Money Matters
Money Matters
Decoding Job Offers: Navigating Salaries, Benefits, and Fit
Unlock the secrets to making the right career move with our latest Money Matters episode! Dive into a wealth of knowledge as we chat with Yolanda Whitmore, VP of Human Resources at Neighbors, who brings decades of HR expertise to our discussion. Discover the top three factors to consider when evaluating job offers: aligning company values with your own, exploring benefits beyond just health and dental, and ensuring your new role supports a healthy work-life balance. This episode is packed with actionable insights for anyone navigating the job market.
Gain the tools you need to master salary negotiations and understand the full spectrum of benefits that come with job offers. Yolanda and I emphasize the importance of addressing salary expectations early in the interview process to save time and avoid misunderstandings. Learn about the substantial value of healthcare, vacation, and retirement plans, and how elements like bonuses, profit sharing, and equity become increasingly relevant as you commit to an organization. Whether you're eyeing a long-term career move or a temporary position, understanding these benefits can make a significant difference.
Equip yourself with the knowledge to evaluate multiple job offers effectively. Yolanda offers expert advice on negotiating salaries and benefits, identifying potential red flags, and asking the right questions during interviews. Understand the importance of cultural fit, company reputation, and growth opportunities when choosing between job offers. With practical tips from Yolanda, you'll be ready to make informed decisions about your professional future. Join us and take charge of your career path with confidence and clarity.
Have an idea for a show or a question for Kim? Send us a text message
Welcome to Money Matters, the podcast that focuses on how to use the money you have, make the money you need and save the money you want – brought to you by Neighbors Federal Credit Union.
The information, opinions, and recommendations presented in this Podcast are for general information only and any reliance on the information provided in this Podcast is done at your own risk. This Podcast should not be considered professional advice.
Welcome to Money Matters, the podcast that focuses on how to use the money you have, make the money you need and save the money you want. Now here is your host, ms Kim.
Speaker 2:Chapman, welcome to another edition of Money Matters. I'm your host, kim Chapman, and today I have a very special topic that I've been dying to discuss income versus benefits. So if you're on a job hunt, if you're thinking about changing jobs, maybe it's time for your next salary review. This is going to be an episode that you really want to listen to. We're going to talk about what's better. What do you consider more, your income or maybe the benefits? So joining me today is our very own VP of Human Resources at Neighbors, ms Yolanda Whitmore. Welcome, yolanda, thank you for having me. Oh, yes, I've been dying to do this, so I'm glad to have you on the show. So let's start the show off just by giving a little information about what does a VP of Human Resources actually do.
Speaker 1:Actually, here at Neighbors, the Vice President of Human Resources Overseas, the Human Resources Department. That does include payroll, as well as benefits and compensation, recruitment, everything that falls under the HR umbrella. I am over that. I do have two senior HR generalists, one that specializes in benefits and compensation and the other one in recruitment.
Speaker 2:All right, awesome and give us a little background about how long have you been here at Neighbors.
Speaker 1:Going on almost 18 years now in a VP position.
Speaker 2:A lot of seniority. I think we started close to the same time. I just made my 18 years. So today, of course, I pulled you in because we want to talk about income, we want to talk about benefits, because it's more than just you know, $50 an hour or $10 an hour. If you look behind the scenes, I think there's a lot of other information that someone looking for a job should consider. So my first question is what are the three top three factors you recommend candidates consider when evaluating a job offer?
Speaker 1:consider when evaluating a job offer. When you evaluate a job offer, the first thing I tell anyone is to research that organization or company because you want to make sure that it does align with your values. People need to understand that when you are looking for a new position or a new job, that you're going to spend majority of your time at that job, so you want to make sure it's something that does align with what you, your values, are. Do the research See. For instance, is their culture something that you are comfortable with? I'm just going to use us for an example. We are an organization that's very big on volunteering. I'm just going to use us for an example. We are an organization that's very big on volunteering. So therefore, if you're someone that just really are not a fan of volunteering, this will not be the organization for you. So I tell people you know that's one thing you definitely want to look at.
Speaker 1:Also, you want to look at the benefits.
Speaker 1:You want to see what type of benefits that organization is offering, not just when you say benefits of health, dental and vision and supplemental coverages.
Speaker 1:You want to look as well at the overall picture of the benefit, if this is something that actually can work for me overall, as far as in retirement, am I at an age now where I'm looking for something that I'm going to retire from, or is this just a starting point for me? So benefits may not matter at that point. So, but that's an option that you want to look at as well as work-life balance overall, is this organization or company that I'm looking for? Is it going to work within my life? Is it something that is going to have me able if I'm married, I have children? Is it something that's flexible, that's going to work with me in my life? If I'm a person that has a four or five-year-old child, working a 70-hour job may not work for me, or a job that's very stressful or very demanding, this may not be the job for me at this point in time in my life. So I'd say those three things probably you would want to look at when you're actually looking for or actually accepting a job. All right.
Speaker 2:So, yolanda, you mentioned that a potential candidate should do the research about the candidate, about the job or the potential employer in terms of benefits, but sometimes all of that information is not readily available. So when would you recommend that person ask or inquire about those specific benefits and salary? Should it be during the interview? Should they wait to see if they even get a job offer? What is the appropriate time to ask those additional questions, for information that can't be found on the internet? Good, question.
Speaker 1:Good question. First of all, let's go to you're in the interview. At that point you've applied for the position. Usually positions, when they're posted, they will have the information of a salary or a desired salary, or they may ask the question what your desired salary is. So therefore, if that information is provided, you can always assume that I made it to the next step because I'm in the interview and they're comfortable with my salary. So, whatever I put as a desired salary Now I'll take this.
Speaker 1:I explain this to my managers as well. You don't want to waste anybody's time. So therefore, if we post a position or an organization posts a position, say, this position is for $50,000, and someone puts their desired salary $75,000, don't waste that person's time because we already know hey, what we're putting down in that job posting is the salary that we're willing to offer. You know, in a salary you can always negotiate. But, however, the time that you ask that question is in that interview. Do not wait. If you sit down and the interviewee does not bring up I'm sorry, the interviewer does not bring up salary as the interviewee bring it up to that interviewer, ask that person at that time before you walk away and say, hey, I put on a desired salary of XYZ.
Speaker 1:Are y'all still comfortable with that salary that I requested? They're going to say yes or no. If it's no, it shouldn't be no, because you shouldn't be sitting there if they didn't. You know they did not, but if you did not put down a desired salary at that time, ask that question what is the salary for this position? And if they say, oh, it's $50,000, but you know that you're looking to say I'm comfortable with $60,000. You let them know, right there, be honest and say, well, at my previous position I was making you know $58,000. Right now, I'm looking to possibly make $60,000. Are y'all comfortable with that salary? They can tell you, right then and there, they may be, they may not be, but at that point you know, right then and there, if that is something you want to move forward with.
Speaker 2:And I think what would be the real question here is, with the example that you gave the salary that they offered is $50,000. I'm asking for $75,000, and then we sit at the table. But what happens then when I turn around and learn that maybe there are an additional $25,000 worth of benefits? Maybe I'm starting out with five weeks vacation I know that's kind of dreamland, but five weeks vacation. Maybe they pay for my health care, maybe they provide free short-term and long-term disability short-term and long-term disability. How would I you know if that's the case? If it's $25,000 worth of benefits which I don't think is far-fetched in a sense, because sometimes I'll even look here at neighbors my salary is X, y, z, but then I also have to acknowledge that in benefits, this is what I'm also gaining. How should, I guess, a particular candidate evaluate that situation?
Speaker 1:Well, what I would suggest as well is, when you're in that interview, ask the question about the benefits. It also falls into the situation of where you are in life. I know a lot of people, depending on where they are in life, benefits may not matter, but then, on the other hand, benefits may matter more than what the salary is. So when you're sitting down and in that interview, it's your time as well to ask questions, to get to know more about that organization. So always ask about the benefits as well if it's not provided to you at that time.
Speaker 2:How should candidates evaluate long-term value of benefits like bonuses, profit sharing and equity in terms of the company? How should we evaluate those benefits?
Speaker 1:Well, honestly this is my opinion when it comes to bonuses as well as profit sharing as well, as you know, receiving some type of shares in a company, I think that's not something you may want to consider in the beginning. That's just me personally. I think you don't see the benefit of any of that until you're within an organization roughly about three to five years. That's when you want to start focusing on that as far as, like, hey, I can see the benefit of this of me. You know, I decided that this is my career, this is where I want to grow, this is where I want to retire from. At that point, that's when you can start focusing on those things.
Speaker 1:As far as that, because a bonus, for instance, an organization can probably offer bonuses and then take that away. That's not something guaranteed in a salary, as well as those other caveats. But one thing I would say and suggest is that looking to see what they do offer as far as retirement plans, such as a 401k, things of that nature, so that kind of actually sometimes would sway you into saying, yes, this is an organization I am looking for because I want to make sure I have somewhere that actually contributes towards a retirement as well. They can offer a 401k, but are they contributing to that 401k and, if so, what percentage are they contributing?
Speaker 2:So definitely 401k. I think I mentioned vacation. What are, I guess? And from an HR perspective, what are some of those key benefits that, if you are looking to invest some time with this particular organization, maybe even look to retire? What are some of those benefits that you should really be looking for? And then would it be different if I know this is just a temporary holding spot. This is just a job to feed the family for the time being Maybe. I'm in school and I'm working on getting a degree where I know that this is not going to be my last job.
Speaker 1:Another good question, and I can give you several different scenarios as far as because it depends on where you are in life. Again, when someone is sitting across from you in an interview, you honestly don't know where they are in life. They may explain to you what their situation and circumstances are. On the other hand, they may not. So, pertaining to what your needs are at that point in time in life depends on, sometimes, the benefits I can give an example of.
Speaker 1:I'm a middle aged woman in my late 30s. I just got married. I had a successful career. Unfortunately, I was laid off. My husband I'm a newlywed so my husband he's been at his job for over 10 years. However, his job doesn't offer the best of benefits. He has a very good salary, but the benefits are not that well. So I know that I'm at the age where we're looking to start a family, and start a family quickly. So therefore, I know that I need to look for an organization or a company that possibly will assist me, that may offer fertility benefits, will assist me, that may offer fertility benefits. That will probably be more of a game changer for me than a salary would be.
Speaker 1:If I'm someone that is actually 21 and just graduated college. Hey, I'm excited, I'm ready for somebody to pay me for these four years. I just did so. At that point I may not be looking for the benefit piece, I'm looking for the salary piece of it. So who's going to pay me the most? Because at this point in my mind, I'm not worried about benefits because I'm only 21. You know, my parents are not about to retire. For the next 10 to 12 years I'm going to be on their benefits until I'm 26 years of age. So therefore I'm not worried about the benefits or what benefits this company is offering in all honesty. So that's more the mindset of some of the younger kids that are actually coming out of college that do have the benefit to be on their parents' coverages. Or then I can be someone that is dealing with health issues or a health situation where I'm considered morbidly obese and I have tried everything and I keep getting denied for any type of surgeries or procedures.
Speaker 1:In an organization that I was working for, they do not offer anything as far as saying, hey, you know they have any type of weight loss solutions or anything that will support that as far as even with weight loss surgery. So a benefit I see with this organization is that they do show that they have where they actually may cover 90 to 100% of weight loss procedures. So I may say, hey, this is more of a benefit for me than what the salary actually is. So sometimes it depends what those benefits can be.
Speaker 1:Even we can look outside of those things and say a benefit can be as far as working from home, a flexible work schedule, things like that, because you can look at when you work downtown even in here in Baton Rouge I worked downtown years ago. One of the benefits was that I had covered parking. And when I tell you that's a life changer when it's 100 and some degree weather and you have to understand as well, downtown sometimes those people have to pay for parking. So having free parking is even considered a benefit. So you know you have to look at your benefits and what you're looking for in the moment. That's what I say.
Speaker 2:So, talking about benefits and I know that you mentioned earlier things like bonuses maybe that's a benefit that maybe you shouldn't necessarily consider, because bonus may come and bonuses may go Are there any benefits specifically that are less likely to change in terms of a job, the ones that would kind of be key? For example, I would imagine if somebody took a job because their company matches 401k contributions at 3% 4%, is that something that's likely to go away versus covered parking? They may say, okay, you get a hundred dollar allowance for covered parking and I can understand that being something that go away. But are there defined benefits, kind of a play on HR words that they should look at that would have long-term benefits versus something that may be here today or gone tomorrow?
Speaker 1:The only thing that you can possibly guarantee is your health benefit, retirement plans. They can always be frozen depending on what is going on within that organization. That is not a guarantee. That is not something that is etched in stone to say, hey, that is something that will always be there for you. So it's always good to do that type of research when you can find out or verify certain things, when you can ask in an interview Some people want to know what is the financial stability of an organization, and some ways to find that out is to ask those questions.
Speaker 1:As far as, hey, has there been a layoff within the past couple of years? If so, can you explain the reason why? Have you seen an increase in your organization as far as with salaries and bonuses over the past several years? Have you given raises over the past several years? Things like that you can ask, so you can kind of know a little bit about our organization's financial stability.
Speaker 1:But as far as to say, if anything is etched in stone to say, hey, this is something that will be guaranteed to stay, the only thing would possibly be, of course, would be medical because of the sizing of an organization. So if you're with a small one it depends. They can also have outside resources for that. But within a medical piece that can actually change as well, where an organization at one point can cover 100% of an employee's benefit packet and then, depending on the price of insurance, the premiums, you may see at that point where your organization says, hey, we're only covering 90 percent at this time, or 80 percent, so those things can change. There's not anything that we can truly guarantee in benefits.
Speaker 2:Ideally, it makes sense that a salary during an interview might be negotiable in terms of OK, you know, let's meet in the middle. What about benefits? If you're offering me three weeks, or if you're offering to pay 3% toward 401k? Are benefits typically something that's negotiable in an interview?
Speaker 1:As far as like health, dental and vision, that's not negotiable as far as I can, you know, because that's something that you know. Hey, I got to go out and be it for that every year, so, no, that's not negotiable. But as far as like, hey, you know, I was actually looking for this salary. However, I see y'all offer one week of vacation. What is it if I can say, hey, can I get two weeks of vacation or whatever? Those are things that you can possibly negotiate. I don't see. I tell people in all honesty, you can actually ask for everything under the sun you want. You know all you can get is a yes or a no. But you know, be reasonable in certain things, you know. So you can always say I see that. Y'all state that you know in the first. I'm just going to give an example Within the first six months, y'all offer 40 hours of vacation.
Speaker 1:Is it possible? I can get that 40 hours of vacation up front versus getting them at six months. That's a negotiation and that's something that some organizations are willing to work with. However, they say you know, are you? You're like, hey, I have a vacation that's coming up, you know, within the before I receive vacation time. Is it possible that I can get that time to use for this vacation? Those are some type, some negotiation tools that you can have. Or even in the aspect of hours, if a company or organization has flexible hours or what have you and say our organization has flexible hours, or what have you and say, ok, we're open from 6 am to 6 pm, you know, and you can ask the question. They say, ok, this, this job, is from nine to five. And you can say, well, hey, is it possible that I can work from seven to three? You know, because I have to pick my child up. Is that still something that is possible for this position? That's negotiating.
Speaker 2:And I won't harp on this particular question too long, but I do want you to give a little feedback in terms of what should a candidate consider if they have the option between hourly or salary?
Speaker 1:Honestly, that's not an option usually given. A reason being is because under FLSA guidelines, a job is based on the duties. That makes it an hourly or salary position, not a title. So that's not something that a person can come in and say hey, I want this position to be hourly versus salary or vice versa.
Speaker 2:Do you see any benefits one over the other?
Speaker 1:Honestly, no, no, I really don't. I know some people feel more value in saying, oh well, I'm an example of a position or what have you, or oh, I'm in a salary position that makes me more of a professional. That's not always the case. Some people prefer to be early because that gives them a benefit of actually receiving overtime. You know, it depends on what that job is. In all honesty, and I always give the example of I can, I can label a name, I can give a title to anything. In all honesty, I it's called the CEO of OOO or what have you. But if my duties are to actually file papers, to answer the phones, you know when the doorbell rings, go, greet the go, greet the members or customers, that's not a salary position. That is actually based in under FLSA guidelines as an hourly position. So that's why I always inform people don't get hooked up on titles all the time. It's actually the duties that are listed underneath that job title in that job description. What base is it on if it's an hourly or salary position?
Speaker 2:All right. Are there any particular questions, like the top two or three questions that, regardless of what position you're applying for, that every candidate should make sure they walk out of an interview having this particular information.
Speaker 1:Number one is what's the salary? You want to know what the salary is for that position, and the reason why is because if it's not what you're looking for, don't waste that employer's time or your time on that. But honestly, you should know that information prior to the interview. But if you have not, make sure you know the salary as well as the benefits, you want to know about the benefits, what type of benefit offers? If they don't have that information, ask who can you reach out to within the organization to go over benefits, because keep in mind that salary at that point that, like you said, when it combines with the benefits, may be more of a salary that you're looking for than what you thought. So I always say always look at both of them together. So you always want to know about the salaries and the benefits of that organization. And also, what a lot of people don't ask and I ask and this is going to be more than three I'm going to say, because this is part of benefits is ask when the benefits start, because one of the things is, some people need to know how soon those benefits will begin. And I'm just going to plug this for us, because one of the pluses for us is our benefits for full-time employees begin on day one, and that's rare for a lot of organizations and companies. So that's always a selling point for us. Our benefits do begin on day one, whereas a lot of companies would be 60, 45, 90 days. It just depends. So, therefore, that's why I always say know the benefits. Therefore, that's why I always say know the benefits, but know when those benefits would begin for you with that company.
Speaker 1:Also, you want to know as well as when will you know a response of a positive or negative in this interview? Will you move to the next phase? Or you know, hey, when we find out if this position is filled. You need to know that because you don't want to be waiting on pins and needles. And they, you know a month. They say, oh well, we'll know in three, you'll know in three weeks. We're still interviewing blah, blah, blah. Or, hey, I know, we'll know by the end of this week. So you know by Friday if it's Monday, and by the end of the week is Friday. If you haven't heard from them by Friday, reach back out on Monday or what have you.
Speaker 1:And one thing I always say as well if you forget to ask any questions, or any of those top three questions that I just stated, or a question that comes to mind, reach out to them during that time frame. Do not wait until someone makes an offer to start asking 15 million questions to them at that point, especially when they stated to you on Monday hey, we'll have a decision by Friday. If you thought about those questions, reach out, call, send an email and say, hey, this is something I forgot to ask you. Can you please provide me with that information? So that's why I always tell people don't be afraid to have a communication with that person. That can be your potential hire.
Speaker 1:And also one thing I wanna say as well is I'm a big person on people's time. Don't of wasting of time. Let me put it like that. When I know some people always are they hear this about Google or on social media like, oh you know, if somebody makes you an offer, don't, don't just say yes, just just wait, just just wait, hold out a couple of days.
Speaker 2:You know desperate.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, yes, don't seem desperate. Just hold out a couple of days, because you know they may offer you more money, especially if they need you, you know whatever, don't waste your time and don't take chances like that. And the reason why I say that is because you may not have been the only candidate that person interviewed and you may have been the number one choice, but you don't know how close the number two choice was to you. And I'm just going to give an example as far as, like, somebody calls to make you an offer on that Friday and they spoke to you that Monday, by that time you should have known if you were willing to accept that, if you were going to accept that job offer or not. Now understand, if you had an interview that Friday morning and they call you three hours later and make you the offer, you haven't had a time to review anything at that point. So I understand when you would say okay, can you give me until Monday to actually let you know what I decide, because at that point you're just getting the benefit packet that you possibly asked for. So you had a chance to review all of that information. But if you had several days, you should know by that point if you're going to say yes or no on that Friday.
Speaker 1:So if you're going to say, oh well, give me about 72 hours, can you give me another week, or whatever, I'm just going to be honest. Me personally, I'm going to go to the number two candidate, because the number two candidate probably only had a smidgen of something probably different that made you the number one candidate. For instance, if, oh, number one was just as great as well as number two candidate, was just as great as well as number two candidate, the only difference was is that number one possibly had three months more of management experience, for instance, but this person was just as good, and that's the only thing that deciphered them was we can say they had more management experience. But at that point I'm like I can't wait, because at this point I'm trying to fill this position and if I wait another week that's putting me back, you know. So therefore, I could say, right, then you know, no problem, I'll rescind my offer and I'm going to call candidate number two. So that's why I say sometimes you don't want to play those games.
Speaker 2:Okay. Are there questions that a candidate shouldn't ask about salary? I have a 19 and 24 year old and of course you know they're at that age where they change jobs like they change underwear, and they'll come home and I'll have a hundred questions, I you know. When do you start? How often do you get paid? When do you get paid? And I get blank stares as though you like they were afraid to ask those questions. So are there questions that may seem inappropriate, or maybe it seems like your only focus is the money and at 19 and 24, that is their only focus. But yet they come home without this information and they're just going to wait to see when the direct deposit hits their account and say, mama, I got paid today.
Speaker 1:No, in all honesty, keep in mind, it's just not the young kids we honestly know, especially during new hire orientation, when we actually go through the process of explaining to them hey, when is your, when your first deposit is going to hit, when we fill out this information during benefits orientation, all of those things. So we notice a lot of people don't ask that question. So they just know hey, this is my salary. They don't know if they're going to be biweekly, annually, once a month, twice a month, first 15. They really don't know. Is it a question that a lot of people miss? Yes, it is so is it a question?
Speaker 1:that you want to ask. You definitely want to, because you want to know hey, when am I going to get my first paycheck, or how often does this happen, you know? Is this once a month? Because at that point I need to know. If I worked at a previous job and I was used to getting paid every other week and now I'm only getting paid once a month, I'm going to have to learn how to rebudget.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, and that's my favorite word right there Budget, budget, budget, budget. And that's why it just kind of floors me that you see candidates that will have a job and they come back with little information and it's almost like they're afraid to ask questions. That's why I was curious, you know, what are those questions that they shouldn't ask? Is there any?
Speaker 1:There's not a such thing to me as don't ask, especially in an interview. That's your opportunity to ask those questions. And, to be honest, from me personally sitting in interviews, I'm intrigued more so by the people that do ask questions. To ask, you know, because I feel honestly they're more. They're more serious about a job and a career because they've done the research. They're asking the questions To me. They're more serious about this search. They want to know any and everything as much as possible. And they're genuine questions because you know you can always get those same run of the list questions that they tell you on Google.
Speaker 1:Make sure you ask these questions from somebody listening to a TikTok video. You know, anytime you're going to interview and it's funny because you can see those questions asked but you can tell they're not genuine. You can barely like they're asking the questions but they're not even listening to your answer per se. You know they can say, oh okay, so what benefits do you offer? And you know we give them the information and they're like, oh OK, but you didn't see them write down anything. And then it's like, oh well, you know they'll ask the next question, but you know they've gotten the information because that's what they said these are the questions that you need to ask in an interview, but if you're not genuinely asking those questions, it's not questions that you really don't want the answer to don't ask them.
Speaker 2:I guess, before we wrap it up, any final tips again for any of those listeners out there. They're out there in a job hunt. Maybe they have a job and they're just looking for something different. And they're looking at, you know, I've got this position being offered to me, this position being offered to me. You know, the salaries may be the same, maybe the benefits are different. Any last tips, last pieces of advice for them to consider.
Speaker 1:Well, number one, it's a blessing to have two offers on the table right now, so good for you. But one thing I would you know. A good takeaway would be look at everything, the overall pictures, like you said. If they're apples to apples, there's something that's going to make a difference, whether it be what works with your life. Is this an organization that's been around for a long period of time? Is this organizational reputable? Is this organization showing growth within a company? Are they actually growing or is this company? Have they had layoffs in the past year or two, or is this company had any layoffs? Does it show when you look online on social media that the company is engaged or their employees are engaged? Are their employees posting positive information about them, or is this company not? Doesn't have any type of footprint in social media? Does this organization actually give to the community?
Speaker 1:If that's something you value, it's a lot of different things that would actually weigh out one versus the other, but it depends on what you're looking for at that moment in time and sometimes I tell people as well is that does it fit your culture? Does their culture fit your lifestyle? And I say, for instance, that you may have an organization that is like you said, apples to apples. But then when it comes to, oh, I'm more of a casual person, but this company is, they're okay with casual. They wear khakis, they wear polo fit shirts, you know, we're fine with it.
Speaker 1:But this company, yep, whereas you have this company right here that only like you can only wear suit and tights and as well as you have to wear pantyhose, ladies, you know okay. Or this company only wants hair, you know, a natural hair color, that's all you can wear, whereas I'm more of a company. You know, I'm more of a free, flowing person where I, you know, I like to express myself and how I express myself is with hair color, and they're okay with it. So at that point, those things sometimes will decide what would be the best fit for me. When you have two organizations that are actually apples to apples, that would then break down what is different is what works best for you and what fits more with you and your lifestyle.
Speaker 2:That makes me think of another question Is it appropriate during an interview to ask for a company handbook before making a decision?
Speaker 1:Why would it be? A lot of people have their company handbooks posted on their internet. Some companies do and where you can ask for that, it should not be a problem at all, because you want to review what their policies are up front. You can actually know about their attendance policies, their occurrences, things like that. If they do offer those, do they offer performance reviews? Do they actually have annual raises? Or how do they look at their vacation time, their holidays? All of those things would be posted in their handbooks.
Speaker 2:And I know the focus of this has been more of what the interviewee should or shouldn't ask. Are there red flags if I'm the person being interviewed? Are there red flags, for example, if I'm singing an interview and I ask you for the handbook and you were a little hesitant about providing that information? Are there red flags that I should be looking for, that maybe this is not the company for me because they're not willing to answer certain questions.
Speaker 1:I won't honestly say that, because sometimes the person that may be interviewing you may not be an HR person, it may be a manager that actually may not know the answer at that point in time. They may have to speak to someone else to give you that information. So sometimes a person may an interviewee, may ask an interviewer a question that may take them off guard and they may not know the answer to it you know at that point in time. So I won't say just don't automatically assume. Oh well, you know something may be shady about that. It may just be the fact that that person may not know that information up front, you know.
Speaker 2:so I'll put you on the spot. Has there ever been a question that has kind of thrown you off, you know, because you just didn't expect that question. It was very unusual, something no one's ever asked before, that you either couldn't answer or just weren't prepared, just didn't expect it.
Speaker 1:I'm not to think on that one. I really don't know and, to be honest, the reason why is because I haven't interviewed in a while, so so I can. Honestly, I may not have an answer for that one right now.
Speaker 2:Well, there's that stump, question then.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's honestly a stump question. You know, honestly, I just haven't had opportunity to interview in a while. So I do listen to them but I just me personally to interview. I haven't had, you know, I haven't had a chance to so.
Speaker 2:Okay, well, on that note, I think we will wrap it up. Yolanda, Thank you so much for joining me. Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 1:This was fun To talk about this subject.
Speaker 2:I'm sure it is helpful to a lot of individuals out there on a hunt trying to figure out what's the best offer. Hopefully they are getting multiple offers it is not just that one offer out there but hopefully this will help them decipher what's going to be the best course for them. So thank you for joining us.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much for having me.
