Help me with my job situation

Ok, here's the situation:

I just received a job offer from the British Council of Education for a position in Singapore. It's a good job, HOWEVER:

1. My girlfriend will be attending grad school in Hong Kong. I have a job interview for a not-quite-as-good job with the British Vocational Training Council in Hong Kong around 2 weeks from now (May 8th), if I got this job I would be in HK, have a better salary and be in a more convenient place.

2. There's a university (HK baptist) which I have a phone interview with later this week in Zhu Hai (a walk from Macao and a 30 mile boat ride to HK) which is professionally better, it's closer to what I want to do (lecturer/associate professor), not to mention the vacation, hours, and most of all the ability to get (at reduced tuition) my masters part time while I work there. I can also pretty easily travel to Hong Kong for finding other work later.

So, what can I do to keep my options open? If I couldn't get either the University or Vocational training job, the SG job is still good. SG is nicer than HK or Zhu Hai really, but the hours and distance from the GF will make it difficult. I haven't replied to their offer letter yet, what should I say? That I'm waiting on two other offers (they probably can't wait 2-3 weeks), make something up and see if there's another position several months later down the line for me? Any serious suggestions would be much appreciated.

Originally Posted by Eason

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Ok, here's the situation:

I just received a job offer from the British Council of Education for a position in Singapore. It's a good job, HOWEVER:

1. My girlfriend will be attending grad school in Hong Kong. I have a job interview for a not-quite-as-good job with the British Vocational Training Council in Hong Kong around 2 weeks from now (May 8th), if I got this job I would be in HK, have a better salary and be in a more convenient place.

2. There's a university (HK baptist) which I have a phone interview with later this week in Zhu Hai (a walk from Macao and a 30 mile boat ride to HK) which is professionally better, it's closer to what I want to do (lecturer/associate professor), not to mention the vacation, hours, and most of all the ability to get (at reduced tuition) my masters part time while I work there. I can also pretty easily travel to Hong Kong for finding other work later.

So, what can I do to keep my options open? If I couldn't get either the University or Vocational training job, the SG job is still good. SG is nicer than HK or Zhu Hai really, but the hours and distance from the GF will make it difficult. I haven't replied to their offer letter yet, what should I say? That I'm waiting on two other offers (they probably can't wait 2-3 weeks), make something up and see if there's another position several months later down the line for me? Any serious suggestions would be much appreciated.

I bolded the "GF" because unless you plan on marrying her, she shouldn't factor into your life's plans. I know that sounds cold and heartless but as I said, if she's not going to be your wife, don't make her a priority over yourself.

That's all I'm going to add as I don't know much about the respective locations.

Uh dude, what happened to the pop star career? Sounds a lot better than any of these options.

Go to Hong Kong because it's better than Singapore.

Doug, you fall in love approximately nine minutes after whatever tragedy ends your previous relationship...bearing that in mind, I wouldn't really over-consider the gf situation in this.

That said, Singapore is an ass-boring place to live (although probably still better than Macao), so if I were you, I'd be looking in HK anyhow....

I am putting my career ahead of her, and she's doing the same with her grad degree, we both know if it's meant to be it'll be.

The thing is that the university job would be perfect- the hours and location I want plus the ability to get my masters degree. Perhaps that combination is worth holding out for.

A bird in hand is worth two in the bush.

I would suggest you not turn down an offer unless you receive another. And do not tell anyone you are waiting to hear back from someone, just stall.

Also, I think HK/Singapore/Zhuhai/Macau are all similar places to live given a certain lifestyle though Zhuhai is a bit more low key. Oh, btw do you speak Canto? if not HK will not be as fun as you think.

Thanks Valor, that's the kind of advice I needed, because I was thinking of telling them I was waiting to hear back from my grad school application or something. FYI I don't speak Cantonese but I do speak Mandarin.

What can I do though, since I'm waiting for my interview in HK on the 8th? That's about 2 weeks away, plus at least another week to get a response. Any chance to stalling for 3 weeks?

Kindly tell the HK office that you have an offer from another institution and ask if you can move up the date of the interview

Originally Posted by cchen

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Kindly tell the HK office that you have an offer from another institution and ask if you can move up the date of the interview

Can I do this? I really want to call up the HK place and the zhu hai place and tell them both to stop wasting my time ******* around because I need to make a serious decision, but I didn't think it was appropriate.

To be perfectly honest. This is not a great situation to be in. Depending on how you weigh you options you can definitely stall with the Singapore offer. They should give you a deadline for when you need to respond by, if there is an HR representative you want to talk to HR (offending your future boss is a terrible idea) make up some serious excuses (you're looking into housing logistical issues)

On the other end, since you already have an offer (and a fairly decent one) you can leverage this onto your interviews and ask for an accelerated schedule, either by saying outright you have an offer (which may be a great or a terrible idea) or by saying it'd be more convenient or something. And FYI, I'm not too sure about jobs in the Mainland, but here in the States, 3 weeks of stalling is unacceptable for any decent firm so that is pretty much not an option unless they offer it.

I've only been to HK for a day, Zhuhai for a week, lived in Guangdong for a couple of months and like you I speak only Mandarin, but my impression was that in HK everyone speaks Canto all the time, very well educated people speak Mandarin like 15% of the time unless they're from the mainland, and everyone pretends to speak English but is actually terrible at it. Places like Guangdong and Zhuhai everyone *can* speak Mandarin whereas I think only 50% or less of ppl in HK can speak Mandarin at all above selling you crap in stores. I have a friend who recently moved to Singapore and he loves it.

In any case, I think if you eat out a lot, the food options in all these places is better than Beijing!

Also note: I've lived in the US for most of my life so my perspective could be much different from yours and my Mandarin while fairly functional, is definitely not anything above a middle/high school level.

Originally Posted by Eason

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Can I do this? I really want to call up the HK place and the zhu hai place and tell them both to stop wasting my time ******* around because I need to make a serious decision, but I didn't think it was appropriate.

Yes, tell them you are very interested in joining their organization and they are your first choice, yati yata... but you need to make a decision very soon and would appreciate an opportunity to interview sooner. Meanwhile, stall the other guys.

Now how can I figure out the odds of whether it's a terrible idea or a great idea to tell them I have an offer so I'd like to move up the interview?

Originally Posted by MetroStyles

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Uh dude, what happened to the pop star career? Sounds a lot better than any of these options.

Answer this!