Thread: Which job to go for?

I am asking alot of people this question and you guys may have more experience than me in this field. Plus, I value your opinions. So here goes...

There are two jobs I applying for at present. I have had a great deal of experience in both roles, hence believe I am quietly confident that I will get interviews for both. One is as a counsellor (mental health, not political) and the other is as a medical receptionist. The deadline for the latter came first. Hence its not unreasonable to assume that interviews for the latter will also come first.

The thing is, its as a counsellor that I really want to work. The counsellor role is based in Glasgow, which will mean ALOT of travelling for me. I will see my wife less often than I currently do but I will be home at weekends.

The role of receptionist is based locally but isnt what I want to do long term. Here is my problem. If I do get an interview for receptionist job and get offered the job, do I accept? What happens if I accept it and then get offered the counsellor job? Do I quit the receptionist job i'd just started? Do I yurn down any reception job offer and risk NOT getting the counsellor job? I dont know what to do?

For purposes of this poll, lets assume I have interviews with both and have been offered the job with the local medical centre.

Any questions to clarify are welcome, but please explain your advice.

What should I do?

If you do get interviews for both, and they are not spaced to far apart, time wise, why not wait to hear back from both?

Its just my opinion but I think that it be very unprofessional to start a job for all of a few days or a week then leave for another. Personally its not something I would do, but each to his own I guess.

Originally Posted by sidneykidney

I will see my wife less often than I currently do but I will be home at weekends.

Before I cast my vote, I was wondering if you would explain why you included this piece of information? What does it mean to you and, if it created problems in your marriage, how would you address them? For example, would your wife be able to relocate to Glascow with you or does she have a job she doesn't want to leave? Also, what kind of metal health counselling job are you talking about? Working in a mental hospital or in an outpatient clinic? In what capacity? If you are also considering a receptionist job, this must not be at a professional level, i.e., psychologist, but rather as nursing staff, or am I completely off-base?

As the old saying goes "a bird in hand is better than two in the bush". If offered the receptionist job accept it. Than if the counceller job comes available you can make the decission of weather or not to take it. There is no guarantee you'll be offer either job, so don't worry about which one to take until there's something to worry about.

Originally Posted by OLD_SCHOOL

Personally its not something I would do, but each to his own I guess.

I agree. It is something unprofessional, and it is something I wouldnt usually do. However I really want to follow a career path, rather than a job.

But at the risk of not getting a job at all?

Originally Posted by Chimensch

Before I cast my vote, I was wondering if you would explain why you included this piece of information? What does it mean to you and, if it created problems in your marriage, how would you address them? For example, would your wife be able to relocate to Glascow with you or does she have a job she doesn't want to leave? Also, what kind of metal health counselling job are you talking about? Working in a mental hospital or in an outpatient clinic? In what capacity? If you are also considering a receptionist job, this must not be at a professional level, i.e., psychologist, but rather as nursing staff, or am I completely off-base?

I include this because I love my wife very much and we have never been in a situation which would regularly seperate us for long periods of time. My wife would be unlikely to relocate to Glasgow for health reasons. Also, she has only recently started her job here on Bute.

The job decription can be found here

And you are correct, the reception job would be considered less professional. Hope that helps.

Why work at all?

I guess what I am asking is how much of a factor are the income / expense differences between the jobs and how important is that factor

I did not vote because you left out an important piece of info: how important is your wife to you, and how much do you hate traveling?

I switched from consultant to emloyee in order to spend more time with my family.
Now, in my case, it was a step up in money and time. And while I am a developer and currently working part development and part system admin, it's not a step down and actually a valuable asset on my resume.

But you are balancing 2 things: A fun job with lousy traveling and risk of alienating your wife (believe me, this can happen) or a less fun / rewarding / valuable / ... job with a much better family life and less traveling

And I cannot make that decision because I don't know what is most important to you.
Even if I had to choose for myself, it would depends on how long I see myself doing that job, how valuable it would be for me as a step up,....
I think I'd choose for the receptionist job, forget about the counseling job and try to find a counseling job locally. because it is similar to the choice I made 2 years ago. In my case it ws also the job I wanted, but I applied because I wanted less traveling and more family time with my wife and newborn baby.

I firmly believe that working locally is much more rewarding and easier than having to travel hours every day. Just wait until you get kids and your life will be one stressful and frustrating day after the other if you have to travel for hours, schedule transportation and school or day care, ....

I'm not going to get into the which is more important job or family question, because it's not what you asked for. Speaking strictly in terms of jobs, I've had a lot of jobs and a job that isn't the one you want is worse than no job at all. If you took the receptionist job, you would be bored to death in 6 months and leave it anyway. I think you should go for the job you want and, if you don't get it, another job as good or better than the receptionist job will come around.

As a consultant I've also done jobs that were less interesting, but sometimes they were needed to carry use over until you can get a really good job. When the telecoms industry nosedived in 2002, our company felt it as well, and there was a time when we had to scrape for work. And even if some of the work was not technically challenging or interesting (and with lots of traveling) we'd do it so that we survived until things went better and we could go for the good stuff.

So I'd choose the receptionist job in order to get money in while searching for a counseling job locally.

Is my wife important to me? She is my highest priority. Have I done loads of travelling for work before? No. But as has been said, for me this is less a question of family vs work. At the end of the day my wife has her work too. We dont have any kids to complicate the issue. I dont need to be with my wife 24/7 to feel loved and to love her.

No, for me this is more a question of professional conduct and going for career at expense of job certainty. Financially both are similar money. The counsellor job is less hours. Travel will cost significantly less- I will be able to get a disabled persons railcard (an off-topic thing i'll avoid talking about).

Oh I dunno....