negotiate the terms of the offer, he waited until the day the offer letter expired and faxed a request to the company for a higher salary. Unfortunately for the candidate, this action effectively turned down an extremely good offer. Had the candidate contacted us to discuss his issues, there is a good chance that they would have been successfully resolved.
If you are working directly with the company, you will have one opportunity to express your concerns - at the time a verbal offer is extended. Keep in mind however, that this is your chance to fine tune the offer to fit your needs. It is not an opportunity to radically re-work the offer to obtain a much higher salary, stock options, etc.
On the topic of salaries, one of the HR departments primary responsibilities is to set compensation policy. The salary ranges at each company are set using a combination of industry data, and salary surveys. While it used to be the case that companies would compensate for differentials in the cost of living for their locations, this practice is beginning to disappear. In short, do not expect to use a job change to significantly raise your salary. Our best example of this is a candidate who was working in the mid-west. After he interviewed at a California-based company, he let us know that he was aware of a colleague in another company who was making $20,000/year more for what he felt was a comparable job. Further, since the cost of living in California was twice that of the mid-west, he would expect this amount of an increase. In addition, he also expected to have this new salary bumped by 10% as an incentive to join the new company. By the time all of these factors were added to his current salary, his effective increase was over 150%. Needless to say, the California company was able to locate other candidates who were more in line with their salary guidelines.
Once you and the Human Resources representative have completed this discussion, you will be sent the final offer in writing. At this point, you can accept the offer by signing the letter and returning it to the company. If you are declining the offer, contact the Human Resources representative and notify them verbally of your decision. Follow this conversation with a letter to the company restating your intention to decline the offer.
It is important to stress that a job offer is not legally binding until it is communicated as a formal, written offer of employment from the Company's Human Resources department. While it is rare to see a company make a verbal offer to a perspective employee and to later rescind the offer, it can happen. It is also important to note that you will be required to accept the position in writing and to pass the company's physical examination before you will be considered to be an employee.
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