Delaying a job Start date

Dave_

Hi,

Potentially have a situation work-wise that I have never faced before so thought I would ask around to see what the etiquette should be.

Situation
Work in IT for a finance company on the east coast of the US. Got contacted by a competitor on the West Coast for a similar position. Been through interview with HR and two team members and the company seem very interested in hiring me. Since the company started interviewing me, my gf has been diagnosed with breast cancer and has gone through surgery (all super quick, maybe all that health insurance cost is worth it in some cases!). Initially, it seemed like there would be no chemotherapy prescribed but that has changed. Basically means that until the end of October, she will be receiving treatment (chemo until August, and radiation until October)
Now, here comes the predicament. We both would love to move to the West Coast and I am very interested in the job, but there is no way I would want to move while herself is receiving heavy duty treatment. This is the timeline that I can see them wanting if I were offered the job, seeing that they are aware of how long a visa transfer takes
Mid July - receive offer
End of July - Accept negotiated offer, submit visa transfer material
Start of September - Hand in notice once visa has been transferred
Mid-late September - be ready to start + have moved

What I am thinking of proposing is to stay with that timeline and work from the East Coast, with maybe a couple of week-long trips, until end of October due to personal circumstances (would I be expected to reveal what they are?). They have an office in my city that team members from the West Coast travel to regularly, so this could be possible.
OR asking for a start date of the end of October.

Is there etiquette that I should follow in this situation?
Also, should I tell them about this now (still dont know for sure if I will be offered a position) or wait until the offer / negotiation stage?

TL/DR - Personal situation means that I wouldnt be able to start a new job (in person) until 2ish months after they would potentially want me to start. How should I approach?

Dave_

Apologies, just noticed that I was in the main work thread - meant to post this in "Work Problems"

Mrs OBumble

Ahh, presumably your GF's treatment is being covered by your work's health insurance. What happens to that if you change jobs - surely a pre-existing condition won't be covered on the new insurance??? (that said, I know very, very little about American health insurance).

Dave_

Luckily it's not a concern for us.
She works for a consulting company that have very good short term disability. Basically, since she found out about her treatment, she was able to go on leave for 3 months, on full pay and benefits. This has cut any ties with projects that she has been on so she will be able to request a transfer to move her base city to the west coast when her treatment is over.

Eoin

Dave_ wrote: »

Apologies, just noticed that I was in the main work thread - meant to post this in "Work Problems"

I've moved the thread for you

Dave_ wrote: »

Hi,

Is there etiquette that I should follow in this situation?
Also, should I tell them about this now (still dont know for sure if I will be offered a position) or wait until the offer / negotiation stage?

TL/DR - Personal situation means that I wouldnt be able to start a new job (in person) until 2ish months after they would potentially want me to start. How should I approach?

Wait for the offer, if it doesn't come up first (I'm surprised HR didn't ask you about your availability already). Though perhaps the etiquette is different in the US; in which case someone else might have a different opinion.

It's obviously up to you how much info you want to give them if it does come to it. Maybe you can just say that your girlfriend is finishing medical treatment and leave it at that? It sounds like you're willing to be pretty flexible, so hopefully that should do the trick.

Best of luck (especially to your gf).

Dave_

Thanks for the practical advice. That is probably the way I am leaning at this stage, unless they ask me to go for an on-site interview. I would tell them in that case before they went ahead and paid for flights/accomodation etc.

Eoin wrote: »

Best of luck (especially to your gf).

Thank you, everything so far has gone really well; hopefully in a few months time it will just be a bad memory!