Short notice on Offer Letter

[Guest]

I am supposed to start at my SF in January. Several attempts to communicate with my SF regarding hiring have only resulted in them telling me to send my final transcripts when available. This would be mid-December. I sent them an official letter of completion from my department, but didn't get a reply. I am required to put in a 60 day notice at my rental house, and I have children in school. So I'm thinking about hedging my bets on when my SF will actually get around to hiring me.

I see my options as follows:
1) Put in the notice right now. If I don't get hired in 60 days, move all of my stuff into storage, and stay with my relatives until I am hired. (My SF will pay for the move, but they won't reimburse me if I move to the SFs area prematurely).
2) Stay put until I receive the offer letter, then put in the 60 day notice. Can I push the start date back by (at least) 2 weeks so I don't have to pay rent at 2 places for as long and also have enough time to make wise decisions about where to move?

Any advice on what to do or how you've dealt with a similar situation would be greatly appreciated.

[Guest]

I am supposed to start at my SF in January. Several attempts to communicate with my SF regarding hiring have only resulted in them telling me to send my final transcripts when available. This would be mid-December. I sent them an official letter of completion from my department, but didn't get a reply. I am required to put in a 60 day notice at my rental house, and I have children in school. So I'm thinking about hedging my bets on when my SF will actually get around to hiring me.

I see my options as follows:
1) Put in the notice right now. If I don't get hired in 60 days, move all of my stuff into storage, and stay with my relatives until I am hired. (My SF will pay for the move, but they won't reimburse me if I move to the SFs area prematurely).
2) Stay put until I receive the offer letter, then put in the 60 day notice. Can I push the start date back by (at least) 2 weeks so I don't have to pay rent at 2 places for as long and also have enough time to make wise decisions about where to move?

Any advice on what to do or how you've dealt with a similar situation would be greatly appreciated.

Count yourself lucky. I had to vacate my rental house after I completed my letter of completion, but before I could graduate. I followed option 1, but purely at my own expense (you have a favorable SF if they're going to reimburse you without you actually being employed there). I lived in my parents basement with my wife and kids for 4 months.

I would imagine they will work with you toward option 2. You'll need to keep SMART Program Office in the loop as to your predicament. The SFs hands may be tied (I've heard some SF cannot hire without a degree, and a letter of completion means little to them). In the end, paying rent at two places for an extra month is not that big a deal (you would likely overlap at least one month anyway).

[Larry]

Sadly, this is not SMART's fault, but rather OPM/HRO regulations and processes.

You are really at the mercy of the SF's HRO.

You should ask where your paperwork is in the process. I've been able to get an inbound graduate's paperwork through the process to the point where your transcript meets it the day it's available online (eg, you completed coursework) and in two days have the person on-board. That requires a lot of hand holding and attention to details at the SF.

[Guest]

Thanks to Larry as well as the other responder.

Regarding my second point, is it indeed possible to delay a start date by some amount of time? I feel like 2 weeks (until the next in-processing date) would be OK, so perhaps even more of a delay would be OK.

[Larry]

Oh yeah, I didn't see that question...

I don't think starting two weeks late is going to be a problem. I would work that out with your new boss and their HR office.

ATB
Larry