Should You Be Suspicious Of Your Paid Job Relocation Offer? It sounds like a dream come true. You need a new job, and cannot find one where you live.
A new employer agrees to pay your moving expenses to a new city. Yet it isn’t always a good deal.
Paid job relocation is one of those things that is not always a winner and is often too good to be true.
Should You Be Suspicious Of Your Paid Job Relocation Offer?
I found out the hard way years ago when I was in the newspaper business. A company paid my relocation expenses for moving to the boondocks to work for its paper.
Once I got there, I found out the hard way that it was a pretty lousy deal.
A few months after moving for a great job, I found myself out of work and stuck in a place where there was only one potential employer in my line of work—the newspaper that had just fired me.
I ended up burning through my savings account, searching for a job in another state, and covering the move’s cost there.
Like more than a few people who take relocation money, I found out the hard way that the employer doesn’t cover the expense of moving you back if the job doesn’t work out.
Ask Why They’re Paying
When you get a paid relocation offer, you should start asking questions right away. Ask why the employer is willing to shell out money for your move.
Is there really a shortage of qualified applicants in their area, or is something else wrong? Maybe the employer has such a bad reputation that none of the locals will work for them.
Or perhaps the company pays a much lower salary than local competitors.
Paying $10,000 to cover the moving expenses of a person who is willing to work for $50,000 a year is cheaper than hiring an area resident demanding $75,000 a year. Instead of getting a good deal, you could be seriously shortchanging yourself.
Another reason why they cover moving expenses is that nobody might want to live in their location.
Right now, there are a lot of jobs open in North Dakota, but who actually wants to live there?
The employer that pays for your relocation might not tell you about the high cost of living, the long commute, housing shortage, or the lack of amenities in the area.
When I was in the newspaper business, I discovered I didn’t like small town living the hard way. I didn’t like country living after living in the country. I eventually moved back to the big city for less money.
Hard Questions
When you get a paid relocation offer, do research before you accept. Run some online searches on the employer and see what comes up. Even a simple Google news search might turn up reasons not to take the job.
Research salaries and find out if the offer is actually competitive. If possible, see if you can find out what current or former employees are saying.
You might be able to contact former employees through email or Facebook if you can learn their names.
If a lot of people are bad mouthing an organization online, you should ask why.
Something to remember is that for every person who complains publicly about something there are usually a dozen others who are just as pissed off but not willing to say anything.
Should You Be Suspicious Of Your Paid Job Relocation Offer?
Check out the region you are considering, read the local news, and research the cost of living. Check the cost of rents and home prices.
The $10,000 in relocation expenses the employer is offering you might not sound so great when you find out that average rents in the area are $2,000 a month.
Visit the area and look around before making the move. Don’t rely on the tour that the Human Resources person gives you alone.
Go to the community and drive or walk around and see what it’s actually like. See if you can find a decent place to live there with the money that the employer is offering.
