Possibly Unemployed or Take a Pay Cut? Forum

[Anonymous User]

Say you were about to be laid off and you had two more months of guaranteed website time. The second month is a holiday month (December), so there won't be any interviewing activity at that time.

You have an offer from a (decent) firm that is $45k below what you're currently making.

You could hold out and wait for new openings and hope to score something higher paying, taking the risk that nothing new will open up by December.

What would you choose and why?

[Beatmyshorts]

I’d take the offer and pay cut. That’s because I’m generally risk averse and being unemployed would be really disheartening for me. If you don’t find something great by the end of the year, it’s also harder to find something once you become unemployed. A decent sure thing is better than a Hail Mary.

[JohnnieSockran]

Say you were about to be laid off and you had two more months of guaranteed website time. The second month is a holiday month (December), so there won't be any interviewing activity at that time.

You have an offer from a (decent) firm that is $45k below what you're currently making.

You could hold out and wait for new openings and hope to score something higher paying, taking the risk that nothing new will open up by December.

What would you choose and why?

Take the offer, but ask if you can defer your start date for a month or so. Continue interviewing and networking/applying/job hunting, and you can always renege on the offer if you get something closer to your current income.

Also, you can continue interviewing once you start the new gig, and IMO it'd be easier to land something when you're working at least somewhere rather than landing a gig while unemployed (because you run the risk that the unemployment stretch lasts more than a month or 2, which hurts both your finances and your marketability with a large resume gap).

[Anonymous User]

Say you were about to be laid off and you had two more months of guaranteed website time. The second month is a holiday month (December), so there won't be any interviewing activity at that time.

You have an offer from a (decent) firm that is $45k below what you're currently making.

You could hold out and wait for new openings and hope to score something higher paying, taking the risk that nothing new will open up by December.

What would you choose and why?

Take the offer, but ask if you can defer your start date for a month or so. Continue interviewing and networking/applying/job hunting, and you can always renege on the offer if you get something closer to your current income.

Also, you can continue interviewing once you start the new gig, and IMO it'd be easier to land something when you're working at least somewhere rather than landing a gig while unemployed (because you run the risk that the unemployment stretch lasts more than a month or 2, which hurts both your finances and your marketability with a large resume gap).

I thought about doing this, but wouldn't reneging on an offer/acceptance hurt your reputation?

[RaceJudicata]

Say you were about to be laid off and you had two more months of guaranteed website time. The second month is a holiday month (December), so there won't be any interviewing activity at that time.

You have an offer from a (decent) firm that is $45k below what you're currently making.

You could hold out and wait for new openings and hope to score something higher paying, taking the risk that nothing new will open up by December.

What would you choose and why?

Take the offer, but ask if you can defer your start date for a month or so. Continue interviewing and networking/applying/job hunting, and you can always renege on the offer if you get something closer to your current income.

Also, you can continue interviewing once you start the new gig, and IMO it'd be easier to land something when you're working at least somewhere rather than landing a gig while unemployed (because you run the risk that the unemployment stretch lasts more than a month or 2, which hurts both your finances and your marketability with a large resume gap).

I thought about doing this, but wouldn't reneging on an offer/acceptance hurt your reputation?

Sure... but if you are considering not working there at all, who cares. And you can find a way to spin the short stint at the new firm (e.g., said I would be doing a lot of X, but quickly realized that wasn’t going to be the case).

[sparty99]

You would be a fool not to take the job. Your option is a temporary pay cut or unemployment. Mmmmm. Easy decision. You first, ask for more. Second, as was suggested, ask for a later starter date and possibly renege. Third, you can always still interview after joining or at the very least, work for a year and lateral for higher paying. A pay cut is not a big deal, especially considering you already making six figures. It's not like you are going 100k to 55k.

[malibustacy]

I'd hold out unless you really love the new job that pays less. It's not like you don't have time. What's your practice, what do you want to accomplish, how will you add value, etc? Where do you see your career going? Does this advance your goals?

You don't want to be that person aimlessly drifting to subsequently less desirable jobs, just for the sake of collecting a paycheck.

[QContinuum]

I'd hold out unless you really love the new job that pays less. It's not like you don't have time. What's your practice, what do you want to accomplish, how will you add value, etc? Where do you see your career going? Does this advance your goals?

You don't want to be that person aimlessly drifting to subsequently less desirable jobs, just for the sake of collecting a paycheck.

This is bad advice, IMO. No one ITT is advising OP to "aimlessly drift" along. Rather, the advice is for OP to accept this offer to avoid unemployment, then keep looking for a more desirable job. It's a horrible idea to roll the dice on landing a more desirable offer by Christmas. My advice might be different if OP had, say, 6 months left on the website, but this isn't the case here. OP's on a pretty tight timeframe.

The current offer may not advance OP's long-term career goals per se, but unemployment will certainly be a major setback to those goals.

[2013]

I'd hold out unless you really love the new job that pays less. It's not like you don't have time. What's your practice, what do you want to accomplish, how will you add value, etc? Where do you see your career going? Does this advance your goals?

You don't want to be that person aimlessly drifting to subsequently less desirable jobs, just for the sake of collecting a paycheck.

This is bad advice, IMO. No one ITT is advising OP to "aimlessly drift" along. Rather, the advice is for OP to accept this offer to avoid unemployment, then keep looking for a more desirable job. It's a horrible idea to roll the dice on landing a more desirable offer by Christmas. My advice might be different if OP had, say, 6 months left on the website, but this isn't the case here. OP's on a pretty tight timeframe.

The current offer may not advance OP's long-term career goals per se, but unemployment will certainly be a major setback to those goals.

TITCR.

Even the “quickest” lateral moves usually take a month.

There will be more open positions come January but OP doesn’t have the luxury of waiting to hold out since s/he will no longer be on the firm’s site. At that point, OP won’t be as marketable.

It’s a huge risk to turn down this offer and hope to get an offer soon. I have friends who have been doing lateral searches since July and are still doing callbacks. If the firm were to find out mid-application process that OP was terminated, that would be devastating to OP’s chances.

Also, OP’s offer doesn’t seem to be objectively less desirable (OP seems to just want a more prestigious, high-paying firm). It’s not like everyone on here is advocating for OP to go flip burgers at a burger joint.

OP, take the offer. Maybe you will enjoy the smaller firm. And, if not, you will be able to craft a reason as to why you didn’t think it was a good fit when you apply 3-6 months from now.

[QContinuum]

TITCR.

Even the “quickest” lateral moves usually take a month.

There will be more open positions come January but OP doesn’t have the luxury of waiting to hold out since s/he will no longer be on the firm’s site. At that point, OP won’t be as marketable.

It’s a huge risk to turn down this offer and hope to get an offer soon. I have friends who have been doing lateral searches since July and are still doing callbacks. If the firm were to find out mid-application process that OP was terminated, that would be devastating to OP’s chances.

Also, OP’s offer doesn’t seem to be objectively less desirable (OP seems to just want a more prestigious, high-paying firm). It’s not like everyone on here is advocating for OP to go flip burgers at a burger joint.

OP, take the offer. Maybe you will enjoy the smaller firm. And, if not, you will be able to craft a reason as to why you didn’t think it was a good fit when you apply 3-6 months from now.

Great points and actually I will amend my previous advice to note that in some cases, applicants have had offers pulled when they vanished from their previous firm's website before the new firm finished its background check. So to be safe, OP really needs to accept an offer asap, and by Thanksgiving at the latest. Accepting by Christmas would be too late.

So OP's on an even tighter timeframe than my previous post suggested.

[Anonymous User]

I'd hold out unless you really love the new job that pays less. It's not like you don't have time. What's your practice, what do you want to accomplish, how will you add value, etc? Where do you see your career going? Does this advance your goals?

You don't want to be that person aimlessly drifting to subsequently less desirable jobs, just for the sake of collecting a paycheck.

This is bad advice, IMO. No one ITT is advising OP to "aimlessly drift" along. Rather, the advice is for OP to accept this offer to avoid unemployment, then keep looking for a more desirable job. It's a horrible idea to roll the dice on landing a more desirable offer by Christmas. My advice might be different if OP had, say, 6 months left on the website, but this isn't the case here. OP's on a pretty tight timeframe.

The current offer may not advance OP's long-term career goals per se, but unemployment will certainly be a major setback to those goals.

TITCR.

Even the “quickest” lateral moves usually take a month.

There will be more open positions come January but OP doesn’t have the luxury of waiting to hold out since s/he will no longer be on the firm’s site. At that point, OP won’t be as marketable.

It’s a huge risk to turn down this offer and hope to get an offer soon. I have friends who have been doing lateral searches since July and are still doing callbacks. If the firm were to find out mid-application process that OP was terminated, that would be devastating to OP’s chances.

Also, OP’s offer doesn’t seem to be objectively less desirable (OP seems to just want a more prestigious, high-paying firm). It’s not like everyone on here is advocating for OP to go flip burgers at a burger joint.

OP, take the offer. Maybe you will enjoy the smaller firm. And, if not, you will be able to craft a reason as to why you didn’t think it was a good fit when you apply 3-6 months from now.

OP here. Thanks for the feedback to everyone who responded. I'm particularly interested in "you will be able to craft a reason as to why you didn't think it was a good fit when you apply 3-6 months from now." I agree, but here's the problem -- I'm going from a mid-sized firm to a small firm. Any firm that I apply to will objectively see that as a downgrade. Would you advise to be candid and state "the partners at my previous firm just didn't have enough work to keep me busy?" During this move, I can craft a creative story about wanting to expand my practice areas or wanting to move to a larger platform, blah blah blah, but after I make this move, that story will seem much less compelling. How can I possibly explain the downgrade?

[Beatmyshorts]

I'd hold out unless you really love the new job that pays less. It's not like you don't have time. What's your practice, what do you want to accomplish, how will you add value, etc? Where do you see your career going? Does this advance your goals?

You don't want to be that person aimlessly drifting to subsequently less desirable jobs, just for the sake of collecting a paycheck.

This is bad advice, IMO. No one ITT is advising OP to "aimlessly drift" along. Rather, the advice is for OP to accept this offer to avoid unemployment, then keep looking for a more desirable job. It's a horrible idea to roll the dice on landing a more desirable offer by Christmas. My advice might be different if OP had, say, 6 months left on the website, but this isn't the case here. OP's on a pretty tight timeframe.

The current offer may not advance OP's long-term career goals per se, but unemployment will certainly be a major setback to those goals.

TITCR.

Even the “quickest” lateral moves usually take a month.

There will be more open positions come January but OP doesn’t have the luxury of waiting to hold out since s/he will no longer be on the firm’s site. At that point, OP won’t be as marketable.

It’s a huge risk to turn down this offer and hope to get an offer soon. I have friends who have been doing lateral searches since July and are still doing callbacks. If the firm were to find out mid-application process that OP was terminated, that would be devastating to OP’s chances.

Also, OP’s offer doesn’t seem to be objectively less desirable (OP seems to just want a more prestigious, high-paying firm). It’s not like everyone on here is advocating for OP to go flip burgers at a burger joint.

OP, take the offer. Maybe you will enjoy the smaller firm. And, if not, you will be able to craft a reason as to why you didn’t think it was a good fit when you apply 3-6 months from now.

OP here. Thanks for the feedback to everyone who responded. I'm particularly interested in "you will be able to craft a reason as to why you didn't think it was a good fit when you apply 3-6 months from now." I agree, but here's the problem -- I'm going from a mid-sized firm to a small firm. Any firm that I apply to will objectively see that as a downgrade. Would you advise to be candid and state "the partners at my previous firm just didn't have enough work to keep me busy?" During this move, I can craft a creative story about wanting to expand my practice areas or wanting to move to a larger platform, blah blah blah, but after I make this move, that story will seem much less compelling. How can I possibly explain the downgrade?

I don't understand this part.

This depends on specifics that you didn't include in your original post (your current practice area, your practice area at the new firm), but it seems like a relatively easy lift. Obviously you don't want to say "I got pushed out of my first firm," but the basic formula is: [Reason why you left old firm] + [reason why small firm seemed like a good idea] + [reasonable realization that it wasn't].

Example: "When I left Firm X, it was in a time of transition and a lot of the work in my practice area was moving from Office A to Office B. As a result, I just didn't have the same degree of responsibility and client contact that I had before. When I got the offer from Firm Y, it was a no-brainer to take it, and I thought I'd be able to take on the kind of responsibilities that I had been handling for years. Unfortunately, Firm Y's [practice area] is a lot more limited than I appreciated, and I want [blah blah blah good thing about the firm you're interviewing with]."

[QContinuum]

OP here. Thanks for the feedback to everyone who responded. I'm particularly interested in "you will be able to craft a reason as to why you didn't think it was a good fit when you apply 3-6 months from now." I agree, but here's the problem -- I'm going from a mid-sized firm to a small firm. Any firm that I apply to will objectively see that as a downgrade. Would you advise to be candid and state "the partners at my previous firm just didn't have enough work to keep me busy?" During this move, I can craft a creative story about wanting to expand my practice areas or wanting to move to a larger platform, blah blah blah, but after I make this move, that story will seem much less compelling. How can I possibly explain the downgrade?

Even if future firms see your move as a downgrade, you will be able to spin it as beat recommends in the above post. At worst, they will believe you had bad judgment in moving to the small firm. But there's no spinning a period of unemployment - it will be obvious that you were forced out. Any legal job is better than no job, and the small firm job you mention sounds far from awful (even if a step down from your current position).

I really wouldn't recommend gambling on landing a better offer between now and Thanksgiving.