When is the best time to ask about a future job's terms and conditions?
When is the best time to ask potential employers for the terms and conditions of the job I am applying for?
I am an experienced practice nurse working in a GP's surgery. A few years ago, due to restructuring, I had to leave my job of 10 years, where I had very generous benefits including sick pay.
My current job only entitles me to statutory sick pay and basic holiday entitlement. This only became clear after I had accepted the position.
I am in my early 50s and generally in good health, but I still have to a mortgage to pay, and I am concerned about the possibility of falling ill unexpectedly. I am considering finding another job with better terms and conditions. GP practices are considered as small businesses and decide their own terms and conditions, for example on holiday and sick pay entitlement, unlike when you work for the NHS, where the T&Cs for nurses are laid out.
It is common practice that jobs are advertised with no more information than the "hours wanted" and a salary bracket to negotiate according to experience. I feel uneasy about asking too many questions before an interview, but at the same time would not want to go as far as interview just to find out that the terms are not good enough.
Also, I fear that asking for more than is being offered can cast a shadow before I have even accepted a post. What would your advice be on how to proceed and how to negotiate?
Jeremy says
You're right to think this a sensitive issue – and I very much doubt if there's a one-size-fits-all answer. But as a starting-point, I think you should assume two things.
First, neither the potential employer nor the candidate is going to know whether or not they make a good match for each other until they've met at interview stage. And second, whether or not there's scope for negotiation on salary and other benefits will, in certain cases, be known only when the strength of the candidate's case has been determined. In other words, the more they like you, the greater your chance of improving your terms; but they can't know how much they like you until you've met each other.
So, by inquiring about terms before accepting an invitation to interview, you certainly run the risk of terminating your chances straight away. I know you have perfectly good reasons for needing to know, but until they've seen you, and compared you with others, they may not be able to give you a straight answer. And besides, it can all too easily come across as money-grubbing. (It's always worth remembering that, when there are multiple high-quality applications for the same post, recruiters may quite understandably seize on some apparently unimportant factor simply in order to eliminate one candidate from the intimidating pile.)
My advice, then, is for you to proceed to interview stage whenever you're invited to do so. If it comes to the point where you're offered the job, and you're still not clear about terms and conditions, you have every right to ask; and you shouldn't offend anyone by doing so. And by that time, you'll know enough about the other aspects of the job to know whether or not to push for a better deal.
Readers say
• Discuss T&Cs once the employer has a stake in recruiting you. And the interview process is worth it even if the T&Cs put you off; you get to check out the employer, put yourself in their mind as someone worth recruiting, and you keep your interview skills sharp. Spoonface
• Ask before applying for a job. The T&Cs are your primary concern, so don't waste your time or theirs in applying for a job you wouldn't take.
You also have bargaining power. So if you are offered a job with good T&Cs there is no reason not to go to your current employer and tell them you will be leaving unless it can match these.
It's worth asking and you may get to have your cake and eat it by staying in a job you currently have, but with the additions that you want. ekk100
I want to leave teaching at 47 – but first need to find a careers adviser
I am 47 and a career teacher. I am excellent in the classroom and have advanced-skills teacher status and am second in department for a core subject. All my lesson observations, and I mean all, give me "excellent", including Ofsted.
My exam results are excellent but, despite all this, I think I can go no further in teaching. I recently applied for a promotion and was told in feedback that my social skills and people skills were not great. I don't necessarily disagree but it showed that the interview panel was influenced by the headteacher, as the others didn't know me and I thought I gave a good interview.
I think I will need to change career. My question is: how do I find a decent careers adviser. I am prepared to pay what it takes but do not want to waste my money. There are thousands online, how do I choose?
Jeremy says
You'll have thought of this, of course, but your first call should be on anyone you know, or have heard of, who has employed a careers adviser already. It doesn't even have to have been a successful encounter for it to be potentially useful for you.
My next suggestion is to make use of books, and there are a great many of them. You can do an online browse ("changing career") without cost. Choosing and reading one or two of those that most appeal to you is bound to be valuable – and you're in the fortunate position of not having to make a life-changing decision against an immediate deadline.
Only when you've been through this process should you set out to search for an adviser. You'll find the research you've done will make it infinitely easier to know what to look for – and equally what to beware of.
It's entirely possible, of course, that your search for advice, and an adviser, will lead you to reconsider your decision to leave teaching for good: and I rather hope it does. You've had one setback: an unsuccessful application for promotion, a decision that was probably unduly influenced by the opinion of the headteacher. I can quite understand your disappointment – but before you abandon a vocation you've enjoyed for more than 25 years and at which you clearly excel, do please be absolutely sure that's really what you want to do.
Readers say
• I found a careers adviser by looking online for someone who specialised in my industry. I looked for professional qualifications but more than that I wanted someone with experience of the field I was working in. avoidingreality
• If you spend a year or two retraining, you will be entering the workforce at near 50 years old. You may be competing for positions with people half your age. Not an easy task by any means. LQCinncinatus
• Ask the people who know you best, your family and close friends, what their opinion is. It sounds like you have excellent communication skills so how about a different type of school or different type of teaching? JayeKaye
• If you are a good teacher, but haven't achieved promotion, why do you think that the answer is to change career? What makes you think that you would achieve faster or higher career progression in a new job for which you would have no experience? moneyallgone
Do you need advice on a work issue? For Jeremy's and readers' help, send a brief email to dear.jeremy@theguardian.com. Please note that he is unable to answer questions of a legal nature or reply personally
