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[anon_expat]

What is the common period of time between getting a job offer and having to make a decision?  I thought it was common to receive the offer, negotiate the important bits (salary, research funds, etc), and then either make a decision or give the current employer a chance to respond to it.  Is this the case in the UK? Or would one actually be expected to make a decision and give notice in the same day?

Cheers for any input.

[wegie]

What is the common period of time between getting a job offer and having to make a decision?

In the UK? About 10 seconds.

[snape]

I held them off from a Thursday evening to a Friday afternoon. Some people manage longer, but this is seen as annoying behavior.

[scotia]

The UK system is very different to the US system in this regard (see the posts on this board). Remember UK salaries are based on national salary scales, so you can try asking for a higher point on the scale (I have done this - the increments are fixed at approximately £1,000 intervals) but there is not usually much room for negotiation. Also bear in mind that until you hit the top of the scale (e.g. Lecturer B) that you are appointed to, you will get an increment each year in addition to any negotiated cost of living rise (also negotiated nationally).

There is less of a tradition (in fact virtually no tradition) of negotiating research funds, with the possible exception of lab set-up for some sciences.

I negotiated a higher salary for my current job and the whole process took about 4 days, but that was largely because of delays on the HR side (I was interviewed during the summer when people were on holiday). Some people have taken longer, but having served on appointment committees, we once moved on to our second choice candidate when the first was prevaricating for too long (four days - we needed someone in post and did not want to risk losing our second choice and having to go through the rigmarole of advertising and interviewing again).

I think the advice is, don't string the decision out too long or you may find the decision taken out of your hands, particularly in a field with several good candidates.

[cogdoc]

This is interesting. Not sure my situation applies here, but with some back-and-forth with the department (not HR) it took about a week to work out the details and the head of department gave me the impression that such negotiation was normal. I did have another position under consideration, though. Does it make a difference if the uni is RG or not? Or would each department differ? Or field perhaps?

[onelime]

In my one and only UK job search,  I got the offer within a couple hours of my final interview, and stretched the decision out to about ten days. But that was because it took three full days after the interview to get home again and start to recover, and because (I think) everyone knew this would be a transcontinental move with a family, and it would take a lot of discussion. During that time I was told that salary was completely non-negotiable (in fact, negotiating was made to seem like a crude American tactic). I did let them know what my counteroffer was, but it really was non-negotiable. Instead I asked to waive my courses fall semester since I was (and now am) teaching summer semester in the States, up until the week of the move and past the pack-out date (I am including this in a shameless ploy for sympathy). Good luck with your decision, and congratulations!