Here are some of the communications between Invicro and myself. TLDR at the bottom.
Invicro L.L.C. is a medical imaging and drug testing company located in Needham Heights, MA. Here's their twitter and facebook pages.
On Feb. 18th I applied via Indeed for a remote IT Technician job that offered:
- ~$53,000 per year
- 8 AM-4 PM Weekday shifts
- No weekend or on-call work (as far as I know)
- Pretty standard benefits.
After my third and “final” interview on March 15th, I sent in my references and was told on March 21st that I'd hear back about a decision around March 30th.
A week past that estimated date, on April 6th, I am told that HR is waiting for approval and that I WILL have an offer for that REMOTE position within the next week or so. This is in writing too, pretty serious.
“Fuck yeah!” I think, “My days of spending 1.5 hours a day in stop-and-go traffic are over!” I exclaim to my family.
April 11th comes and I am asked to meet with the IT director and team manager on April 13th. “This will probably be the “you're hired, here's the offer” meeting” I say to myself.
I join the zoom call and am told that my skills “would be underutilized in a remote position” and that they “think I would be a great addition to the on-site IT team” in a more technical role. I am taken by surprise and say I will need more details before agreeing to move such a great distance (I'm near Dallas, TX, they're near Boston, MA). They end the meeting by congratulating me, buttering me up with compliments, and telling me HR will reach out soon with more details.
The next day I am told the on-site position offers:
- ~$57,250 per year (an insanely small increase from remote listing)
- 8 AM to 5 PM Weekday shifts
- Semi-frequent weekend work
- On-call very often as there is only one other technician on-site (and no on-call bonuses, gross)
- Occasional travel
- No moving assistance
- WFH “when available”
- And by the way, “the business needs have shifted” so the remote job listing you applied for and we said you had is no longer available.
I currently work as a solo IT Specialist / System Admin that offers:
- ~$37,000 (very low for everything I do + location, hence job searching)
- 9 AM to 3:30 PM Weekday shifts
- No weekend or on-call work
After doing a quick Google search, I found that cost of living is about 55% higher in Needham MA than where I currently live. On paper, to have the same amount of disposable income I make at 37k near Dallas, I'd need about 57.3k near Boston. So this is a pretty lateral move not even looking at moving and likely increased responsibilities.
So while the remote position offered less per paycheck than the on-site position, my quality of life would have drastically increased. If I accepted the on-site position, my quality of life would stay the same on top of dealing with a move and being in an unfamiliar area.
I genuinely believed this would've been taken into account when I was first told of the on-site position and that I'd be offered ~90k to improve my quality of life enough to want to come into an on-site job and be worth moving to Boston. Not to mention I'm very close to finishing an IT and Data Analytics degree, my various industry certifications, my 3 years of computer engineering classes I took pre-covid, and my 5 years of work experience in tier 2 and 3 support, so I would hope to at least stop living paycheck to paycheck.
I declined and stated that “it's hard not to feel that this was an attempt by Invicro to bait and switch an unsuspecting person into working an underpaid position relative to the surrounding area.”
They haven't responded.
I don't know what to say other than I'm so tired of this shit. I thought I was so fucking close to living the remote dream. 2 months wasted :').
Back to applying, I've got a few interviews lined up so we'll see, baby.
Just wanted to scream into the void and hopefully get them some negative attention.
TLDR: Invicro L.L.C. listed a remote job, I was selected for it, they closed that job and offered an on-site job 1,750 miles away, and I was lowballed pretty hard after 2 months of interviewing. Fuck them. Link to email pics