Whoa...Back It Up!

[shawanda]

As you may have read in another thread, I was offered two positions. One of the offer letters offered basically what I expected; the other did not. Actually, the offer from the second school was worth nearly half of what the school said it would offer on its Search Associates profile. I am livid because the second school is the one I want, not the first school. Is it normal for offers to be so much (almost half) below the salary expectations listed on Search? Doesn't this just prove the school's leadership lies for a living and I wouldn't want to work there? Help me out here - I am sweating in places I didn't know I could sweat and I got to get back to these schools in a matter of days and I am completely undecided as to what my next move should be.

[PsyGuy]

The IS profile is self reported by the IS, and its whatever they want it to be, it could ahve last been updated years ago. It means very little, at best its a range to compare one ISs comp to another. It is nothing approaching a guarantee, or reality.

Aside from that, what were you expecting? The profile page gives two salary points, unless you were one of those points you cant extract very much. Contact the recruiter or leadership and ask how they arrived at the salary offered. Its either an error, or thats what they are offering, and an ISs profile page means nothing.

Need to defend recruiters and leadership for a moment, they didnt lie to you the IS profile isnt a promise, its not part of any parties agreement with you. This is one of the reasons why rules are: 1) Only offers matter, 2) Only a contract is a contract.
You need to breath, take a step back and realize that if your going to make decisions based off an ISs profile your going to be very frustrated during this process. Talk to them, you dont have a lot of information, it might be an error, there might be some negotiating, at the least youll get an explanation, and you can decide to accept or decline when you can make a more informed decision.

That aside, its on the eve of the start of peak recruiting, an IS isnt going to offer top coin if they dont have to, and they have lots of options ahead of them. Leadership isnt generally disciplined for saving coin. At this point if they can close a vacancy at below market its worth it to them to do that, otherwise they are going to keep shopping, everyone likes a deal, recruiters are no different.

[shawanda]

Thanks PsyGuy. To clarify, I have far more experience than the low end number I was basing my expectations on and the offer made was worth just above half as much as that. Very good advice, thanks.

[shadylane]

PsyGuy wrote:
> The IS profile is self reported by the IS, and its whatever they want it to be, it
> could ahve last been updated years ago. It means very little, at best its a range
> to compare one ISs comp to another. It is nothing approaching a guarantee, or reality.


It's false advertising. If a school cannot be trusted to fill out an online form reasonably accurately, then what does that say about the way they run their school or treat their teachers? It smacks of carelessness, incompetence or deliberate misdirection.

Schools have a right to hold their teachers up to high standards, but equally teachers should be holding schools up to a similar standard. I'd avoid the place.

[PsyGuy]

@shawanda

ISs can classify experience different ways. Recruiters can get creative with what they consider experience. They may only count experience after certification, experience assigned to a specific subject, only IS experience, or they may have a cap thats very low (some ISs start everyone at step one and you can only gain step at that IS). They may have different scales or comp ranges depending on what your appointment is (Ive seen primary ITs offered significantly less than STEM ITs). This is going to be a sellers year, with a higher than average candidate pool, and that means ISs can squeeze candidates on contracts, especially in high desire regions.

@shadylane

An ISs profile pages is a marketing tool, only contracts are contracts, everything else is sales.

[joe30]

I don't see what you're 'sweating' about. They've offered a crap package. It's up to you to decide whether to take it or not.

Forget about what was listed on Search, that's gone now.

[alexout]

I agree with shadylane. For what it's worth ('cause anything can happen), whenever I see a large discrepancy between what is described on Search's database and what happens in reality, I stay far away from that school. There are plenty of flat-out lies (not mistakes, not out-of-date information) in that database, and the schools that post them are, in my experience, totally untrustworthy in other areas as well. I would see it as a warning. Good luck!

[Thames Pirate]

For probably the only time ever, I agree with Joe. Either take it or leave it. If you are feeling ambitious, ask admin about it, but be prepared to give an answer if they cannot immediately move to rectify. Let them know you have another offer. Or just tell them no, thanks and take the other offer.

[shawanda]

The best part is that he gave me a week to give him an answer, so I have to respond no later than the day (Jan 12) before the fair I am scheduled to attend. Seems purposeful...

[joe30]

It seems a trivial matter to just decline it. If the salary package is HALF of what was listed on Search i's probably truly awful since I seldom ever see a school paying $80k+ on there.

[helloiswill]

I would encourage you to continue your search. You are too experienced to settle for something that is "half" as valuable as you had first thought. And it's not like West Africa or China are Bali and Costa Rica.

[Teach1010]

Did the reviews on paid side of ISR raise any red flags? If the school is for-profit, I would be especially concerned. Sure, what they write on their Search form is no promise. At worst, they were intentionally trying to mislead you and it is disingenuous. At best, it is an oversight which could be an indication of a poorly organized school to begin with. You should definitely ask them why there is such a discrepancy and if you're not satisfied with their answer, tell them no and take the other job.

[vandsmith]

i sympathize with you. it's shitty to be go through correspondence and interviews thinking one thing in terms of salary and then have them hit you with a contract that halves your salary. it's sketchy, but if it's really where you want to go... i would agree with psyguy - check your points again, read the contract, and make sure with the recruiter regarding pay and maybe there are other points you didn't know about to bring up as a question. are the other figures on the search profile accurate? (housing, settling in fee, PD amount?) if it's a bad offer, it's a bad offer and you shouldn't feel pressured to take it. easy to say, i know.

best of luck!

v.

[beanie]

While it might be easy to accuse the school of being sketchy, it might just really be a case of inaccurate/non-update on the Search side of things. I was in the opposite position, where I was going off the reference points on Search (that meet my experience/qualifications), but my offer was 40% higher than what was listed. Obviously I didn't accuse the school of false advertising or kick up a fuss. Who knows when the last time your school bothered to update those figures or its listing, probably not high on their priorities list.

[shadylane]

beanie wrote:
> While it might be easy to accuse the school of being sketchy, it might just really be a case of inaccurate/non-update on the >Search side of things. Who knows when the last time your school bothered to update those figures or its listing, probably not >high on their priorities list.

Then it should be. Or maybe we could just use inaccurate resumés?

"Yep - sorry. I forgot that I didn't finish off that Phd at Harvard Graduate School five years ago. Oh - and I ended up not taking those PYP coordinator positions at NIST and the UN School in New York mentioned on my CV either, and went backpacking round South America for 4 years instead. Oh - have I wasted your time?"