Changing jobs during the current climate

johnnykilo

I'm due to move jobs in the next couple of weeks. I work in Tech, which seems thankfully to have been one of the industries least affected so far by the current crisis so far anyway.

The new job is a couple of levels higher than my current position and the money is substantially better. I've had occasional correspondence from my new employer over the last couple of weeks while I'm seeing out my notice and they still want me to start as scheduled but to start working from home almost immediately.

I'm going to be on probation for the first 6 months and my worry is that 6 months down the line if there's a serious recession that they might have to leave me go due to a lack of work.

I have my own thoughts on this, but was hoping for a couple of other opinions. Should I take this new role or should I stay in my current role? My current role should be safe even in a recession and my current employer has indicated they would be willing to accommodate me if I wanted to stay.

This is all hypothetical really, because I've signed the contract from the new role and handed in my notice and said my goodbyes etc... so it wouldn't be straightforward to change at this stage, but ignoring this I'm just wondering what peoples thoughts were? TIA!

Edit: Just to add I am single and don't have any dependents or a mortgage or anything else that might come into the equation.

youcancallmeal

That's a tricky one. If you feel your skills are valuable and you interview well then it might be best to take the new job. If you do get laid off in 6 months then you should be able to pick up work quick enough. If stability is really important and you're supporting a young family then probably best to stay put.

I think/hope IT work shouldn't be too badly affected by the upcoming recession just like in 08/09.

skallywag

This is indeed a tough one.

I certainly would not be actively looking for a new job at the moment if I was currently in a position which I am even half satisfied with. True, tech is not taking a hit right now, but it will most definitely come, without a shadow of a doubt. I work for an extremely financially secure company, but we also are under no illusions that the hard times are now inevitable.

I would normally never advocate reneging on a signed contract etc. but under these special times I would, and I also would expect that your new employer would see your point of view.

I would stay put. You can always progress in your career when this things has hopefully blown over, but you could get caught out if you move now and the world economy goes completely pear shaped. And it surely will, the question is just how bad.

By the way I also believe that the recession which we see as an outcome of this will make 2008 seems like a cuddly toy. I do not mean to be sending a 'the sky is falling' message, but we have to be realistic.

Mc Love

I applied for the job I'm moving to next week (due to start next week) back in late november/early december. Handed my notice in start of the month, so I'm a bit worried about that now.

Tzardine

Tough call.

But there is nothing to guarantee that your current job will still be there in 6 months either.

Personally, if the money is that much better in the new job then I would take it and save what you can in case you end up unemployed down the road for a bit.

skallywag

Tzardine wrote: »

But there is nothing to guarantee that your current job will still be there in 6 months either

This is a very valid point to be fair.

I guess it comes down to trying to make a call on which position may be the more secure, though this is if course very difficult, as most of us will not be privy to such mid to long term strategies in any case.

Sheep Shagger

skallywag wrote: »

This is a very valid point to be fair.

I guess it comes down to trying to make a call on which position may be the more secure, though this is if course very difficult, as most of us will not be privy to such mid to long term strategies in any case.

Just be careful if you are leaving a job with statutory entitlements should they lay you off.

If you get the push during a probation period you get nothing.

Mc Love

Mc Love wrote: »

I applied for the job I'm moving to next week (due to start next week) back in late november/early december. Handed my notice in start of the month, so I'm a bit worried about that now.

Just received notice that they are going ahead with it thankfully. On-boarding will be interesting:D

OP I am in basically the exact same position. Work for tech company, accepted job offer before all the craziness started, I'm going for it anyway. It feels like a risk and I'm anxious enough about it, but I know some people working for my new employer and they seem to have been very employee focused through this whole thing.

skallywag

Cataleya Uninterested Sawmill wrote: »

It feels like a risk and I'm anxious enough about it, but I know some people working for my new employer and they seem to have been very employee focused through this whole thing.

True, some employers have been excellent in the current crisis, I would count my own in that bracket. That said, things will eventually have to give at some point. We were told this afternoon not to worry about our jobs, that the company was in very good health, and that we had at least three months cash before we would even have to enter the 'emergency reserve', which was a very encouraging message. This is a large company, ca 20K worldwide.

That said though, our sales will take a massive hammering during this period, and if things still have not picked up in say six months, then we know that we are going to feel the pain.

I think that if you have already made a decision to leave though, and are due to start soon with the new gig, then it would not deter me all that much. You tend to be emotionally gone anyway at that point.

skallywag

skallywag wrote: »

True, some employers have been excellent in the current crisis, I would count my own in that bracket. That said, things will eventually have to give at some point. We were told this afternoon not to worry about our jobs, that the company was in very good health, and that we had at least three months cash before we would even have to enter the 'emergency reserve', which was a very encouraging message. This is a large company, ca 20K worldwide.

That said though, our sales will take a massive hammering during this period, and if things still have not picked up in say six months, then we know that we are going to feel the pain.

I think that if you have already made a decision to leave though, and are due to start soon with the new gig, then it would not deter me all that much. You tend to be emotionally gone anyway at that point.

Yeah if things go on indefinitely then cuts will have to be made and people on probation who they can get rid of without any real consequence would be easy targets.

We've been told we'll be doing a virtual on-boarding anyway so it seems everything is proceeding.

And I think your last point is correct. I am totally checked out of my own role, I was also applying for an internal position but the external offer came first and I was not going to take the risk of not getting the internal role.

Mc Love

Will be doing a virtual on-boarding too and have been told I wont be physically in the office until 13th April at the earliest.
I've been checked out of my role for a long time too.

GreeBo

Tzardine wrote: »

Tough call.

But there is nothing to guarantee that your current job will still be there in 6 months either.

Personally, if the money is that much better in the new job then I would take it and save what you can in case you end up unemployed down the road for a bit.

OP how much redundancy do you have built up in your current role?
Thats basically what you are risking by the move.

also, the new place doesnt need to wait 6 months, usually when on probation either side can end it with 7 days notice.

johnnykilo

GreeBo wrote: »

OP how much redundancy do you have built up in your current role?
Thats basically what you are risking by the move.

also, the new place doesnt need to wait 6 months, usually when on probation either side can end it with 7 days notice.

Thanks for that, they're two very good points I hadn't even considered to be honest!

Regarding redundancy I'd have about 7 years, as stated in my OP, I am as sure as I can be that my current role would still be there no matter what happens. Without going into too much detail it's as part of a project of national importance so unless things decline to Mad Max levels my role should still be there.

That said the new role is related to Tech in the country as a whole, so it should be relatively stable unless the bottom falls out of the Tech industry in Ireland. Lets hope not!

Food for thought anyway, thanks for your input!

GreeBo

I think the "single with no dependents or mortgage" would swing it for me.

Best of luck in the new role (in your boxers on the couch like the rest of us in IT :P)

beauf

GreeBo wrote: »

I think the "single with no dependents or mortgage" would swing it for me.

Best of luck in the new role ...

Same here. This is the time to take risks and opportunities if they don't work out then the only person it effects is you.

How can people be so sure IT industry will not be affected?

I know it's dependent on the specific market your business is in, but I would
have expected a major row back on projects to just BAU.

Every business, except medical and food will feel this recession.

And if you're involved in the US market, take a look at the jump in Unemployment there in a week. Those folk are not going to be rushing out to buy your IOT or SAAS product.

skallywag

salonfire wrote: »

How can people be so sure IT industry will not be affected?

It will most definitely be effected, there is no doubt about that.

It will not feel the pain immediately such as retail, hospitality etc. but once the recession kicks in it will be effected just the same as most other industries. I am 100% certain of that.

dia squish

I have just been offered a new job in the pharmaceutical industry. It’s not a considerable change in salary but it is a move to a better company than the one I’m in now. I’m very torn, don’t want to let the opportunity pass me by but I’m worried about taking a risk at this time...

skallywag

I would be asking myself how long am I with my current company, and how likely am I to be retained if costs need to be cut and people are being let go.

romek95

I have a very similar problem - therefore applied for job and finally got the offer at the beginning of March. Giving almost 2 months notice in my place now the bad things started to happen due to COVID19.

But my question is a bit different - having signed a contract of employment and either:
a) having the offer withdrawn allow me to apply for the 350 EUR benefit due to COVID19?

b) being laid off during the probationary 6 months allows me to use the benefit of 350 EUR?

Very tricky situation where I found myself in, where my current employer just shut down for 3 weeks (we work from home at a reduced wage) - my notice end at the end of April.

blacklilly

Hi OP,

I'm also in the same position. Handed my notice to my current employer just before Covid-19 started making its mark. Due to start with new employer in May.

Was in contact with the new employer last week and all seems to be tracking along at this stage.

The new job is one which there was a lot of competition for and a significant salary increase and in my view was an opportunity I couldn't ignore. In addition, I have been feeling very undervalued and unhappy with my current job for some time.

I have some concerns of course, I mean it's precarious moving jobs at this time but the way I'm trying to view it is that no job is very secure at the moment and in my view it's a risk worth taking.

I know I would kick myself if I stayed put and was let go in a few weeks from now as opposed to taking the chance on the new job.

Mc Love

No risk, no reward

OMM 0000

johnnykilo wrote: »

The new job is a couple of levels higher than my current position and the money is substantially better.

johnnykilo wrote: »

I am single and don't have any dependents or a mortgage or anything else that might come into the equation.

Take the role. It is absolutely worth the risk.

Mc Love

4th day of my new job and its been fine so far, occupying myself with all the usual induction training and a bit of shadowing (virtually). Hope we can get to the office soon though as long as its safe to do so, will be easier to learn.

Boardie2020

romek95 wrote: »

Very tricky situation where I found myself in, where my current employer just shut down for 3 weeks (we work from home at a reduced wage) - my notice end at the end of April.

Why is your wage reduced working from home?

skallywag

Boardie2020 wrote: »

Why is your wage reduced working from home?

I am guessing it means that they have moved to short-time working.

Cona

In a similar but less pressing situation. Am currently interviewing for a role which is offering a significantly more money. Was kind of hoping to use it as some ammunition to get a counter-offer from my current employer. Would I be crazy to risk asking for a counter-offer now?

Just to add, had this been 3 months ago, the chance of a counter-offer would be very very high as I know of a number of other people who done this.

beauf

That's impossible to answer in the current environment. We won't know for 3-4 months how things are going to sort themselves out.

krissovo

Tech are recruiting quite heavily at the moment, anything cloud based or products / services that helps working from home will be looking to expand to take advantage of business continuity. My company are looking at an extra 5000 staff globally right now as part of our portfolio includes end user work from anywhere on any platform infrastructure.

Would I move now? Given the right customer base like banks, pharma, retail, engineering etc I would absolutely move.

skallywag

I work in tech myself, and there is definitely a buzz going around that it will be pretty much immune to any upcoming crisis. That is just absolute nonsense, and anyone who has been in the industry long enough will have heard the same point being mooted during previous crisis periods. It will definitely take a wallop, albeit not right now, it will take a bit more time to kick in. Sure, there is a huge surge in people working from home, and the services associated with that, but when the serious job losses start to kick in then that number will of course also slide.

I think the smartest thing to do in the current climate is to just take basic stock of before and after. If the company you are moving to is in more or less the same ball park in terms of resistance to severe financial stress, then it really does not make a difference, and there is no reason not to move. On the other hand, if you had a situation where your current company is privately held and has very deep pockets in terms of cash at hand and cash in reserve, and the other company was owned by shareholders and has been showing questionable or borderline profitability before we got into this, then I would question it.

OMM 0000

skallywag wrote: »

I work in tech myself, and there is definitely a buzz going around that it will be pretty much immune to any upcoming crisis.

I'm CEO of a tech company and our sales have dried up.

I'm sure most tech companies are similar.

No sales means layoffs.

Most jobs are at great risk, except for things like nursing, delivering pizzas, etc.

machaseh

I am in a similar situation to you, except I haven't gotten an offer for the new role yet I am just invited to second interview.

I am currently not only doubting whether I will accept their offer should they offer me the role, I am doubting whether I should go to the (video) interview in the first place or cancel beforehand. Preparation for this interview is more substantial than for many other roles.

So I started a new job last week. It's been a strange on-boarding experience but I'm lucky in that it's a company where 1. they were set up to WFH already and most staff can do their job from home and 2. they seem to be very employee focused. I know of other people I worked with in my old company who were also talking to my new company and have decided to stay put for now due to the uncertainty. I had a couple of very anxious weeks wondering what was going to happen but it seems all good for me. I think I'm lucky enough with the company I have moved to though.

Mc Love

I'm the same in regard to the last two sentences, congrats IO

machaseh

Cataleya Uninterested Sawmill wrote: »

So I started a new job last week. It's been a strange on-boarding experience but I'm lucky in that it's a company where 1. they were set up to WFH already and most staff can do their job from home and 2. they seem to be very employee focused. I know of other people I worked with in my old company who were also talking to my new company and have decided to stay put for now due to the uncertainty. I had a couple of very anxious weeks wondering what was going to happen but it seems all good for me. I think I'm lucky enough with the company I have moved to though.

Good to hear. I am probably going to get an offer from a company but I am still quite anxious to make the move in this time honestly.

My fear is being booted out during the probation period and then having no other options to work elsewhere due to hire freezes in many companies.

skallywag

machaseh wrote: »

Good to hear. I am probably going to get an offer from a company but I am still quite anxious to make the move in this time honestly.

Well if the company are still making offers at the moment then it is a sign that they are in very good shape.

Many already have hire freezes in place.