Offer Letter

[James Barrow]

This is pretty much what I thought.  For the sake of interesting
conversation, let me paint this scenario:

The posted salary range for a Technical Writer position with the Department
of Redundancy is as follows:

TW 1 = $1000/month
TW 2 = $2000/month
TW 3 = $3000/month
TW 4 = $4000/month

And let's assume that the job requirements are the basic fare:  10 years
experience, expert Office/Frame/writing/organizational skills.

Let's also assume two more things.

1.  The candidate aces the interview; and
2.  The candidate exceeds all of the posted job requirements.

What happens if the compensation offered is at the TW 1 level?  Do you call
the Department of Redundancy?  Do you draft a counter-offer that mentions
the disparity between experience and compensation?

I'm fairly certain that this wouldn't happen since we're talking about a
government position, but what if...?

- Jim

-----Original Message-----
From: Gene Kim-Eng [mailto:techwr at genek.com] 
Sent: Wednesday, January 03, 2007 5:02 PM
To: vrfour at verizon.net; techwr-l at lists.techwr-l.com
Subject: Re: Offer Letter

The only response required is sign and return.

As a hiring manager, it is my understanding that all the negotiations 
That are going to happen have already happened and the letter merely puts
what has been verbally agreed to by our company and the candidate in
writing to receive signatures.  If a candidate responded to our offer
letter with an attempt to negotiate further, our response would be to
rescind the offer and move on to the next candidate.

The time to negotiate is when the interviewer asks what your salary
expectations are.  Government positions are the exception, as to
my knowlege the salaries are dictated by the job postings and are
not negotiable because all terms of the job have to remain as posted
from start of the process to its conclusion.

Gene Kim-Eng


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "James Barrow" <vrfour at verizon.net>

When I received the offer letter it was right in line with my 
Expectations and requirements, so I accepted.

I spoke with a colleague over the holidays and when I mentioned the 
Offer letter, he immediately asked if I negotiated the compensation.  I
didn't consider this because a) this is a full time government job b) the
pay was up there in the TW4 range c) my inexperience with offer letters.