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Home > Phone interview lined up; mixed feelings

Phone interview lined up; mixed feelings

September 17th, 2016 at 02:19 am

I got an email from a job I applied for, asking me to chat on the phone next week.

I haven't really had too many parameters on what kind of company I'd want to work for, although one of them was to shy away from start-ups or very small companies because my past experience has been they can be very unstable, plus pay and benefits are not as good as with a larger firm.

I need to do more research, but this looks to be a very small company that, while not a startup, isn't that old. The company has two businesses, and the one I'm guessing I'd be working for was just rebranded as a separate company in 2013.

The office local to me would be a decent commute; they also have an office in PA.

I'm guessing the main purpose of the phone call is to tease out what salary expectations I would have, and my job, according to a webinar I just took today, is to obfuscate and avoid naming a salary range if at all possible. Get them to share their salary range. If I honestly told them what i was making at the bank, i don't think a small company of this size could match it.

They are not a public company and don't even show up on glassdoor.com, so hard to find out much about them. A few press releases, and news of their acquiring another small company, a number of Linked In profiles, stuff about the business with a few business bios on the website, that's about it.

I will devote as much time as possible to prepping for the talk and trying to come up with an acceptable, accurate salary range. This is my 1st "interview" in about 3 years and i do feel rusty.

Honestly, I don't feel like I have to marry the company, only work there for 3 years before my planned retirement. If I love it and wanted to stay longer? Sure, that's always a possibility but right now the game plan calls for an exit after 3 years. So the pay probably doesn't have to exceed or even match the bank salary, although that would very desirable, of course.

I think my goal during the phone call is to make sure I get invited to an in-person interview, and not allow them to eliminate me from consideration based simply on salary. So this is the big question.

Last night we saw Sully, the movie about the United Airlines pilot who landed the plane on the Hudson River in an emergency landing. It was pretty good, with Tom Hanks playing Sully.

I want to go back to the movies next week (with dad) to either see the Snowden movie or Paper Lanterns, a movie about the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima during WWII. The latter one is one-night only.

5 Responses to “Phone interview lined up; mixed feelings”

  1. Butterscotch Says:
    1474078262

    You never know with a small company. Last month I interviewed with a company of just 12 people. Not only was I offered the job, but they actually offered me more than what I was asking. Big doesn't always mean secure or successful. I've been let go from large companies that saw employees as numbers, not people. Good luck!

  2. PatientSaver Says:
    1474078866

    Butterscotch, good to know, thanks!

  3. MonkeyMama Says:
    1474082357

    I was going to say, keep an open mind. Butterscotch beat me to it. In my experience, smaller companies are more stable. Small employers can also be very generous. I am sure in each case, it just depends. But I would not assume anything based on size alone.

  4. VS_ozgirl Says:
    1474092879

    I have been wanting to see Sully since I saw the trailer in the movies, glad to hear you thought it was pretty good. I guess it's important to make your break-even income and if you get more, then great. Like you say, you only have three years left of work, you just need to make the money so you can meet your retirement goal. Hope it all goes well and they are nice people! (Even if you are only there for three years, nice people make it so much more enjoyable)

  5. FrugalTexan75 Says:
    1474155718

    I'm hoping to see Sully too. Although it probably won't be til it comes out on video. Tuesday nights or first showing are the only semi-reasonable prices here, so it's hard to actually make it to a showing.

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