milestones in our effort to relocate...wife's job search

Now that I have a job back in a big city area, we need my wife to find one.
Wife has been interviewing aggressively.
Although she's worked through headhunters in the past, she felt networking through friends would be more effective. Especially when many are well placed executives within the industry.

As a consequence, her one month vacation in Chicago has become an endless blend of lunches and dinners with various colleagues. It seems to be working - personal referals really help. She's had about nine interviews with offers from about half (light offers, more like invitations to pursue and negotiate). She also has a few hard offers of which she's already begun negotiating.

The organization she's been negotiating with is one she really likes, but I know she feels more comfortable having alternatives available. I can tell he chemistry is great, we had a four hour dinner and it felt like half that time.

Of course the next challenge is to negotiate the contract. The initial terms were a bit disappointing - we knew Chicago wasn't as strong a market as the East Coast, but it we felt they would provide more incentives and help bridge the income gap a bit. After a telephone conversation, my wife explained how much she liked the company, but was at a quandry about the distance between where she was at and what they were offering.

The came back immediately with an increase, which, although not enough was a start. My wife mentioned where she would feel more comfortable, angling for a larger increase in year two. We are waiting for their response.

Several smaller points remain to be negotiated, these include:

1. Covering certain benefits her current employer provides for executives that the new one doesn't - disability insurance
2. Relocation - our cost to relocate last move was $23k, her prospective employer has offered a fifth of that amount - $4k. I honestly feel it's more of an issue of education / being unaware.

Then there are a number of details that I expect the lawyers will work out in the contract.

From my stance, obtaining agreement on a goal (joining the company) and key terms are the priorities. Details can be worked out later.

We've also been looking around at houses. I'll write about that in a separate post.

Regards,

makingourway