Not fair to the employer too mah. I think it's suppose to be if you don't give prior notice say a month before quitting, then you have to pay back.

Let make it simple here.

You signed the contract so you are legally bind to do what is in the contract regardless.

You broke the contract, the company may or may not sue you, is up to them to decide but they have the right to do so and you may lose and may have to pay more than what's initially stated in the contract.

You broke the contract, your now to be company may 'one day' decide to call up your old company and if found out, may mean bad reputation in your now company. If you decide to apply to a better company, that company may ask testimonials from your old one to clarify the resume.

So conclusion, just pay up or else you may end up worse than you think since you DID sign the contract. Just take it as a lesson to firmly not sign anything unless you are sure of it.

First off, do not let Company C know about any other companies you are about to join aside from your currently working one. It's suicide because it means this candidate is undecided about his choices and a risk because he/she may decide to delay this and that just because he/she got a 'personal' problem. Unless you are someone important that company C willing to look pass the 'inconveniences', suggest you just go ahead and sign in with Company B if you really want to get out from A. Work there for a while until u hear from C. If C say u got offered, suggest you tell company C give u some time (if possible depending on what C is requesting) to settle the payback to B. Based on experiences, certain company especially the big one, will reply quite late (sometime even up to a 6 months to a year) before you can get the offer. So suggest just working in B and DO NOT EVER pressure C to hasten the reply as they are the 'boss' NOT 'you', and you may lose respect from C. They are not in the position to play favoristism and might have other better candidates than you. Think of it as an investment should you need to leave B sooner prior to the notification months.

This post has been edited by LeechFever: Sep 9 2009, 09:00 AM

Basically it depends on how desperate Company C need TS then. When they ask "Are you sitting on any other offers at the moment?", it shows that the company is either valuing you highly or they are really short on labour and desperate need to fill the shoe in by trying to outbid other job snatchers. There are often news that a new company been set up, offered contract from clients and in need of more manpower to charge the manhour to. That has a higher chances of getting hired in within a few days to weeks instead of months. For TS, if there's no indication of that, suggest you follow the safer route that is just to take up B offer then later decide to move to C.

There are no definite systematic routing on how they want to hire people. U can go through back door or front. U get lucky and got interview by the top management himself or unlucky that ur resume got piled below and forgotten. All in all, it depends on luck and ur initiative. But under uncertain circumstances, better to follow the usual system of employment than to push ur luck too far.

This post has been edited by LeechFever: Sep 9 2009, 11:24 AM

What is stated in the offer is what both parties MUST do, or else settle in court. But of course employer has the right to fire anyone as he sees fit (unless we have a labour union) but normally in the contract if the employer fires you without first giving prior notification, they will have to pay you according to the salary equal to the notification months stated in the contract, and vice versa, that is of course if both parties agree to it.

This post has been edited by LeechFever: Sep 9 2009, 12:56 PM

No you do not do that unless agreed upon. Must see situation or else you may get terminated for other favorable candidate.

Yes you can do that provided you have good reason for it. For example you need to complete certain work in your soon to be ex-company before leaving so you may need more time, etc (but under certain condition, better to think of a good excuse than "I got another offer from other company so can wait?" type of excuse). But that depends if the employer agreed to it or not. If not, bad luck.

This post has been edited by LeechFever: Sep 10 2009, 09:35 AM

Depending on industries and whether ur HR so 'eng' or not to even bother to do that. Have u not heard of HR nowadays (probably in US since the survey probably done there) take a peek at facebook to see what their employee(or future employee) is saying about them? In O&G especially, network (between colleagues, personal doctors, strangers) is important to determine future work place, investment and potential clients. So it's not that surprising.