Potential new job and could use advice on a couple issues

[skuzuker28]

There is a decent possibility that I will be offered a new job in the relatively near future, and seeing as this is my first time switching firms in my career I'm hoping to get some good advice from people who have been there and done that, so as to make the process as stress-free as possible for all parties involved.

Background: I have been working with my current firm for 8 years, and with one of it's shareholders for 10.  It is the only place I have worked as a career-type job, and I enjoy the people I work with.  Pay is probably 50th percentile for the tasks/duties I actually perform, but low based on my job title and duties I SHOULD be doing.  That touches on my primary frustration: staff levels and staff mix have me doing lower-value work than I should be doing, hampering my career growth, job satisfaction, and making billing stressful as I'm doing staff-level work at manager-level billing rates.

A few months ago I was contacted by a recruiter for a remote position in a major metropolitan market.  I debated whether to even respond, but after a week of thinking about it reached out.  Didn't hear back until last month, and have thus far successfully navigated the interview process with excellent feedback.  For my part, I think it would be a good culture fit for me as well, and give me the opportunity to "reset" my career and shed myself of a lot of the work that I don't enjoy.  Additionally, the anticipated salary is more than double my current salary.  In other words, I don't see how I could refuse this position if offered.

That leads me to start thinking about the practical matter of this transition, and two primary questions come to mind:

1. How should I approach negotiations with this new position?  They have been searching for a year, but only the last couple months started searching regionally rather than locally.  I'm not sure what kind of leverage I have, particularly with me being a remote worker.  Maybe I'm getting ahead of myself as no offer has been made yet, but I also want to be prepared.

2. Any tips for resigning from my current job should things proceed?  Fortunately there aren't too many projects that I'd be leaving unfinished, but I'm mostly concerned about not burning any bridges.  Not just to maintain a lifeline if for some reason my new job doesn't work for some reason, but mainly because over the last 10 years I consider many of my co-workers, as well as the owners, my friends. 

Thanks in advance!

[Linea_Norway]

Often you need to leave a company to be able to grow. I have learned that it might pay off to look for jobs yourself instead of waiting to be contacted by a headhunter. Don't get too flattered by headhunters, they just want to make money on you getting hired.
If they have been looking around for a year, they might accept some negotiations from your side. But as they now tried a new region, you could have competition. Just wait until they send you an offer and see what you want to negotiate further. First ensure that they really want to hire you and send you an offer. Think about the whole package, not only salary. Think number of vacation days, WFH options, pension, health insurance, etc.

[omachi]

Always negotiate! Not doing so makes you look like a pushover and that will follow you around. Even if you ask for just a little bit more, receive a no, and accept anyway, simply having made the effort will reflect better on you than not trying. And potential new company has no idea what your circumstances are, so don't make the mistake of thinking of your current salary as an anchor. As far as negotiations are concerned, an offer is the anchor and you can and should ask for more. As long as you don't do something insulting like ask for double the offer, the worst they'll do is say they can't do more than the offer. Seriously, if you have an offer in hand, they aren't going to rescind it for a small ask.

As for how much to ask for, that's going to depend on your background, going rates they're paying (possibly in their market, remote can be strange), and the sort of work you'll be doing. If their offer looks like median for their home area, you should be able to construct a story for why you're worth more than median.

With the current job, be professional. Write a nice resignation letter giving your two weeks. State that you enjoyed working with your peers and enjoyed your tenure, that you learned a lot at the company, and that you wish them all the best going forward. They wouldn't think twice about letting you go on the spot if there were enough of a budget crunch, so don't think you owe them anything more than this professional curtesy.

[Linea_Norway]

About leaving good coworkers, this is indeed not a nice thing to do, but it is part of life. You are not married to your coworkers. If any of you finds a better carreer alternative, you move on. Within a year they will probably be happy with the next person.

[Sibley]

Best place for work advice I've ever found is Askamanager.org.

Good luck!

[use2betrix]

Just went through this for the millionth time (I do contract work so switching regularly after projects wind down).

You are in a great place because you are currently working and not desperate. I would consistently mention how much you enjoy your job, but find a reasonable excuse to consider looking elsewhere (i.e. I’m looking for different responsibilities)

The negotiations are easy, yet very important. You need to have a bottom dollar number in your head. I’d start with them 20% or so above that. There’s a million different ways to factor in compensation, and they all need to be considered. Right now I get an hourly rate + 1.5x OT, per diem, monthly trip home allowance, benefits, 401k +5% match, etc. My new job only only has an hour rate at 1.5x OT and health insurance. So - I had to factor in all the stuff I received before, into one single rate. It basically compounded to an hourly rate $30/hr-$40/hr more than I was making before, yet without all the extra perks, I about break even (actually taking a slight pay cut).

Your notice to your current company depends on your comfort with them. The goal (IMO) is to get the offer high enough that you won’t entertain any counter from your current organization. If your negotiations take a while, that should give you some responsibility to the new company as well.

I wasn’t willing to give my notice until I received new hire paperwork and took my drug screen. Even then, I only told a couple supervisors, and still now waiting for it to be official until all the final paperwork has been approved and pushed through. I am very very close with all my current supervisors, so I could be open with them. While they hate to see me go, they understand my leaving for a much longer term contract position. They’re throwing me a couple parties next week, my boss is staying with us one day next week (he has a long commute and stays over a few times a month) so we’ll have a great time.

All companies are different, and only you can truly understand the culture and relationships within your company as to how they will react. Hopefully you are good at reading those situations (many are not).

Follow up if you run into any more specific scenarios. Every place is very different. Some places you give your two week notice in and they immediately take your computer and walk you out the door. My current company has done that for some employee’s, but I knew they wouldn’t for me (they’d rather have me spend time doing a good turnover for existing employee’s).