OT: Job-Related - Giving Notice with a "pending" offer
 

NOTE: This is not about me, but my wife.

She's gotten a job offer from a relatively big company who require a background check and drug test before the "official" job offer. In the meantime they give her an offer which says basically Job Offer for Position X, at salary Y, etc... contingent on a successful passing of drug test & background check.

The company says the two checks can take up to 10 business days, but she'd really like to give notice now. Also, neither of these checks will be any problem for her, so barring some sort of glitch, she'll pass both.

Based on this, should she give notice now? Or wait until it's all 100% official?

You're married?! Who would want a pinko commie bastard as a husband? ;)

I'd wait. While the chance of something bad happening is tiny, it is still there and it's important to cover the behind.

Definitely wait.

If she wants to give them two weeks, and doesn't want to wait 24+ days to start, then yes. It is a risk, though. That is the situation I'm in. I went ahead and gave notice, and the background check and drug test went fine. But now I'm just waiting for administrative junk to get done before I start. So, I've got a couple of unpaid days off now waiting. The gut-wrencher is that now they have suddenly said it may be next week before I start because someone in HR went on vacation. Grrrrr...

Does she have an offer in writing? In the past, I've always given notice once I have an offer in writing. In my industry, background checks are usually done before the offer letter but the drug test after.

As someone who has done hiring for a company that requires background tests and drug tests...

I would STRONGLY suggest that she not give notice at her current job.

Not for us. We give offers before BC/Drug Tests.

I would definitely wait. Anything could happen and I couldn't imagine a much crappier situation than quitting on job and having the new one fall out from under you.

I've seen it happen WAY too many times, this is why I say don't give notice.

Why, another pinko commie bastard, of course! ;)


Back on-topic: thanks for all the replies, folks. It's good food for thought.

I knew it! You guys just make up the results of those tests, don't you?

Definitely wait unless you can get by without her working.

I've seen things go wrong with the drug testing, background check, even on individuals that thought they were squeaky clean (mostly on the background check that they get hurt.) I'd say wait until it is a sure thing.

Haha.. it's usually the Background Check, not the Drug Test... The ones that fail the drug tests, well, they should have known better..

Depending on the company, the Background Check can reject you when you don't expect it - for us it's often due to poor credit, which doesn't even have to be THAT poor to get turned away.

Hrm - we just checked our individual credits, and we both have excellent credit - in the upper 700s. Also, if she fails the drug test, it will only be because of a mistake made by the agency administering the tests.

The company in question, however, is a major insurance agency. I guess the question here is how paranoid should we be?

...and immediately after sending this I got the call. Sign final paperwork tomorrow and start Thursday or Friday. Yeah!

I don't care how squeaky clean you guys think you are, there is no benefit to you as individuals to her giving notice now.

Many of us feel "guilt" when leaving a compnay. You can't do that in situations like this. She needs to be 100% sure she has this job before she takes another one, there's just no logical reason to take the risk no matter how sure you are of everyting going through.

If that were the case, I'd probably wait for the background check.

In my last two jobs, I didn't take a drug test until I had been working for quite a while (my current job it was about 9 months after I had been working here).

Well, you have to keep in mind that you also have to get an Interim Secret Clearance first for us also... So it's Drug Test, Company BC, and Interim DoD Secret Level Security Clearance...

I actually had to get DoD Security Clearance as well, which was why they did the background check before they sent me the offer letter.

But no Super Secret Security Clearance?

I'd be all right then.

I see... ;)...

Well, anyway, I can see both ways... some people might not want to go through the Drug Test, DoD paperwork, etc. without an offer letter first...

*shrug*

Actually, I think some companies wait to do that paperwork because they don't want to go through the expense if they have no interest in actually hiring you. I've seen companies do it both ways, and had one tell me directly (actually the one I was just hired by) that they don't spend the money unless they believe you would be a good fit.

Congrats on the new job Grantdawg. :)

Well, we don't just go and do it for every Joe Shmoe. But yes, this is a good point. Why spend the money when someone hasn't even signed an offer letter?

Threadjack warning...


Thanks. I'm psyched. Working 80 hours a week was killing me. This job is perfect for me (40 hours a week, plus if I want to make a little extra. Company vehicle. No nights. No weekend unless a volunteer. Rapidly expanding company with plenty of upward mobility.) I've been dancing on the clouds since last week.

They've told her they can expedite the background check & drug test to a 5-day turnaround, so she's going to wait until then to give notice. Better safe than sorry. Thanks again to all for your good advice.