Using another employer as "leverage"

[ActuaryGuy23]

This is a spin-off of the salary survey question. A few folks in there mentioned that the only way to really gauge your value in the market is to get another offer from another company. This leads me to wonder, though... how many times can you go to that well before it runs dry?

It seems like you can only "interview" so many times at a company before they are turned off by what you are doing and start tossing your resume in the trash can. Actuarial departments can't be THAT big that word won't get around about some applicant putting in his/her resume every couple of years just to get a better offer from his/her current place.

Can this ploy even be used ONCE without raising serious suspicions about the person's interest in ever working at the other place?

[_BullDog_]

Don't use another offer as leverage unless you are prepared to give your 2 week notice if your employer doesn't give you what you want and don't do this every couple years.

[ActuaryGuy23]

That's easy enough, sure. But is it a put-off to the second company if your current employer matches your offer and you end up staying? What if you do this twice? I'm not suggesting this as a total bluff, but rather a scenario where this works out for the candidate and they get the compensation package they wanted from the first employer.

It sucks because it truly seems like the only way to nudge a lot of bosses in the industry is to get fed up, interview elsewhere, and then see just how valuable you are to your current company. I just wondered if interviewers understand this is how things work and there will be folks come in who wind up getting a matching/better offer and choose to stay.

[ditkaworshipper]

You do realize that's true for most industries, right?

[ActuaryGuy23]

Originally Posted by ditkaworshipper

You do realize that's true for most industries, right?

I don't think many other industries are so limited in their alternatives for gainful employment. In my city, there are two major companies and that's it. Unless I am willing to move to another city, it seems like my ability to "look elsewhere" is limited. As is my number of times to use this ploy.

[_BullDog_]

Originally Posted by ActuaryGuy23

That's easy enough, sure. But is it a put-off to the second company if your current employer matches your offer and you end up staying? What if you do this twice? I'm not suggesting this as a total bluff, but rather a scenario where this works out for the candidate and they get the compensation package they wanted from the first employer.

It sucks because it truly seems like the only way to nudge a lot of bosses in the industry is to get fed up, interview elsewhere, and then see just how valuable you are to your current company. I just wondered if interviewers understand this is how things work and there will be folks come in who wind up getting a matching/better offer and choose to stay.

First off, it should be noted that the majority of people who do this still end up leaving in a year or so. Second off, if you keep using the same second company and interview, get offer, decline offer, then yes after a couple times they will write you off.

[_BullDog_]

Originally Posted by ActuaryGuy23

I don't think many other industries are so limited in their alternatives for gainful employment. In my city, there are two major companies and that's it. Unless I am willing to move to another city, it seems like my ability to "look elsewhere" is limited. As is my number of times to use this ploy.

this isn't the only small industry. Some engineers will have the same problem depending on which specialty they choose. A chemical engineer can't apply for (and expect to get) a civil engineering job.

[gadzookz]

If there is a big mismatch, and your current employer at least matches the offer, why would you need to do this again? If you think your current employer will match the offer today, but not give you increases for the next few years, you should take that into account with your offer.

Is your current salary low because they don't do well with increases or is your salary low because it has always been below average?

[Kool-Aid Man]

I would advise against doing this even once. If your primary motivation to get another job was because you were underpaid, I would hope that before you had taken such a drastic step, you'd already exhausted all attempts to convince your bosses into giving you a deserved raise, but they refused. If that happened, and I got a job somewhere else for better pay, I wouldn't even give them a chance to match the offer. I wouldn't tell them how much my new job was paying. If they tried to make me a counter-offer, I'd politely tell them they had a chance to pay me what I was worth and they didn't.

[ActuaryGuy23]

Originally Posted by gadzookz

Is your current salary low because they don't do well with increases or is your salary low because it has always been below average?

The former... it's a combination of exam raises (when I started) being one-time bonuses, crying poverty/budget constraints every time promotions are reviewed, and claiming that all actuarial analysts, associates, etc. need to have the experience/exams/responsibility to warrant a raise/promotion.

I may be outing myself, but this company also mandates that students keep taking exams until they fail out or become FSA's. There's no stopping at ASA. So now the company is starting to see a LOT of ASA's/FSA's who are overqualified for what they are doing, but can't move up because the folks in front of them are rather young as well.

I am definitely overqualified to be doing what I am, but still do more than enough to get a promotion that isn't quite associate-level.