[Jobs] Immediately or Negotiable

[Peter Donahue]

Good evening everyone,
    A common question that appears on most job applications is, "When will
you be available to start work" or some derivative of that question? If your
prospective employer is across town responding with immediately is probably
the best choice as you don't have to worry about moving across the state, or
across the country. However when you apply for work with an organization
located across the state or the country when they ask you that question your
first inclination is to say, "Immediately" knowing full well that it will
take you time to relocate to the local of that company or organization. A
question here is if you give the, "Immediately" response aren't you telling
the prospective employer that you can start work that day, tomorrow, or next
week? That's easy enough to do if you're in the same city or town as the
company or organization, but wouldn't that mislead the employer in question
if you give that response to their question, and they see that your
currently living in another part of the state, or the country? It gets even
more questionable to use that response if you need the assistance of your
state vocational rehabilitation agency to assist with relocation expenses
adding more time between when you're chosen for the position and the time
when you actually begin work. Anyone who has gotten assistance from their
current state's VR Agency knows that making arrangements for moving
assistance and for other stipends to cover other move-related expenses can,
at the least take several months for all to be processed before you can move
and begin work in the new community.

    One possible solution to getting out of this tight spot might be to
respond with, "Negotiable" when that question appears on an application. To
me it would be telling the prospective employer that you're ready to
commence employment upon relocating to the community or state in which
they're located and that you want to work out the details with them to
arrive at this date. We've been faced with that question on job applications
in the past, and have always wondered which is the best response for it when
the new job is in a community or another state than your current place of
residence. I'd love to hear feedback on how others have handled that
question.

Peter Donahue