Offer made, interviews upcoming. What to do?

[offer made; pending interviews]

I have an offer in hand from university I really liked but that pays about $12,000 less than what I was hoping for (they cannot go higher on salary). I am considering taking it anyway because I enjoyed my visit so much. 
With that said, my first choice school visit is in 3 weeks. I really want to go, but the school that made me an offer will not wait 3 weeks for me to make a decision. 

Do I call my first choice school and explain the situation (i.e., that I have an offer on the table and would like to move my visit up)? I have gotten mixed advice and was hoping to get more opinions. 

I am not sure if this is helpful, but I would strongly consider taking offer 1 even though the pay is so low. 

[hm]

I would contact your first choice school to explain the situation and see if they could move the visit up. I don't see much harm in that especially if you may otherwise have to turn down the visit. When does the school that has already given you an offer require that you get back to them by? FWIW, I was in a similar situation in the past and ended up turning down an offer I received prior to a visit to a better school. In retrospect I am glad I did, but obviously every situation is different.

[response to hm]

Dec 9, 2017 17:33:02 GMT -5 hm said:

I would contact your first choice school to explain the situation and see if they could move the visit up. I don't see much harm in that especially if you may otherwise have to turn down the visit. When does the school that has already given you an offer require that you get back to them by? FWIW, I was in a similar situation in the past and ended up turning down an offer I received prior to a visit to a better school. In retrospect I am glad I did, but obviously every situation is different.

They told me they would like to know by Christmas, and my next visit (at my top choice) is in the first week in January.  

I have been told by some people to reject the first offer and not sell myself short, I've been told by some to contact "dream school" and see about moving things up, and I've been told by others to take job 1 if I liked it and let "dream school" know I'm off the market. I think the biggest issue is that I really liked school 1 and do think I would be happy there, but the pay is a HUGE issue for me and for my family (3 kids + SO).

One of my close friends told me that I shouldn't take a job unless I am 100% sure, but I feel like that's "wishful thinking" that there will be a clear choice. I'm also on the market for the first time so I don't have "experience" to fall back on when making this decision. 

I really appreciate your input!

[wishful thinking]

Job market cycles are on-going cycles and a good job at one point in time is worth WAY MORE than the potential for further opportunities. The main reason is that most of any potential fall backs have gone away by this point. ... If you have a fall back plan to stay somewhere for 1 or possibly 2 years - or if you're OK going to some random place possibly in the middle of nowhere for a year (which I did) - then take the risk. If not, take the job. Every 1 year market cycle is such a crap shoot you can never be certain.

[guestfdafdafda]

Context: I'm a newish faculty member who got to serve on a search committee for the first time this year.

One of our top choices is just sitting on the offer. It's frustrating because we don't know much as it's in the administration's hands right now to work this out (we don't deal with salary, and since we're a private school, we don't have access to information on how much anyone makes anyway).

I'm sure they'd appreciate an honest response from you as soon as possible. At a school like mine - with limited resources for searches that don't happen that often - we're terrified of failed searches.

Also, in the absence of a firm reply either way to the school, it's giving an impression to them that you really don't want to be there. Perhaps it is just the money, but I'm willing to bet most of the other faculty make about what you'd make, so it might be something close to insulting to them (the other faculty) to turn down the offer because you wouldn't be making enough.

They might be thinking, as I am right now with our person sitting on the offer, something like "Why did they even apply if they didn't want to come here anyway? Are we simply leverage to them? Will they actually fit in, or was everything they talked about in the interview just a play to get an offer for a temporary backup position?" Regardless of your intentions, it does come off as relatively bad optics.

[script]

You could say something like, I am very excited to have received this offer. I very much enjoyed my visit and this opportunity remains a top choice for me. However, I have an interview left to complete. I would like to make my decision with full information. The other school has said they can let me know of their decision on XX date or so. Are you able to be flexible with the timeline for my decision?

That's basically what my advisors told me to say. But, in my case, the school I hadn't yet interviewed at was a great option but not a dream school. I decided I didn't want to drag the market out, or risk messing with my goodwill at the school I had an offer from. I canceled my interview and took that first job offer. No regrets. The thing is, you may not get an offer from Dream School. So is all of this worth the risk?

[What about next year]

It sounds like you are a strong candidate. I presume that if you end up not accepting an offer this year, you'll be able to go on the market again next year as an even stronger candidate, hopefully with more publications or teaching experience.

As I see it, that means the key question is what would happen to you next year if you didn't start a tenure track position? Could you stay in grad school another year or arrange a teaching postdoc in your current department? If so, my advice would be to not accept the first offer. $12,000 is a big difference in salary, and you say it's not just about you, but also your family. In the long run it would be well worth making grad student money for one more year if it means starting your faculty career $12,000 higher than your current offer. If you accept this offer, you'll potentially be underearning your expectations for years to come, and your retirement benefits, future raises, etc. will all be pegged to the low salary you start with. Of course money is not all that matters, but with such a big difference between the offer and what you think you should be making, and with kids in the picture, it's a major consideration.

If I were in your shoes, AND if I were in a hot field like crim/race/strat/health, I'd do this.

1. Tell School 1 that you really like their department and would love to work there, but the current salary offer is just too low. If they truly can't come up at all, decline it.
2. Go to School 2 and do a bang up job at the interview. Hope for the offer and take it if you get it.
3. If you don't get the offer at School 2, go back on the market next year with an even stronger record and get even more interviews and options.

Of course this is a risk. But if you study crim, race, health, or one of the other hot fields, it's not that big a risk. There will be many good jobs in those fields next year, and you should be able to get one. If you're a theory/culture/gender/other underhiring subfield person, maybe you should just take the first offer because who knows whether there will be good postings in your field next year.

[been there]

I was there in 2013, same time, similar situation. I took the first offer. I was able to negotiate the salary a bit, but having a job is much better than "maybe having a job". You liked the place that made you the offer, you never know what will happen about your "first choice" when you go, if you like the people, how well you do at the interview, etc.
Having said that I will throw in two thoughts:
1) If you back out of the scheduled interview you most likely make another person's day by giving them a chance. I cancelled all interviews the moment I had my written offer.
2) You could accept the offer, then still go on the interview and see what happens. In the even that you will also get an offer from your "first choice" you could still take it and back out of your first offer. I am NOT advocating for this, but I have seen some of my colleagues from grad school do. I find it shitty, because of exactly what "guestfdafdafda" - said it leaves institutions and the people who teach their in a bad situation.