Background:
I went to an interview a little over three weeks ago. The application required me to enter an expected salary, so I put a modest increase over what I make now. I got an interview and it went super well. I really hit it off with the hiring manager and there was not a rigid structure to the conversation so I ended up being on site for much longer than is typical. It turned out we had some mutual acquaintances and I felt very comfortable there. I did the usual next day follow-up email and he replied to that positively.
I was told I would hear back within two weeks, but didn't. Yesterday was three weeks so I just sent a simple email reiterating my interest and asking if I was still under consideration for the role. He replied within a few hours -- he started the email by saying, "I am going to be blunt. I wanted to offer you the job on the spot." He then explained that because I don't quite have 5 years of experience* their strict HR definitions would indicate he can only offer me the max salary for an entry level position (which is anyone <5 years experience). The max for entry level, which he told me, is bit less than what I make now. He then apologized for the delay and said he's still battling with HR to get a fair offer on the table. He ended with a line about being transparent, but more so with me because he believes I bring great potential to his team.
*Including my internships, I'm at ~4.5 years. I recall when I was looking for my first job a company lowballed me and said "besides your internship experience, you don't have any experience, so..." Well, yeah, if you discount my experience I don't have experience. Duh. Do companies just not count internships as experience? Isn't that the whole point of them?
His comments made me feel good about myself, but they were not really what I wanted to hear.
Questions:
1. I seem to be in good position as far as the hiring manager really wanting me on his team. I want to reply to his email but I'm not sure how much I should say. I could just thank him for the transparency and ask to be kept in the loop. Maybe a strong offer is coming.
Or I could make suggestions. Would it be too forward to request something like an agreed upon promotion/raise once I hit five years experience? According to his response that technicality seems to be the hang-up. I'd be willing to work for less for a few months if there was a signed agreement detailing the promotion and raise ahead of time. What I am unwilling to do at this point is start a new job at less than I'm making now and "restart" my timer with a new company and end up waiting another 3-4 years to get a promotion. I've put in my time at my current company and getting the new job is supposed to be the promotion. Obviously, he knows this, and would expect me to perform well above entry level expectations.
Alternatively, and this seems a little bit too silly to suggest, could I just say: if I'm your guy and the five years is a hard rule, lets just wait for six months and then you can hire me when I meet the criteria. I don't hate my current job so I'm not extremely desperate to leave it and could easily wait. But this suggestion doesn't really feel right to me.
Also note: the job posting suggests they want candidates with 5 years of experience, so I don't think the issue is with the budget for the position; I think it's specifically that I don't check the 5 years box. Plus, they knew what I had requested and still interviewed me, so...
2. The local HR rep was not on site at the time of my interview, so I did not get to meet with them. Because of this, I don't really have a solid grasp of the benefits package. I would like to have the higher salary of a level 2 position, but I could potentially be enticed by a few extra weeks vacation, scheduled WFH days (not the kind of job that could be completely remote)... are there any other common sweeteners that people ask for? And does it make sense at this point to put those on the table?
3. This one is kind of a change of gears. A major consideration for this job is it would reduce my commute from ~30 miles to ~10. My current commute is not stressful at all. Light traffic and mostly non-highway. But it's still lots of miles and lots of time.
Music, phone calls and podcasts are nice, but I could definitely put my time to better use. Using the IRS reimbursement rate, I would spend $6000/year less on car stuff at the new job. If I use MMM's calculation which considers the time then it's something more like $15k.* Of course, MMM would say to bike the 10 miles which would boost those numbers even more. I may consider that (but would increase to ~13 miles to avoid a small section of highway).
*I do have some "side hustle" ideas but also some potential creative pursuits that are just as likely to chew up that extra time.
Anyway, I live in a LCOL area, so $6k is a decent portion of my salary -- I've never gotten a raise anywhere close to that much. So I'm looking for some feedback from others on how slashing the commute has impacted them. I can't tell if I'm under- or overvaluing this factor. Maybe I should be salivating at receiving a max entry-level salary, maybe I should turn down anything less than an offer that's commensurate with my experience. Any help on weighing this factor against the others would be appreciated.
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Lots of jumbled thoughts at this point, but I'd like to get back to the manager in a timely manner. Any advice on any of these items would be greatly appreciated. I'm happy to field any questions.