Serving the Quantitative Finance Community

 
User avatar
CommodityQuant
Topic Author
Posts: 57
Joined: July 5th, 2007, 6:16 am

Pressed to sign contract quickly

March 1st, 2017, 7:06 pm

I've been offered a quant job in the UK, and replied verbally (during a phone call) that I'd like to accept, but I haven't signed anything yet.
The company then sent me a contract and offer letter to sign and return.  The official deadline to return the signed documents is very generous and 
reasonable.  (I don't want to give the exact deadline because people might then ID me which could be embarrassing.)

However, the recruiter and HR are constantly badgering me to sign, scan and e-return immediately.  In fact, I've been asked to
send it less than a day after I received it.

I'm a bit confused by this.  The offer deadline is clear and reasonable and generous.  Yet I'm being pushed and pushed to accept well before
the official offer deadline.  Should I just ignore the barrage of emails and phone calls and act according to the official deadline?

CommodityQuant
 
User avatar
Hansi
Posts: 41
Joined: January 25th, 2010, 11:47 am

Re: Pressed to sign contract quickly

March 1st, 2017, 7:54 pm

Take the amount of time you find reasonable which is most likely less than the deadline.

My team was on the other side recently and were being pushed to hire someone quickly because of the additional workload being brought on and there were constant pushes from the higher ups to get the person on-boarded as quickly as possible after a suitable candidate was found.
 
User avatar
katastrofa
Posts: 7440
Joined: August 16th, 2007, 5:36 am
Location: Alpha Centauri

Re: Pressed to sign contract quickly

March 1st, 2017, 8:15 pm

It's obvious why the recruiter and HR rush you - it's their money/job. Regarding the company itself, they may have a second-best candidate and don't want to lose them if you resign.
 
User avatar
CommodityQuant
Topic Author
Posts: 57
Joined: July 5th, 2007, 6:16 am

Re: Pressed to sign contract quickly

March 1st, 2017, 8:20 pm

My question is whether it's reasonable to delay until the day before the deadline, on the grounds of maintaining maximum flexibility.  Hansi seems to think not as it would be inconsiderate to my employer.
 
User avatar
Alan
Posts: 2958
Joined: December 19th, 2001, 4:01 am
Location: California
Contact:

Re: Pressed to sign contract quickly

March 1st, 2017, 8:35 pm

Speaking of flexibility, presumably the company can rescind the offer at any time before you sign.
 
User avatar
outrun
Posts: 4573
Joined: January 1st, 1970, 12:00 am

Re: Pressed to sign contract quickly

March 1st, 2017, 9:37 pm

You ask strange "how tolerant do they need to be"  questions and you give the impression that you're not too happy about the offer. Why do you need time? You see it at a legal battle where you have rights you can insist on? That's not a good start and first impression. It's like telling your girlfriend you'll unwrap your Xmas presents not just now, maybe in Feb. 

I expect you create trouble for yourself and it will be a pattern you will keep up.

That said, it's probably the recruiter who want to seal his fee, you'll see the same when you want to buy a house, people will press you to sign.
 
User avatar
Paul
Posts: 6604
Joined: July 20th, 2001, 3:28 pm

Re: Pressed to sign contract quickly

March 1st, 2017, 10:13 pm

At the start of the post you said you'd accepted. At the bottom you imply you haven't accepted. This might be a language thing, but if not then you might have a morality problem.
 
User avatar
ppauper
Posts: 11729
Joined: November 15th, 2001, 1:29 pm

Re: Pressed to sign contract quickly

March 2nd, 2017, 8:16 am

I've been offered a quant job in the UK, and replied verbally (during a phone call) that I'd like to accept, but I haven't signed anything yet.
"I'd like to accept" [$]\ne[$] "I  accept" ?
 
User avatar
Paul
Posts: 6604
Joined: July 20th, 2001, 3:28 pm

Re: Pressed to sign contract quickly

March 2nd, 2017, 8:27 am

Good point. Depends on tone of voice. 
 
User avatar
DominicConnor
Posts: 41
Joined: July 14th, 2002, 3:00 am

Re: Pressed to sign contract quickly

March 12th, 2017, 5:20 pm

I don't see that you've done anything unethicval or indeed that anyone has yet done anything unethical. It is the job of the recruiter to badger you, since he knows there is probability >0 that someone will jump in and offer you more or that a more attractive job may appear. He only gets paid for you starting the job, and he can see $ that may be slipping away.

There is a signal in the noise of the non-finite sum game with HR...
You may be under-priced or over qualified for the role and HR may want to lock you in before you realise it. Obviously since I don't know you, that's a guess.

The other possiblity is that it is Resource Solutions the outsourced HR firm doing the pushing and they will want their own recruitment owner, Robert Walters to place you, because RW doewsn't want a candidate from another recruiter to get the job.

Do not assume anyone in this process is on your side, (even me ;)
 
User avatar
snufkin
Posts: 64
Joined: January 25th, 2017, 9:05 am
Location: Cambridge

Re: Pressed to sign contract quickly

April 14th, 2017, 8:28 pm

Do not assume anyone in this process is on your side, (even me ;)
I just need to quote it here. Every single time I'm promised bad things if I don't accept I walk away and — surprise — bad things go away and new options open. And the same bloody recruiters telling me that if I walk away I'll have a hard time finding a job in this market, as everybody knows everyone call back and check whether I'm looking again.
Basically, one can safely assume everyone's lying all the bloody time. One gets used to it, too.