More job offers? What you should think about
Which job offer is best for you? Not always the one with the highest salary. Compare tasks, development opportunities and conditions before you decide.
Be specific. Flexibility can mean, for example, working from home, working hours that can be combined with studies or the opportunity to shift the working day. Set a lower limit for salary and FTE percentage, and clarify how long a travel distance you can accept and what tasks the position must include.
Before you compare the offers, you should know which factors weigh most heavily for you. Divide your priorities into three:
- Must be in place
- Desirable, but not essential
- Reason to decline
For a summer or part-time job, the hourly wage alone is not enough to assess the offer. Clarify how many hours or shifts you are guaranteed, and whether the shifts are fixed, variable or offered when needed.
Compare the terms
Salary, bonus and supplements
What is the agreed fixed salary, when is it paid and when is it considered next? Is the bonus guaranteed or result-dependent, what triggers it, and what supplements apply to overtime, shift, evening, night and weekend?
Check whether the company has a collective agreement and whether it applies to your position. Collective agreements can, among other things, result in a higher overtime supplement than the legal minimum of 40 per cent. The fifth week of holiday that many people have often follows from a collective agreement and not from the Holiday Act.
Pension, holiday and other benefits
Which pension scheme and savings rate apply, which parts of the salary are included in the calculation, and is the enterprise covered by contractual early retirement pension (AFP)? How much holiday do you get, and what insurance policies apply? What equipment and other employee benefits are included in the offer, and what terms apply to them?
In private defined-contribution pension schemes, the annual contribution shall amount to at least twoper cent of salary up to twelve times the National Insurance basic amount (12 G). The employer may choose a higher rate.
Working hours and flexibility
How many hours are agreed per week, and what arrangements apply to flexitime, home office, travel and availability outside normal working hours?
Professional development
What courses, certifications, and new responsibilities are offered? Ask for examples of what employees in similar roles have actually received, and how much time and budget is set aside.
Manager and working environment
How are new employees followed up, how does the team collaborate during busy periods, and why is the position available?
Check your employment contract before you accept
All employees must have a written employment contract, regardless of whether the position is permanent or temporary, full-time or part-time. Ask for the draft agreement before you accept, and check that it matches the offer and what you have discussed.
Check these points in particular:
- Employer and place of work – Is the correct legal employer, place of work stated in the agreement? If you are going to work from home, check whether the scheme is to be regulated in a separate written agreement on home office.
- Type and scope of employment – Is the position permanent or temporary? Check the employment percentage, start date, any end date and the basis for a temporary appointment.
- Role and tasks – Are the work, responsibilities and any reservations about changing work tasks or workplace clearly described?
- Salary and remuneration – Check fixed salary, bonus, supplement, overtime pay, payment date and any agreed salary assessment.
- Working hours – Check working hours per day and week, breaks, travel time, shift, availability and the rules for changing shifts or work schedule.
- Probationary period and termination – How long is the probationary period, and what notice periods apply to you and the employer?
- Other terms – Check holidays, holiday pay, pension, insurance, skills development, collective agreement and any non-competition or non-solicitation clauses.
- Reservations – Pay particular attention to formulations such as "currently" and "currently". If there is an important condition, ask for clarification of what the employer can change.
For summer, part-time and on-call jobs with varying working hours, it is particularly important that the agreement describes the scope of the position, when you can be scheduled to work, how shifts can be changed and how work beyond the agreed time will be paid.
If it says that the position is "leading" or "particularly independent", you should check what the assessment is based on. Such positions may be exempt from the normal working hours rules, which may also affect the right to overtime pay. It is the actual work tasks that are decisive.
Get help from NITO
As a NITO member, you do not have to consider the offer alone:
- Compare offered salaries with other engineers and technologists by, among other things, position, industry and region
- Find a NITO union representative in the company who knows the company and the local wage policy
- Get advice on salary and the employment contract from NITO's experts
- Get help in matters of working life as a student member, also when you are considering a summer or part-time job
If you have the agreements in front of you, check the employment contract point by point and compare the salary in NITO's salary calculator before you accept.
