Give current boss opportunity to match better job offer or just quit? 6

[BlastResistant]

I have been lured away from my current job by a local competitor firm by promises of more advancement opportunity, a better overall total compensation package, and a 40% increase in base salary! Any way I look at it, it’s a great opportunity and I’d be dumb not to take it. Should I give my current employer an opportunity to match (which I know they won’t), or should I just take the job and put in my 2 weeks notice (I will offer to stay as long as I need to of course to close things out smoothly, and my “new” employer is totally agreeable to that). I’ve heard that it is best to just take a great offer and quit, because even if your current employer matches things will never be the same (resentment, getting passed over for future advancement opportunities, etc.).

I’d like to hear from anyone willing to respond, but I’m especially interested in hearing from small/medium engineering firm owners. Would you guys hold it against me if I left for a better offer you couldn’t match? If you could match and had the opportunity to do so, would it change our relationship? I’m really torn on this.

Thanks in advance.

 

[spongebob007]

My reply above might seem a bit extreme, and it might not be that bad in your case, but accepting a counter offer might hurt you in very subtle ways, maybe as far out as 10 years down the road. When a big new project or possible promotion comes up, you will likely be passed over. Management does not want to give the responsibility of being a key player to someone who is likely shopping his or her resume around. You might get passed over for training. Again, why invest in an employee who could give two weeks notice at any time.

I am in no way saying that you have to be a loyal employee. I'm not. If a better oppotunity came along tomorrow I would be gone. But it is important to give your employer the impression that you are a loyal employee. I don't care where you work, or who you think you are, or what you think of your boss, once he knows you are looking elsewhere, your loyalty will always be in question as long as you stay with the company.

 

[JAE]

OK - I think I'll respond to a few of the comments above regarding the big bad "counter-offer game".

I think the points presented by spongebob007, lowedogg,and MedicineEng about the negatives of taking a counter offer are pretty valid except in cases where the relationship between the manager and the staff member is on a more professional collaborative level than say in an industrial manager vs. worker-bee situation.

In most of my cases, my staff member approached me with an offer that came unsolicited and my engineer really didn't want to leave the firm. I knew that, he knew that, but we had this offer on the table and the market for engineers is the market - as a manager I must respect it in context.

So my staff member trusted me that I would handle the situation calmly and as an opportunity to test how much I valued them.

You can adjust a salary many times without disrupting the salaries of those around you. It is difficult, but it can be done.

But if the manager-staff relationship is more formal or adversarial then yes, counter-offer routines can get nasty.

 

[KENAT]

JAE, I wish more managers worked along your lines, the working world might just be a better place. In companies with several levels of management though, even if your direct boss is good, there's a high liklihood that somewhere between him and the final say on these matters there is someone who doesn't play like you.

If I found myself in this situation it wouldn't be my direct boss's future actions I'd be concerned about, it would be his boss on up and into HR etc.

KENAT, probably the least qualified checker you'll ever meet...

 

[spongebob007]

I have never heard of an engineer getting an unsolicited job offer.

 

[spongebob007]

My response to JAE:

I think your situation is the exception and not the rule. Again, maybe I am inserting foot squarely in mouth since I don't work in SE/CE, but I have never heard of engineers being given unsolicited job offers out of the blue.

Believe me, I know exactly what I am talking about. It took me two negative personal experiences: One where I resigned and then accepted a counter offer, and another where I threatend to quit because I didn't get a promotion I was promised. In the first case I was fired for bogus reasons literally days after the project I was working on when I gave my 2wk notice was completed. In the 2nd case I was given the promotion but they strung me along with promises that they never kept(my boss claimed that they could not give me the money all at once because of "budgetary reasons" so they gave me a fancy new title and a token raise immediately with a promise of the rest of the cash in 6 months), and then to add insult to injury I recieved a poor performance review. I ended up quitting soon after that anyway.

 

[btrueblood]

I used to get them all the time, whenever I would get sent out to help a vendor fix a problem. Sometimes they were just "feelers", other times outright offers, including help with housing and moving.

..of course, those came from the vendors whose troubles I'd helped fix. The ones whose troubles I'd created, well...

 

[JAE]

I have never heard of engineers being given unsolicited job offers out of the blue

Wow...where do you live? In my city I do think we have an excess of engineers per capita and lots of stealing of staff between firms.

On my staff over the last 15 or so years I've had numerous occasions (i.e. more than 8) where engineers come walking in with an offer that they've recieved.

By unsolicited I mean they were initially contacted by the other firm..not that they didn't pursue an interview after the call. I don't mean to suggest they just got a phone call one day from someone offering them a salary.

I get calls monthly from head-hunters looking for people or asking for reference information about engineers who used to work for me. There is demand out there for good engineers.

 

[BlastResistant]

JAE is correct. I receive many unsolicited "contacts" not "offers" out of the blue. But they are not head-hunter phone calls. They are professional colleagues or acquaintances I run into at conferences, seminars, etc. who either know me personally or know of my work. However, it is up to me to encourage further dialogue if I choose to. With a stay-at-home wife/mother and three young children under the age of 5, I'd be a fool not to listen to what someone else has to offer, especially if I sense that it will be too good to pass up.

You can call me greedy, you can call me selfish and ungrateful to my current employer who has treated me great and has been nothing but good to me. But my first loyalty is to my family and my first responsibility is to provide as good a life as I can for them; not to to my current employer. I am under no obligation to stay with my current employer for the rest of my life just because I like him and he treats me well. But I do have an obligation to my family.

I am wondering JAE, as a manager, you can understand where I am coming from, can't you?

 

[JAE]

Yes, I understand completely.

That is why my earlier posts indicated the concept of a manager trying to balance the employees "predicament" when given an offer.

I simply tried to provide a counter offer to do two things -first to give them a pair of choices that rest more on the job and less on the pay, and second, to balance my responsibility as a manager in keeping staff happy and retained vs. keeping the company profitable.

 

[Bagman2524]

To add further to BlastResistants comment: With a family and especially young children, money's not everything to think about. Proximity to home, working normal hours, not being required to travel overnight, and being able to take time off for sick wife and kids, etc. all come into play. I've had to take lesser paying jobs in the past to consider family needs.

 

[AutoXer]

To add further to BlastResistants comment: With a family and especially young children, money's not everything to think about. Proximity to home, working normal hours, not being required to travel overnight, and being able to take time off for sick wife and kids, etc. all come into play. I've had to take lesser paying jobs in the past to consider family needs.

Most of my offers have be ~10% more than my current pay. In fact, I got into a little argument with the last head-hunter because the offer I received was exactly 10% more than my current salery as stated on my application. They were kinda shocked when I told them that my bonus pay for the previous year was over 10%. I came to find out that it was standard practice for them to offer 10% more to try to lure someone away from their current position. I was a little upset that they were offering my a salery that was based on my current salery. Why not pay me what I'm worth?

10% is a healthy increase for me and my family.

 

[jmw]

Agh! Headhunters!
Whose interests do they serve? yours or the employers?

Neither, they serve their own first and foremost.
That means you come a poor third; they will handle you perhaps once and they hope for repeat business from their corporate clients.

Companies that pay well will tend to keep staff and thus have fewer vacancies.
If the headhunter can find the right amount for you to accept the offer, but not too much, they know you may be looking around again soon and that will leave them another vacancy to fill.

Even so, what kind of headhunter doesn't properly understand what package a potential employee already enjoys? They just waste your time, their time and their client's time.



JMW

http://www.ViscoAnalyser.com

 

[lowedogg]

AutoXer,
That is exactly why you NEVER tell them what you are currently making. Your offer will be limited to some % above that number.

You can (very professionally) decline to discuss your current salary and focus instead on what your responsibilities will be, what your qualifications are, and what the value of your unique skills are to their organization.

 

[BillBirch]

lowedogg,
I agree with you on not disclosing current salaries. It serves you no purpose to declare this, and only establishes a ball park for the agent and his client. I have been in situations where I have had to take low paying jobs, so declaring your salary only traps you into the "cheap" category - and you can be stuck with that reputation.
As you say, there are ways to get around the question - I simply (and correctly) say that that information is confidential between me and my current / former employer. The agent / client holds all the other cards, why give him the only one that you have to play?
Regards,
Bill

 

[feaplastic]

Hello OP,

i dont know what you have decided. But, this link may help you.

http://www.rediff.com/money/2008/jul/01forbes.htm

but, i had a better experience becuase i did not leave the start up company when it was important. Eventhough i was not rewarded interms of money, Still i maintain good relationship with the owner and may help if i would go on my own.