Originally posted by DSgrouse:
quote:
seemed that they wanted me available for their every beck and call with no respect for my position. Anyway after two different interviews totaling 7 hours I was offered the position. However at the time of the offer, they didn’t have relocation information available so I didn’t have the whole package to review. While waiting for the relo information I countered the salary. Initially, it seemed to be taken pretty well and didn’t “put them off”. To make this as short as possible I was told they would be in contact last Friday regarding the counter offer...not a peep. Near the end of Monday, I emailed the recruiter asking if she had been able to find out anything and got a response asking if I was able to discuss Tuesday. I stated that I could but it needed to be at 0800 (they are an hour ahead, 0900 doesn’t seem unreasonable) or after 1700. The response was that
My wife and I have made the corporate move from KPMG to Wamu To Russel To Chase To etc etc etc. My wife specifically has been heavily recruited. we have long distance relocated 5 times for different companies.
1) The person who initiates contact after the negotiations have started looses. Plain and simple. Wait, wait more, wait even more. Do not initiate contact after your counter. They need to come to you, if you go to them they will not accept the counter.
2) Corporate hirings for local transitions job to job company to company take 3-6 months of scheduling. This is part of the reason In house hiring is often preferred. They only take 2-3 months. Outside hires at higher or specific skill levels are a bitch. This gets bumped to 6-9 months for long distance hires. Our last transition started in January, accepted at the end of July, started in September. That is with my wife being recruited by four Senior VP's. Be patient. then be more patient.
3) Home relo packages are a bitch to get, assign, clear and negotiate. Not only have we had 5 ourselves, but my wife has put together a half dozen on the offer side of the hiring process. Minimum they take 2 weeks to compile, 2 more weeks to get through hr, 2 weeks to get through legal, than 2 weeks to get a response from your moving facilitator. Some times you will be offered cash payout you figure out the move, some times they cover everything in the move. We have done both equally. It really comes down to the type of move you are doing. Look closely at the home sale clauses. We typically push for one of two. (yes relo packages are negotiable more so than pay or hiring bonuses and often more lucrative to you) Either get a guaranteed buy out of your house after x number of days at the listed price given certain conditions or Get x % back for selling the home within x days of listing. We received 6% back for having a signed offer on our CT home in 30days. They paid realtor fees on top of that. Our first house in Portland was almost purchased at the full asking price by the by out clause after 90days. We had a buyer walk in and offer full price. So both have their benefits. look for clauses to pay your realtor fees if you rent your previous residence out for up to 2-3 years after you move.
4) read the packages carefully, make note of who your contacts are for the new company, transition relo coordinator, and both real estate agents in both places. Home relo's typically only come into play over 500 miles. Our last two relos were from Seattle to Norwalk ct in 2011, and from it to VA in 2014. we have 2 kids, dog, 3 cars etc. the move from Seattle was just over 140k not counting realtor fees. In that, it included 9 months of temp housing (x dollars a month). The relo to VA from it was well over 200k counting realtor fees, 6% kickback, temp living for 6 months (we used 2, took the rest as cash) realtor fees on the purchase. Storage, delivery, install of home goods.
The thing I stress the most is be patient. this is a 1-year long process. If any of you are thinking of a long distance relo with families. Start the repairs on the home before interviewing. Get that knocked out of the way. Then once you have accepted an interview and have an offer. Get serious about waiting, playing your cards right and negotiating the hell out of it. I have lived in MT, AK, Or, Wa, Ct, Va, my wife can add CA to that. The world is too small to live in one place. See it all.
Don't get too worried about how they are treating you now. The issue is that the hiring manager is not the one to put the offer together. So let me break it down.
The hiring manager has their own workload plus hiring you. they make you an offer based on what their FTE headcount allows. That offer is a stock package put out by HR.
HR has its own workload plus hiring you via the hiring manager with his workload.
Once the Hiring manager has HR stock offer, he has to take it to his boss and get the budget approval for a relo package.
That boss often has to go to his, to his, to the CFO. (not a big thing in large corps it is pretty standard) all of those people have their own workload + hiring you for this position. There are days in between for each response. Holidays count also, people have kids, kids are out on holidays, things get pushed back. You will never get paperwork on a Monday or Friday. You will never get paperwork on a day before a holiday weekend or the day after. just not going to happen they have enough work deadlines.
Once the Hiring manager gets approval for a relo, your offer is now no longer out of the box HR offer. So HR has to get with the relocation provider, and legal to sort out the offer details. These folks, you guessed it has their own workload on top of hiring you. Once they hear back they will present the offer to the hiring manager who, you guessed it have more work because he still has not had you start yet. Once you counter it speeds up a bit, it will go hiring a manager to HR and his boss, From there yes or no, if yes it goes to relo corp, and legal, back to HR back to hiring manager then to you.