01 May, 2007

The Ominous Job Offer

I have been working so hard for the last 4 months. This Thursday will mark 4 months since my being laid off. I have worked through quite a lot, to get the big offer.

I worked my way through the resultant depression of the lay off.
I have identified and begun work on my biggest work impacting flaw.
I learned some top tricks to presenting myself in an interview.
I had to recall how to do proper research I have not used that skill in a while.

I have dealt with the bureaucracies of COBRA and unemployment.

Now, I finally have the offer I have been working to get; and I am not sure what to do. I am finding a strange disparity between the massive (and repetitive) information about the interview and the information out there about considering and accepting the offer. I have been looking for something like the top five questions I should ask before I accept the contract. Or maybe the three things that I need to make sure are in my contract. Anything to help figure out if I should accept the offer as is or if I should push for full coverage of public transport, or flexible start times. I am working on a list of questions to ask my soon to be manager before I accept the offer.

1. What parts of the offer (if any) are negotiable?
2. At the end of the program will I be able to negotiate my salary when I move to a new position?
3. Is it possible to get a list of the expected standards for the program?
4. What is considered full time at WaMu? 40 hrs? 50hrs? 5days? 6days?
5. Does WaMu help to cover any professional organization dues? i.e AWC
6. Is there a pets policy?

Seems a little silly I do a ton of research, hours of preparation, multiple interviews and only after the offer is it appropriate to start asking questions about specifics. I think it would have been much easier for the company to just show me the offer upfront once I got past the selection interview. Then I would know all of this stuff and there would be no questions. I am sure however that there is a reason for the order of things.

I have much to think about.

Do you all have suggestions on what I should clarify before I accept the offer?

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