Offer: No room to negotiate? I'll take it!

Hi all, just hoping you might be able to help me evaluate my job offer vs my worth.

I recently received an offer to work at a local non-profit mid-sized organization (7000 employees) as a systems admin. I live in extremely low cost of living area (50K here is around 110K in San Francisco according to COL calculators).

My skills are almost a direct match to what the posting wanted, I have just over four years of directly related experience in an enterprise environment, 6 certs and a masters degree.
I also have 4-5 years part time professional IT experience through college.

I will be supporting several different variations of UNIX and Linux in a highly critical environment as part of a team and Am expected to be on-call and will occasionally travel to the other data centers (rental car provided ).

I expect a standard 40 hour work week except during major projects or when **** hits the fan, 8min commute, solid benefits, and an annual bonus. 4 weeks vacation, 2 weeks sick, and 10 holidays.

Given this info, what do you feel the market range for this role would be? I saw that the minimum for the opening was just over 50K. The initial offer was well above this (by over 20K), and a slight raise over my previous salary, so I did not push to negotiate.

I simply inquired whether there was any flexibility in the offered salary and was told that there was none at all, basically that the hiring managers had already put me at the top of their budgeted range. I did not want to be greedy, so I accepted right away. Good choice? Should I have pushed back any more ? I'm not desperate, but I'm actually very excited for this role and to work for this company.

Keep in mind, this mixed skill set is extremely difficult to fill in this area -- especially having experience with all of the different OS variants, clustering software, enterprise storage, backup solutions, etc. It makes it both difficult for me to find solid jobs in the area but also makes it difficult for employers to fill such roles in the area.

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Comments

zxbane

RHEL,

It honestly sounds like a decent offer, all things considered. The commute is barely existent and you mention a bonus, nice vacation time etc. How does the offer compare to your current salary? Also from your COL reference it sounds like it will be a great salary for the area you are in! (wish 50k was worth that much where I am!) Also, out of curiosity, what area are you in?

kohr-ah

If I read what you are saying, you got more than your current salary. An awesome set if time off/holidays /sick time. I would say you did well.

I would love to get the same thing.

RHEL

The more I think about it, I continue to convince myself that I've made the right decision. My previous position paid in the 60s, so this is certainly a decent salary bump (20%). it will also chop my previous commute down from 45mins to 7-8mins, which is actually an even bigger deal to me than the salary bump!

I live in the Midwest, in a smaller city of about 150K people.

The only thing is that it's always scary starting over at a new company... You never know how you will fit, whether you will have good coworkers, etc. Hoping for the best, I'm slated to start soon!

Danielm7

20% increase, great benefits and you gain 1:15 in commuting time and cost every day... congrats. Getting a good offer and not having to fight for it isn't always a bad thing.

MSP-IT

If 50k is 110k in relative comparison to SF, and you're getting 70k+, I'd say you're doing quite well.

kohr-ah

RHEL wrote: »

It will also chop my previous commute down from 45mins to 7-8mins, which is actually an even bigger deal to me than the salary bump!

The only thing is that it's always scary starting over at a new company... You never know how you will fit, whether you will have good coworkers, etc. Hoping for the best, I'm slated to start soon!

Trust me I understand that fear but figure we have to take that risk everywhere we go.

Heck my goal is to get my commute from 3 hours a day on a train and car down to hour and a half total both ways

Go into it head high and excited. It could be the best job you've ever had.

Asif Dasl

Congrats! it sounds like a great opportunity!

Qord

For a non-profit? You, sir, just hit the jackpot.

RouteMyPacket

RHEL wrote: »

The more I think about it, I continue to convince myself that I've made the right decision. My previous position paid in the 60s, so this is certainly a decent salary bump (20%). it will also chop my previous commute down from 45mins to 7-8mins, which is actually an even bigger deal to me than the salary bump!

I live in the Midwest, in a smaller city of about 150K people.

The only thing is that it's always scary starting over at a new company... You never know how you will fit, whether you will have good coworkers, etc. Hoping for the best, I'm slated to start soon!

You did quite well considering your circumstances (commute, location etc.). I NEVER worry about who I will work with, my focus is on what I can bring to the organization and the first few weeks I focus on the environment as it is. When I worked in Enterprises anyway that was my process.

1. What is there?
2. How do I access it?
3. Is there any documentation on the environment?
4. Investigate configurations
5. Who handles requests etc.

All basic stuff yet pretty much always overlooked which is why I cannot work in Enterprises anymore. Too much rinse and repeat. You will do fine

the_Grinch

Sounds to me like you made a great decision! The biggest thing for me (besides pay) was vacation time. I get 4.5 weeks of vacation, 3.5 weeks of sick, 3 personal days, and a lot of holidays. Most I got anywhere else was 2 weeks so it was great to know I could have time to take real vacations. Congrats!

GarudaMin

RHEL:

20% pay bump, annual bonus, solid benefits, 8min commute, 4 weeks vacation, 2 week sick days, 10 holidays - I am sure everyone will agree with me that if we were offered a job like that we would all take it.

The only thing left that would make it better is - if one can learn new things and grow, and stress free zone (aside from normal/hectic times). Those things cannot be determined in advance until one starts to work and become adjusted. But that's what everyone has to go through.

I will tell you this much. If I have a job offer like that, I'd take it in a heartbeat. Sadly, where I am, I don't find any jobs that would even pay me what I am making. The only way for me to make more money is go into management line. Only problem is I will have a hard time since I am not native English speaker and I cannot do office politics.

RHEL

Thank you much for the congrats and advice, all. I have an earlier thread regarding employers asking about salary history and requirements -- it really came in to play here because although many great benefits were offered, I didn't know what that entailed up-front when asked to provide a number. Fortunately, everything turned out to be pretty good!

From what I took from the interviews, learning and career growth is highly valued at this company. They told me that an eagerness to learn and continue learning is much more important in their eyes than raw technical skills. I was told there is a substantial training budget and formal training is certainly encouraged.

The only downside I saw was that the 401K match is probably the lowest I've seen... I use to get 6% match, my wife gets an automatic 10% contribution w/o having to contribute a dime, and this one is something like 1.5% employer contribution IF I contribute 6%...

However, it is immediately vested. Also, there is a 100% employer contribution pension, so I'm wondering if that makes up for it... I have to get more details on it, and I'm new to the pension thing. I was under the impression they did not exist anymore!

UnixGuy

Sounds very similar to my current job. Great choice! Congrats

Verities

RHEL wrote: »

Thank you much for the congrats and advice, all. I have an earlier thread regarding employers asking about salary history and requirements -- it really came in to play here because although many great benefits were offered, I didn't know what that entailed up-front when asked to provide a number. Fortunately, everything turned out to be pretty good!

From what I took from the interviews, learning and career growth is highly valued at this company. They told me that an eagerness to learn and continue learning is much more important in their eyes than raw technical skills. I was told there is a substantial training budget and formal training is certainly encouraged.

The only downside I saw was that the 401K match is probably the lowest I've seen... I use to get 6% match, my wife gets an automatic 10% contribution w/o having to contribute a dime, and this one is something like 1.5% employer contribution IF I contribute 6%... However, it is immediately vested. Also, there is a 100% employer contribution pension, so I'm wondering if that makes up for it... I have to get more details on it, and I'm new to the pension thing. I was under the impression they did not exist anymore!

Wow sounds like a dream job. Benefits + room for career growth + pension + being a non-profit (co-workers are usually just as motivated as you). When you have all that mixed in there, 50k is not bad at all.

blargoe

I always fall into the "buyer's remorse" state of mind when leave a job for a new one. Change can be scary. But then I recall the careful calculation that went into why I was leaving and why the new position was the correct next step forward. You will do fine, sounds like a nice gig. There are people that you'd rather not work with at just about any company, but the company/department culture is what is key, and you should have gotten a feel for that when you interviewed. And I feel you on the smaller market thing.

Good luck to you!

coreyb80

Sounds like you got a pretty solid offer there especially on the commute and salary.