I recently got a job offer from Rakuten and the offer expires on the 28th. I had some questions regarding relocation and start date that I asked during the meeting to discuss the offer last week.
The main problem is that on the contract it says the start date is on the 1st of April, but considering I need to give 1 month notice to my current company, time for quarantine and time to sort stuff out, it is not possible to start by then (I have a Japanese citizenship so no issues with visas).
During the meeting they seemed like the start date could be flexible but they said they would get back to me.
I’ve emailed the person of contact twice since the meeting to see if I can get a confirmation on delaying the start date but I haven’t gotten a response yet.
What should my next move be? Should I just sign the contract before the deadline and if they can’t move the start date, I just renege. Or should I just keep emailing them.
Thanks!
4 comments
Keep emailing them. Don’t sign the contract because breaking it later can be a pain.
The start date is pretty much set for big companies like rakuten. And if you’re an April new grad hire, then 300+ colleagues are starting with you on the same day. Unfortunately, I don’t think they’ll be making an acception for 1 person staring late since the orientation and the new grad training is organized and massive. If you’re a mid-career hire, then things might be different.
If you are a mid-career hire, then I would consider this to be true:
> During the meeting they seemed like the start date could be flexible but they said they would get back to me.
Once a company has decided to hire you, it’s unlikely that they will cancel the offer just because you want to negotiate your start date. Changing the start date is the least costly thing you could possibly ask for, and they would probably just be happy you aren’t trying to push for anything else.
As the other commenter said, keep emailing them. If you want, tell them you feel positive about the contents of the offer but that the start date needs to be adjusted in order to accommodate the schedule of moving internationally.
If you are absolutely desperate for a job and and have exactly zero other options you could sign, but personally I wouldn’t do it. If you are talking to someone from their recruiting department, your contact’s literal job is to discuss such things with you. “Silence” is not an answer. At the very least they would just say “no”, but I would be very surprised if that happened.
The job market is such that companies cannot really afford to spontaneously reject candidates that negotiate their start date before signing the offer. Rakuten hires people all year long. For mid-career they have many, many other “official start dates” that you could choose from in 2022.
If you are a new graduate, the start date may be more “fixed in place”. However, April is around one month away and this is really late for new graduate hiring. Are you mid-career or new graduate?
I agree that you should wait to sign until you hear back from them if you can’t start on April 1. They should send you a revised contract. Chances are that they are discussing the start date internally at the company. If you are being hired directly through the company and not through a recruiter then they might have to consider company training and department training. If you’re being hired directly to a large company they can do company training. Usually these are scheduled to include a group of people that all start at the same time. Additionally they might need to ensure they have resources available for department training too. Please keep in mind that golden week is in early May.
If this is through a recruiter for a contract position then there is more flexibility in the start date and there might be more negotiating going on.
It’s highly unlikely they will pull back on the offer at this point. You’ve already been approved to hire, so for them to go back to the drawing board and start the process over again will take them just as long trying to find someone else to hire than just waiting for you to be available. Also it’s quite normal for people to have to give a 1 month notice, so this should be understandable. When my husband had gotten a job offer in Japan they wanted him to start on a certain, but his old company gave him a hard time about his end date. It took a while for him to get confirmation that he could start later.
IF for some bizarre reason they pull back on the offer then take it as a sign that it wasn’t meant to be and probably for the best. If any manager would do that sort thing, it’s a bad sign as to the manager they are or the situation they are in.