WWYD - work question

[traveltheworld]

DH and I moved to our current city about 2 years ago for my job. DH still works for his old company and commutes back there every 2 weeks. He's been at that company for a decade and there's very little chance of advancement unless we move back there (which we don't anticipate doing). It's very difficult to find something in his field here in this city, but he also hasn't been looking very hard.

A position opened up at my company that'd be a great fit for him. My company is awesome and this will open a lot of doors. We have a lot of married couples in the company (600+ employees) so that in of itself isn't an issue, though most of those couples are roughly all in the same "rank". Here's the thing - it's for a senior associate level position, which is 2 levels below my position. His team also interacts with mine - not a lot, but some. I wouldn't be interacting with him because I'd ever talk to his boss's boss.

Do you think he should still apply? There's also a director level position but I don't think he'd qualify (they need a MBA/CFA + 10 or more years experience, DH only has a CPA), but maybe that doesn't matter....?

[waverly]

Yes I think he should. In our handbook the family relation only matters if you are a direct report of someone. So we had 2 mother/ daughter groups working here same department, but the daughter did not report to the mother.

In the other case we had 2 sisters here in different departments, and we had a SIL pair also in 2 different departments. Our structure is fairly flat, so I can't speak for companies where they have a lot of layers.

[madringal]

For sure!

[supertrooper1]

Yes. As long as he's not reporting to you.

[k3am]

ABSOLUTELY APPLY!!! It may be an issue, it may not be an issue. But don't assume it is and risk a great opportunity.

[mustardseed2007]

yes!

[traveltheworld]

Ok - then for people who are in HR: would you apply for the director position? He meets all the qualifications, except for the fact that it asks for a CFA/MBA. Oddly enough the Senior Associate position asks for a CFA/CPA.

I don't know why they did that. It's widely acknowledge at my firm that MBAs are not that useful. We typically only hire CFA/CPAs.

[ilovelucyvv]

Not in HR but I think he should apply for both. My BIL recented got hired for a job that he doesn't have the proper qualifications for but they wanted someone with his leadership skills. It all depends on who else applies.

My husband and I have worked for the same organization our whole careers. At this stage in the game he is high enough up that I cannot work for anyone else in the same Region as him (we have 7 regions and a HQ) even if I wouldn't directly report to him because he is on the "leadership team" for that Region. I still interact with many in that Region including his boss's boss and I have led projects that benefitted his region and the family of offices he manages. So we have gotten close to the line but haven't crossed them so to speak. There are a lot of married couples who work in our organization as well at different levels.

[2chatter]

Apply for the director without the MBA. Experience trumps degrees - DH doesn’t have an MBA and has had no issue getting SVP/ED level roles. Fingers crossed!

[sdlaura]

traveltheworld sounds like you're gotten good advice so I have nothing to add - I'm just glad your firm likes CFAs - DH and I both put in a lot of time to earn them and it doesn't seem like many people even know what they are

[traveltheworld]

sdlaura, CFA is like a cult at my firm. I'd say more than 25% of our staff have CFAs. We run our own CFA boot camp, tutoring sessions, and mentoring program. CFA exam week and exam results week are both big deals at my firm - the day after exam results come out, the firm throws a huge party for everyone who passed (every level) and invite all spouses/family. And well deserved - it's an incredibly difficult exam. I'd know, I failed level 2, and never went back to finish. Law school was a breeze in comparison

[CrazyLucky]

I work at the same company as DH. It's nice to be able to carpool most of the time. I'd encourage him to apply for both, and if you know the hiring manager, make sure he or she knows that your husband applied. I realize that may be slightly uncomfortable, but you'd do it for a qualified friend, so I don't see any reason not to do it for your DH. When the CFA comes up, he can talk about how excited he is to get a CFA and one of the reasons he's interested is because he wants to pursue it (assuming he does).
Will he be ok with being two levels below you? Not just theoretically, but for real?

[traveltheworld]

May 10, 2019 15:27:42 GMT -5 CrazyLucky said:

I work at the same company as DH. It's nice to be able to carpool most of the time. I'd encourage him to apply for both, and if you know the hiring manager, make sure he or she knows that your husband applied. I realize that may be slightly uncomfortable, but you'd do it for a qualified friend, so I don't see any reason not to do it for your DH. When the CFA comes up, he can talk about how excited he is to get a CFA and one of the reasons he's interested is because he wants to pursue it (assuming he does).
Will he be ok with being two levels below you? Not just theoretically, but for real?

DH won't pursue the CFA - it's not really his area of interest, and frankly, this role wouldn't require a CFA.  That's why I was somewhat confused as to why the CFA/MBA was a requirement for the director position.  Probably has to do with our company obsession with CFAs.

In terms of how comfortable he would be working a few levels below me - DH would definitely be ok working at the director level, but I'm less confident that he'll be ok at the senior associate level.  He says he's ok with that, but I don't truly know.

Uh...this is all so hard.  I honestly feel like the job would be a great fit for him and he'd do really well at the director level, but his current role is senior analyst, so I'm worried that our HR won't even consider his application for a director-level position.  There are some legitimate reasons of why his current job title is so low - but no good way of explaining that on a resume.  

[waverly]

traveltheworld, is it something he could explain in a cover letter?

[traveltheworld]

I don't know if there's a really good way to explain it. The real reason of why his current job title is so low is because his current company was being restructured from 2,000+ employees to 1,200 just when he was supposed to be up for a promotion about 3 years ago, his regional director made the conscious decision (which DH agreed with) to not move his job title up to the level where it would be subject to review by the restructuring consultancy firm - which turned out to be right move at the time as more than 50% of managerial positions were eliminated. He got a big jump in salary instead. Then after that, we moved. His regional director fought to get him a WFH position and his company made the unprecedented move of letting him - but that took 6+ months of negotiating and working its way through HR at HQ. So it felt like he couldn't really ask for a promotion right after that.

[sdlaura]

traveltheworld that's amazing that your firm is so supportive. Mine doesn't do much. I'm glad I got mine when I did (pre-kids) because there's no possible way I could devote enough time over the several years it took me to pass all 3 levels now (I also didn't pass all of them on the first try)!

[covergirl82]

Yes, he should at least apply. DH just took at job at the same company I work for. He's a director, I'm a senior analyst. I support the subsidiary company he'll be working for (although it's kind of weird, because he's actually a corporate employee, like me, but technically they consider him an employee of this subsidiary) with regard to compensation matters (with the exception of director level and above jobs). At this point, my leaders don't have a concern with me continuing to support that subsidiary company. (Although I wouldn't be sad if they reshuffled client groups in the future because they feel later on that there is a conflict of interest. It's not my favorite client group. They tend to ask for crazy things and then don't like it when I tell them no.)