I’m currently an analyst at an insurance company that’s being acquired. I don’t really love my job to begin with and only been there about three years.
I recently received an offer from a bank for an HR analyst role, which would be a pretty different path, so I would be starting “over” to some degree. Offer is only 10% more then what I make now, but the work sounds interesting and they are stable. However, it’s 5 days in office (my current role is 3), with a 20-minute commute vs. 5 minutes now.
I’m also 55 and hoping to retire in about five years. The idea of being laid off at this stage is honestly stressful. I’ve been through mergers/layoffs before but I’m usually in a better position, working in revenue etc.
I’m trying to figure out if I’m overreacting or if taking the offer from the bank is the safer move. I’m also worried the local analyst job market could get more competitive, and I haven’t had many interviews in the last six months (remote roles especially). Any advice on how you’d think through this?
I feel like at my age, I need to be more careful and take what I can get..
The acquisitions and mergers I’ve seen sometimes work but more often don’t. When they don’t, it takes a few years to completely fall apart. The only change at first is the sign out front.
The same people continue to do the same stuff they did before. After a year or two, the old boss leaves. His replacement decides to combine your operation with a few other divisions in the neighborhood and moves everybody together into the same building. The different groups have different ways of doing things and each considers the other a bunch of crazy fools. In another year or so, the whole thing gets shut down. This all takes a few years and you have until then.
It’s a lot easier to be the only new guy at another company. Be sure to be open to the way things are done at the new place.
Seems to me that it’s riskier to be acquired than to be the acquirer (which I believe Nerd was alluding to). The new parent company is likely to be more loyal to its present employees, so if they already have someone doing what you do, then the axe could fall. And of course there’s always the Enron situation to be wary of. I found that after age 55 it became more difficult to find a job, as employers assume you’ll be walking out the door in a few years and they will have to fill the position once again. I’d probably opt for the safer route.
If you were 25, I’d say to ride it out. At 55 and hoping to retire in five years, I’d play it safe. A 20-minute commute isn’t that bad, even if you have to make it every freakin’ day, but the stability and safety could make a huge difference to your mental well being. I know if I were in your position, the stress of the potential for it to go to shit would tear me up.
If you only wanted to work 2 more years then I’d say that your current job will probably last that long almost unchanged unless either the old or new company is already in deep shit financially.
But trying to eke out 5 years as a member of the bought company? Unlikely that your job will remain unchanged that long. So your current short commute, the 2 days WFH, etc., may not last very long. Given your long time horizon I would discount those items a lot. Unless you have advance intel that the buying company is real big on WFH, or is likely for some reason to prefer keeping your offices open over others they may have in the area. Those are reasons to suspect your current cozy working arrangement has more legs.
If you already have a firm job offer elsewhere that offers the stability you need, I say take it. “Firm” being the operative word.
I agree with everything @LSLGuy says. I’m assuming you are looking for 5-10 more years. I’d jump to the new job. Much as i hate commuting and being in the office for the sake of being in the office.
Remember, that 10% is your starting salary at the new gig. I don’t know about you, but at my old company, once you topped out of the range in your job grade, that was pretty much it. I’d say a new company gives you room to grow financially. And you know, just because that’s the offer they made doesn’t mean you can’t counter. Say, “I’d really love to work at XYZ corp, but I’d hate to lose my WFH I currently have. Any chance that can be added, or perhaps is available once I’m up to speed?”
Intuitively yes, practically not so much. To wit, pretty standard line by most companies that “our most important asset is our people.” Many companies are acquired specifically for the people at those new companies, which means the acquiring company folks are sacrificed for the merger synergies. I suffered this fate first hand at banking giant UBS.
@cornycopia FYI, I was laid off a couple of times during the investment banking consolidation in the 1990’s when at least 1/3 of all investment banking jobs disappeared. And twice in the last 10 years at one of the leading high tech companies, and the most recent one I was 64.
Some things to ponder:
What is the overlap between your company and the acquiring company? Does the acquiring company have analysts doing the same kind of work? If yes, there will be a lay-off of analysts because theoretically there are synergies.
Is your type of analyst work being made more efficient with the use of AI tools? If yes, there will be a lay-off of analysts because of cost cutting and do more with less.
Many HR roles, at least in high tech, are part of the AI reduction in force wave. Will the new position type HR work be made more efficient with the use of AI tools? If yes, there will be a lay-off of analysts.
AI may be a boon to 50 year olds with expertise and experience. AI tools help experienced decision makers become more efficient, but much less so to someone that does not have the domain expertise like a 25 year new collge hire. How long will it take for you to be seen as a SME in the bank role?
I worked at a small company that got bought by a big company. However, this is in Canada so your labour laws may vary.
When the merger started, I had a feeling I might get laid off even though plenty of employees spent about two years asking that question and getting “we don’t know yet” as an answer. But sure enough, they eventually came around with a severance offer. Now since the company I was working at was federally regulated, the minimum severance they were required to pay me was two days per calendar year I had worked. Since I had only been there for seven years, they could have sent me on my way with two weeks of severance and that would have satisfied their legal obligations. However, they were more generous than this and offered me four weeks of severance per calendar year worked instead. The caveat was that if I decided not to take the deal, I might get laid off anyway and the severance would not be as generous.
Well, when the choice is jump or be pushed, I jumped. A lot of my coworkers made the same choice. I don’t feel any regrets nor do I hear anyone else expressing regrets. They just miss their old friends from the office… which was empty anyhow post-COVID.
Agree with @ricepad and since you’ve been with your current job only about 3 years, starting over at a new company shouldn’t be too onerous (I’ve been with my company 15+ years and hope to retire in <5 years - a much bigger challenge). I’d move on to the new job for the stability, and if you decide not to retire as initially planned, you’ll likely be in a better place anyway (and will have had a higher salary all along). It will be better, mentally, for you to be in control of your fate rather than waiting for something to happen. And it’s always better to be going toward a job on your own terms than to be running away from one (or forced out).
Thank you all for the feedback. I’ve decided to accept the offer at the bank. It’s been nice hearing real world experiences, especially from those who’ve been through mergers, layoffs, or are already retired and can spot the warning signs.
At my current company there’s been a lot of synergy talk, no backfill for open roles, a hiring freeze for the past year, and several higher ups leaving/retiring. On top of that, the company acquiring us is much further along with generative AI and using no code tools, which makes me think our roles could be impacted sooner or later.
Yeah, I knew I was in trouble when the big company started talking about wanting to achieve a billion dollars (in a year) worth of “efficiencies”. Our companies had no overlap in terms of their geographical footprints so it wasn’t like they could consolidate warehouses or something like that. I realized they would need to get rid of approximately 10,000 things that cost $100,000 per year to hit their target and the only place to find savings like that was among staff. There were only 10,000 of us to begin with!