Job Hunting Advice...

[Schneed10]

Originally Posted by Redskins8588

I recently had a couple of job interviews and out of 3 interviews a company made a job offer to me. Now let me explain my current situation. I work 3rd shift (11pm-7am), with about 100 to 150 hours of overtime @ time + half, my health benifets are about $160/mo for dental, vision, medical for me, 3 kids, and wife. Pluse every 4mths I get a profit sharing check for about $200 to $300.

Now the company that I would be working for offered me a job on 1st shift 8-4, similar health benifits, and they too have a profit sharing system but pays every 4 weeks. The job is a pretty good job but they offered me $1.50 less than what I am currently making now. And I am not sure as to how big their profit sharing checks, maybe they make up the difference of the $1.50. That is something that I need to find out I know. But is this proffesional to offer someone that much less to come and work for them?

I'm not sure what industry you work in, but in a lot of industries they pay what is known as a shift differential, where the night shift makes more per hour than the day shift. This is definitely the case for nurses and medical/technical professionals. That could explain the difference.

Definitely need to find out about the profit sharing - how much is paid out and how often. That can help you size it up. But career advisors say it's never a bad thing to negotiate a little bit during the job hunting process. First decide what amount of money you NEED in order to make the switch. Perhaps accepting $1.50 less per hour in exchange for working days is worth it to you. Or perhaps it's not. But maybe you'd be willing to make the switch for $1.00 less per hour? If that's the case, tell them that, and say if you'd be willing to give me $1.00 less than I'm making now, I will take the job, otherwise I can't give up that much in wages. Explaining it to them that way, at the very least they'll understand your decision, but a lot of times employers aren't willing to be sticklers over a little more money. A lot of times they'll think it's worth it just to give it to you so they don't have to go finding another qualified candidate.

Only you can decide what amount of $ you need to make it worth it. But there's definitely no harm in asking if there's wiggle room in the offer. The worst they can do is say no, and you make your decision based on that.