Relocation Expenses

[Deleted]

Please explain this to me like I'm 5.

From what I gather it varies from company to company, state to state and whether you are already planning on moving. And probably a lot more that I'm not aware of.

I'm planning on relocating within the next 7-9 months. I'm not sure where yet. I'm applying for positions in 7 different cities/locations. I'm already planning on moving where ever I get a job. I"m not counting on relocation expenses but I'm curious how they would apply (if at all) in my situation.

Please ask any questions if I'm missing anything important.

TIA

[audette]

Some companies will offer some relocation expenses when they make an offer. What exactly and how much is highly dependent on the company. It is something that you can attempt to negotiate during the offer process. It can be as high as paying for full pack, load, move and unpack, temporary storage of household goods, hotel stays, vehicle shipments, airfare costs, etc. It can be as low as "here's a small sum to help with relocation expenses". Some places offer specific services, some just straight cash, or reimbursement of actual costs.

Some companies don't do any relocation expenses at all.

[gt7301b]

Back in the good ole' days I got all of the following in relocation expenses:

- Realtors expenses in selling my home
- Closing costs on new home
- House/Apartment hunting trip (in the form of per-diem)
- Load/Un-load packing of material possessions
- Hotel stay during drive
- Mileage when I moved my car
- Per Diem during move (flat fee to cover things like setting up of new utilities,
- Storage of my possessions while waiting for my place to be ready

[Pom]

H's last job (started 1 year ago) offer included the following:
-Full pack and move to new city. (within the state)
-2 month's salary to off-set additional moving and new home set-up expenses.

[Deleted]

Great information ladies. Thank you.

I don't have a house to sell or anything so I'm hoping (praying) that if/when I do relocate I can get a small stipend for relocating. Obviously, I'll have the funds to cover a move without it but I imagine it'd make the transition a bit easier.

I'm trying to word my cover letter so they know I'm able to move without assistance but I'd like assistance if it's available. If that makes any sense. I'm in a position to be able to pack up my car and go so I don't want the fact that my resume has a UT address to not include me in the candidate pool.

[Deleted]

Oct 15, 2012 15:15:38 GMT -5 blissanity said:

Great information ladies. Thank you.

I don't have a house to sell or anything so I'm hoping (praying) that if/when I do relocate I can get a small stipend for relocating. Obviously, I'll have the funds to cover a move without it but I imagine it'd make the transition a bit easier.

I'm trying to word my cover letter so they know I'm able to move without assistance but I'd like assistance if it's available. If that makes any sense. I'm in a position to be able to pack up my car and go so I don't want the fact that my resume has a UT address to not include me in the candidate pool.

Most of the companies that cover relocation expenses, in my experience, are when you transfer between offices, or when you are in an "in demand" profession or position.

[Deleted]

Oct 15, 2012 15:18:13 GMT -5 papiercherri said:

Oct 15, 2012 15:15:38 GMT -5 blissanity said:

Great information ladies. Thank you.

I don't have a house to sell or anything so I'm hoping (praying) that if/when I do relocate I can get a small stipend for relocating. Obviously, I'll have the funds to cover a move without it but I imagine it'd make the transition a bit easier.

I'm trying to word my cover letter so they know I'm able to move without assistance but I'd like assistance if it's available. If that makes any sense. I'm in a position to be able to pack up my car and go so I don't want the fact that my resume has a UT address to not include me in the candidate pool.

Most of the companies that cover relocation expenses, in my experience, are when you transfer between offices, or when you are in an "in demand" profession or position.

That's what I'm discovering as well. I don't think I'll get a relocation expense but I want to be well informed so if I do I can be sure to negotiate the best options for me.

[MixedBerryJam]

I also think it's mostly for pretty higher-ups (not always the case, of course; not saying there aren't exceptions) and for people with or roles demanding people with particular necessary skill sets or moves that are necessary for the role. For example, when we moved overseas for ddh's work they paid all the moving expenses plus paid for storage for our stuff here for the time we were gone. They also paid air and hotel for two trips home per year. But ddh had a 30-year history with his organization and it greatly benefited the organization to have him in the overseas location. If you're in an entry-type position now, and only for a couple of months at that, I really doubt you'll get much of a moving stipend except possibly a per diem. Good luck though.

ETA: You'll probably also be on the hook yourself for travel expenses to and from the city for hiring interviews and whatnot.

ETA2: It's fine to mention "willing to relocate" in your cover letter but I definitely wouldn't mention looking for funds for it there. That's a face-to-face conversation (maybe not even until a second tier interview) with an email followup, for confirmation, imho.

[Deleted]

MixedBerry, I'm not expecting a moving stipend by any means. In fact I've only seen it offered on 1 out of 5 positions I'm looking at. I highly doubt I'll get one, but like I stated above I'd like to know others experiences so I can gauge mine if necessary.

Because I don't have a house or a family to relocate I doubt I'll get more than a mileage reimbursement. If that. But hell, even a mileage reimbursement would be nice. Again, it's not something I'm expecting and have estimated moving costs without a moving stipend.

ETA - Yes, I'm sure I'll have to pay for IRL interview expenses. And the relocation expenses convo would definitely happen after an offer was extended. Or when salary was discussed.

[keweenawlove]

When DH accepted his job, they gave him a flat rate for moving expenses, which was based on their estimate for him to hire a moving truck from where he lived to where the job was located.

He was just finished with school and didn't have much furnature worth keeping so we were able to move all of his stuff ourselves in a van. He was able to just keep the rest of the bonus.

[keweenawlove]

Oct 15, 2012 15:37:28 GMT -5 MixedBerryJam said:

ETA: You'll probably also be on the hook yourself for travel expenses to and from the city for hiring interviews and whatnot.

Really? I would think the complete opposite. Even when I was interviewing for internships in college, they paid for all my expenses.

[pamela]

Totally depends on your field. My sister who is in marketing as always had to pay for her own interview trips and relocation. I'm in engineering and never have.

I would just put in your cover letter that you are willing to relocate and do not mention who is paying for it. That's extraneous.

[Deleted]

To be clear, I won't be mentioning relocation expenses in my cover letter. I will however be expressing that I'm relocating to the area. In hopes that they will offer some sort of moving stipend, whether it's a mileage reimbursement or larger stipend.

I was being recruited earlier this year so I hope I can be recruited again. I have a better idea of where I want to go in my career now then I did 6 months ago.

[Deleted]

For your cover letter, if you want to mention it at all I'd probably say something like "I have plans to relocate to X area in June 2013." I wouldn't mention anything about money, but I think they could safely assume that if you are already planning to move there you are already planning to pay for the move. I would probably use this as a negotiation piece after you have been offered the job if anything.

I got paid relocation for my first job out of grad school. At the time, we had exempt positions ranging from E1 - E7 for non-executive roles, and I was hired as an E2 if that helps you understand my position level. They paid for my trip to the interview, including hotel, food, and milage, and then again for me to visit to find a place to live, and then paid for my moving truck (which they packed for me and moved for me), hotel and mileage while moving, food while moving, and gave me a 2k bonus. I don't think that's standard and I'm not 100% sure why they did all that honestly - and I'm pretty sure they stopped paying relocation for positions at that level.

It was awesome and standard at the time, so I didn't have to ask for it. It was also in 2008 so during the recession. lol. I got really lucky.

Anyway, I share that experience just to show that it totally depends on the company. I hope that when I move somewhere else someday, I'll have a similar situation, but I'm not counting on it.

[heygrey]

We've used two relo packages and both were sufficient, but conservative. We packed/unpacked ourselves, drove our car across the country since it was cheaper than shipping/flying, stayed with family instead of hotels when we could. It was all strictly for moving, nothing related to housing. We're also dealing with a non-profit... I might ask for/expect more from a corporation.

I do wish on our last move we would have sold our furniture and only packed what would fit in our car and negotiated the cost of shipping in cash to buy new stuff when we got here. We downsized by more than half and none of our furniture fit our new apartment so we slowly sold and bought new. They paid nearly $4k and we kept so little of our original stuff. We could have replaced everything we couldn't fit in the car for that much. Hard to anticipate that kind of stuff though.

[hereonceagain]

at my workplace relocation expenses are negotiable for many positions. What salary level are you talking about here? ...that makes a big difference. I'm in HCOL. I don't know anyone who makes in the $50k range or lower that had their relocations expenses covered. It's usually higher positions. Here it is never discussed until the negotiation phase of the interview. The last couple of people that were hired received reimbursements for rental car, storage facilities, shipping costs, packaging costs, and I think that's it.

[Deleted]

Oct 15, 2012 17:36:15 GMT -5 hereonceagain said:

at my workplace relocation expenses are negotiable for many positions. What salary level are you talking about here? ...that makes a big difference. I'm in HCOL. I don't know anyone who makes in the $50k range or lower that had their relocations expenses covered. It's usually higher positions. Here it is never discussed until the negotiation phase of the interview. The last couple of people that were hired received reimbursements for rental car, storage facilities, shipping costs, packaging costs, and I think that's it.

Based on my premature calculations I'll be in the $50K+ range for a HCOL area. Again, these are premature estimations based on glassdoor.com and a COL calculator.

I'm already planning on loading up the car and going so I won't have too many expenses other than gas and maybe a hotel, depending on if I found a place prior to moving. Ideally, I'll ask for mileage reimbursement or a small moving stipend (<$1k).

[hannamaren]

Just another thought. Jigs is an example of someone that said they would be moving to her new city when applying for jobs but had no interest until she went to the new city. So you may not even want to mention you live elsewhere in the cover letter. You may want to borrow an address in the new place?

[Deleted]

Oct 15, 2012 19:56:28 GMT -5 hannamaren said:

Just another thought. Jigs is an example of someone that said they would be moving to her new city when applying for jobs but had no interest until she went to the new city. So you may not even want to mention you live elsewhere in the cover letter. You may want to borrow an address in the new place?

I've thought of that too. I don't know how I feel about borrowing an address when I'm not sure where I'm going. I don't have a specific location in mind. However, I may just end up drawing from a hat and focusing there and perhaps setting up regular visits.

Jigs also went from CA to DC so I think that played into it. I had a lot of great response when I was looking in San Diego and stated that I was relocating. I think distance will have a play.

But it is something to think about.