Job Predicament

[Sohaib-ijiiv]

Hi All,

My current company will cease trading in November this year and I will be served my notice of redundancy on the 10th of June.

I have been applying like a banshee to anything relevant and I have a final stage with one place and an offer from another.

The final stage role is a £7k payrise doing what I am currently doing for a large fintech platform.

The offered role is a £5k pay cut but with scope to grow more personally in the role and grow the business at the same time.

Obviously if the fintech offers the role post the final stage I will take that, but given the state of the market would you take the pay cut or wait to see how things are in a few weeks?

Worked quite hard to get to where I am so I'm conflicted about a potential pay cut but I am being realistic about the current economic situation.

Thoughts?

[StuTheGrouch]

Depends what the percentages are. If this is a pay cut from £25k to £20k then it will impact your life a bit more than if it was a cut from £60k to £55k.

What about other factors, such as commute time, flexible working, holiday allowance etc?

[Sohaib-ijiiv]

Its a cut from £65k to £60k.

Commute would be done by car (11 miles one way on an A road) opposed to getting the overground into zone 1 in London.

Unaware as of yet about flexible working and holidays.

[LooneyTunes]

Have you told the fintech you have an offer from somewhere else?

If you do it in a way that is basically saying “I really want to work for you, but I’m being pressured by this other firm to make a decision on their offer” there’s a chance they’ll move things along faster.

[worsy]

Can you not go back to the offer and say you want to work from them but you need the equiv salary (another 5k). If they offer then you need to accept and be happy?

[Terminator X]

Take pay cut role and keep looking around?

TX.

[ozzuk]

Try and get start date to match your redundancy date so you keep the redundancy payment

[Sa Calobra]

Have you carried out researching to both companies financial health?

Personally after tax and deductions it's negligable if the shorter commute gives you a better quality of life and there's opportunity to grow.

[LooneyTunes]

worsy said:

Can you not go back to the offer and say you want to work from them but you need the equiv salary (another 5k). If they offer then you need to accept and be happy?

You’re missing the fintech angle. Could well be an equity element on top of cash as a longer term incentive.

Of course the other could be start up/growth too based on what OP’s said about the potential.

[Sohaib-ijiiv]

Thank you all for your responses, my answers/thoughts below:

The company which has offered is not willing to budge but have said they will review in a few months pending how things go.

The fintech place is aware I have an offer on the table so I have my final stage on Monday with them which has been expedited.

Both companies are very healthy which is something I researched heavily this time around so I have no worries there.

There's no equity in the fintech - they have been around for years and are well established

With the fintech I'd simply become another number albeit a secure number, the other if the business grows as it has done over the last few weeks it could turn into something brilliant from a personal perspective.

I'm leaning towards taking the offer and still looking elsewhere in the interim, whilst aligning my start date to go with my redundancy payment.

Also the commute would mean no more public transport which given the circumstances is a huge bonus in my eyes.

[Sa Calobra]

That's one thing that led to me leaving London; tubes and then train/tube. I could cycle in the warmer months but any other time it was demeaning on the tube.

[eltawater]

Sohaib-ijiiv said:

The company which has offered is not willing to budge but have said they will review in a few months pending how things go.

Never going to happen, a review is just lip service, it's not a guarantee that it will increase.

Sohaib-ijiiv said:

I'm leaning towards taking the offer and still looking elsewhere in the interim, whilst aligning my start date to go with my redundancy payment.

This is the best idea, you've got to look out for yourself here. The fintech may never offer, or your conditional offer may suddenly encounter a recruitment freeze.

Sohaib-ijiiv said:

Also the commute would mean no more public transport which given the circumstances is a huge bonus in my eyes.

Grab this opportunity with both hands and run (drive) with it. There's nothing more liberating than being able to pop in your own vehicle to head to work instead of standing around on a crowded platform peering at the screen which says the last two trains have been cancelled and everything else is delayed.

[Sa Calobra]

Any work from home days?

[Sohaib-ijiiv]

Potentially they would do work from home days, its something I need to enquire about.

The salary knock whilst isn't great doesn't mean anything substantial for me in terms of my life being impacted which weighing things up is a bloody win right now.

They want me to start immediately but my current workplace will be paying me 3 months salary over June/July. I'm doing minimal work at the moment and I need to iron something out with the offer place which means I don't lose out on £10k+. Not so much that its free money its more it gives me more security for a number of months financially

[kingston12]

eltawater said:

Sohaib-ijiiv said:

Also the commute would mean no more public transport which given the circumstances is a huge bonus in my eyes.

Grab this opportunity with both hands and run (drive) with it. There's nothing more liberating than being able to pop in your own vehicle to head to work instead of standing around on a crowded platform peering at the screen which says the last two trains have been cancelled and everything else is delayed.

I think it's more than that in the short term. Who knows how they are going to enforce social distancing on public transport once it starts getting busier again?

We could be faced with not even being able to get onto the platform sometimes.

I'd definitely take the opportunity to drive if you can.

[Sohaib-ijiiv]

Update: I also got offered the fintech role, I will be taking that.

It was a difficult choice and driving to work aspect was making me really want to take the lower paying job.

However after having met the team there and speaking to them, I don't think it was the right choice. Few red flags, but I've become friends with the CEO so who knows what the future holds.

[eltawater]

Thanks for the update and best of luck in the fintech role

[kingston12]

Well done for securing two offers in this environment! I hope it goes well for you in the new role.

[Sohaib-ijiiv]

Thank you.

It's definitely not pretty out there right now but the key is perseverance, I lost count of how many jobs I applied for.