Comments on: Your Take: How Do You Evaluate Job Offers?

By: Gates VP

Gates VP — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 18:41:34 +0000

…inadequate compensation (i.e. they’re underpaid)

Frankly, I don’t trust most people to actually understand what they’re worth. But that’s a different issue.

I notice that they don’t break out the reasons by current salary grade, which I feel would make a big difference.

@Zella: Coworkers matter a lot too– if people really seem to care about what they do, it makes for a much better place to be.

For a lot of the “entry-level” or “low-education” jobs, my experience has been that managerial competence and general environment is incredibly important. People like to work at the grocery store butcher b/c it’s a fun place to work with fun people.

OTOH, people with high-skilled jobs are likely to chase money, b/c there’s buffer for that in the salary. I can only pay my meat-slicers and my checkout people so much money, b/c they can only do so much. But my IT specialist can literally be 2x to 10x as productive as the person they replaced, so there’s a big leeway for pay movement.

Again, everyone thinks they’re underpaid, but most people I know can’t do the math adequately to justify that thesis.

By: Matt @ Steadfast Finances

Matt @ Steadfast Finances — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 23:00:36 +0000

Call me old fashioned, but I took job offers on opportunities to learn new skills or add new bright spots to the resume.

Salary increases were mandatory of course, but I always viewed a job interview as me interviewing the company as much as the company interviewing me.

By: living on fumes

living on fumes — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 00:37:53 +0000

Job offers are rare, I take what I can get.

By: Aya @ Thrive

Aya @ Thrive — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 19:11:21 +0000

That’s surprising that stress isn’t one of the reasons, I wonder if that means people aren’t working hard enough to feel stress or if people have becoming willing to endure stress as long as they are paid well enough.
In any case though, I’m sure that more people are becoming thankful for even having a job or they’re compensating everything and hoping not to get laid off in the current economic state.
I wonder if one of top the reasons will ever be something motivating, along the lines of “loved job so much – inspired to start own company,” rather than the reasons always being negative ones.

By: Zella

Zella — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 18:01:43 +0000

Definitely growth potential and overall environment. Coworkers matter a lot too– if people really seem to care about what they do, it makes for a much better place to be. But right now, cash and growth are my concerns.

By: MissMartha

MissMartha — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 13:24:04 +0000

Something that plays a big role for me is the room for growth in a potential position. Taking an offer that provides an increase in salary but won’t provide me any additional opportunities won’t look as attractive as a role that pays closer to my current compensation but has a greater possibility for movement.

I wonder if another factor that will change with the current cilmate of the economy will be how employers use stock options. Stock options are never a given; however, in the past 10yrs they were much more tangible compensation compared to the past 2 yrs!

Another thing to look at it the commute… I used to have a 30+ minute commute, now its less than 15 minutes and I’m thrilled!

By: Tim

Tim — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 11:14:32 +0000

I think the stats are interesting and telling of employee mentality thus far. With jobs tightening up and if under a prolonged period of time, I think there will be a shift in a more realistic view of your worth compared to your contribution as an employee. The economy has been very good and people thought nothing of leaving a job. I think that creates a bit of a bubble on our expectations. So, in this job market, I think people really need to start evaluating their true worth and contribution, because companies are definitely going to be tightening down and not worrying that employees are going to be jumping ship if managers give them a negative critique on job performance.

Work environment is big for me. People will work for lower pay if they are happy at work.