As I posted here [link|http://z.iwethey.org/forums/render/content/show?contentid=107421|post], I recently received an offer to be installed. 3 days before that I received my first offer to be installed. A good sized company in Columbus, Georgia, a city of approx 200K people 90 miles SW of Atlanta on the Alabama border, made an offer over the phone.

I have tried to schedule the time to take my wife to see the Columbus area but have been unsuccessful. We just returned from a 3 day trip to Oklahoma City to investigate the best school systems, i.e., the suburbs, and were floored by the housing prices. People at the future potential employer believe that their cost of living is 15-20% LOWER that Austin and/or Houston. We didn't see it. What we saw were homes averaging $100 a sq. ft. and giving you less in room size and count. Ex: 3 bedroom, 2 1/2 baths, 2 (maybe 3) car garage, at 2100 sq. ft listing for $209K. Food and everything else matches what we have now, except that OK has a 7% state income tax. My wife was NOT impressed with what we saw.

The dilemma:

How to choose between the two?

- Both Columbus, GA and Oklahoma City have approximate housing costs at around $100/sq ft. Perhaps, with OK City being bigger, it might offer the better CHANCE for price appreciation or cheaper costs the more rural you go. However, the wife WILL NOT live with a place that uses well water or septic tanks. Nonnegotiable.
- OK City is over twice the size as Columbus, so it may provide for better career options if I don't like the place; more places to take tech training in the evening or on weekends. (Has a major university, OU, in a SE suburb.) Again, just speculation.
- Bigger city should provide better chance to flip house (resale value) if I don't like the company or we don't like the city. After hitting Realtor.com, both places appeared to my wife to be "old" cities without a lot of people movement like we experienced in Austin and have seen a little bit here in Houston. So selling a house in the future may be long and drawn out.
- OK City people want me to take a $5K salary paycut, while Columbus will give a $2K salary increase.
- Benefits are about the same with one caveat: OK City has a six month time limit on the relo package: either we sell the house in 6 months or I have to relocate at my own cost; Columbus does not have this. And that puts a burden of risk on me that I have no control over: the housing market and the overall economy.
- In both places I was unable to interview with the person that I would report to; however, I was able to get a telephone number for this person at OK City and talk to him Monday. Still have lots of nagging fears but don't know how to articulate them into another round of questions. In Columbus, this person has still not been decided. I did, however, talk to the director that this person will report to briefly by phone before the offer was made.
- I believe, based upon the few people that I met, is that the stress level at Columbus is lower that the shop in OK City.

My wife seems to think that she will be able to "tolerate" either place, rather than be "happy" if I choose city A or city B. I guess we now consider either place to be like a "motel" on my career road - just a quick stop and then I'm on my way to the next area.

Suggestions, comments, ideas?

* P.S. - just got off the phone with the HR person as I typed this. OK City shop wants an answer by tomorrow morning.

I forgot to consider who the parent company of the car rental company is: Ford.
Their financials aren't the greatest, but they have been improving over the past year or two, relatively speaking to their industry.

They company in Columbus does credit card authorizations and transaction processing, electronic funds transferring, and electronic fraud prevention. Business did slow down since 2000 but I'm told that it has rebounded.

but as ChrisR said after your post, no money has changed hands yet, so I not beholden to anybody just yet.

Besides, OK City knew that another offer was on the table and that the salary offered was above theirs; yet they chose to remain firm and not counter at all. On top of it, they have refused to bend on the 6 month expiration date for the relo package, offered no signing bonus or cash towards temporary living expenses, and have admitted that their annual reviews are running 2 - 3 months behind schedule. They pushed for a fast answer to their offer, not leaving me time to investigate any other options, let alone barely enough time to see their city in person.

I had to give a quick response to the OK City firm, otherwise the offer would have been pulled off the table. That would have left me with the choice of taking the job in Georgia or staying unemployed. Didn't want to risk the loss of my options, so I said yes to OK City while I check out the other place. Since my wife works, she can't just take a few days off and zoom around the country with me to check out potential cities. Again, I'm leaning towards the company in GA but towards the town of OK City (smaller versus larger).

However, my instincts have been proven wrong before, so any sense that the company in GA will be more relaxed, less stressful, etc., could be nothing more than wishful thinking. Simply put, if my wife thinks the town sucks, then I politely turn them down and go with OK City. If she says that she can tolerate it for a year or two, then we'll discuss it and reach a final decision.

quote:
They may be telling other recruits they've filled the position, retract ads, etc.

I've had firms in the past contact me, saying that their "first choice changed his or her mind and was I still interested"? They're not out any money other than what they have already spent to bring in candidates from around the country before me.

If I have to go back to them and say "I received another offer that beats yours by A, B and C", I'm pretty sure that they'll continue to act like they're in the driver's seat and give me a "take it or leave it" ultimatum and make no changes to their total package. I believe that once you take a cut in pay, you're forever playing catch-up IMHO, and I don't foresee the economy improving in the next few years so that I can make up the cut from my last salary to where they want me to start by jumping to another company. And anybody who thinks that OK City is a cheap town to live in hasn't seen what's available through realtor.com; it has homes starting at $100 - $110 per sq ft, no formal living rooms, tiny bedrooms, no basements for tornado protection, no gamerooms for the kids, etc. The houses I've built or purchased in Texas were much bigger, better trimmed out, and for way less dollars per sq ft., so I guess that I got spoiled down here.