Dilemma: Make money or benefit society?

jessicamb

Stay in the current job methinks. 27 is too young to have run out of career prospects!

bluecastle

Go to the interview and find a way to get answers to all the doubts you've raised on this board - prepare some questions for the interviewers that will help you make an informed decision. If the interviewers are any good they will (a) ask you why you're planning to move from the commercial to the charity sector anyway - so you'll need to convince them and yourself that you're doing the right thing - and (b) be honest in their responses to your questions.

My own experience of working for a charity was quite similar to yours. I took a pay cut to get into a charity job in a team I felt personally aligned with and it turned out to be a nightmare. The commute was exhausting and the people jobsworths who spent more on jollies than they did on anything useful. So working for a charity and benefitting society are not necessarily the same thing.

WolfSong2000

What charity/area will you be working in (PM me if you want to keep it private). I only ask because I have some experience in certain areas through my family (mother runs a charity abroad, and is involved through that with a lot of larger charities)...father also works in international development...anyhow, depending on what area you want to move into, there are decent salaries to be had, whilst still providing a useful service. problem is it's difficult to advise without knowing more about your situation, if you see what I mean?

Anyhow, what I am trying to sayis while this charity job may be the limit in of itself, it may (if it gives you the right experience) lead onto other, similar areas which may pay more.

Badger_Lady

Thanks for the advice. Bluecastle, your experience is very interesting - how awful to discover that when you've already sacrificed for the cause!

DKLS

I did land an interview for a charity a couple of years back, the cheeky swines wanted me to do a presentation on a five year plan, I turned the interview down as I got the feeling they were just after some free consultancy. I do work with a couple of charities, and the politics and cliquishness outweighs anything I have ever seen in the public sector or academic environments. Which is saying something.

getmore4less

Beware the charity gravy train.

There are pople that make their career charities and have no real interest in the causes.

Keo the paying jobs till you are financialy secure then you can pick and choose what you do and where you work.

C_Mababejive

Rule no one-look after your own a$se first.

Stay with your current job and make a good living. Let some other mug do the charity work.

Oldernotwiser

I agree with Pinkshoes - worry about it only if you're offered the job. Some decisions make themselves.

ninky_2

you must have been sufficiently unhappy in your current job to apply for a new one which suggests the charity one might be right for you.

however, use the interview not just to let them find out about you but to find out about them. try not to look at the job through rose tinted glasses but see its flaws too (not just financial). are you really convinced this charity does good work, uses donations effectively, and that you will be given the powers to change things you don't think are working well in the organisation (sometimes even senior managers don't have such powers). what sort of person are they looking for - someone who will effect changes and make decisions or someone who will tow the line? it would be very disheartening to leave a current well paid position in order to do something more fulfilling only to find it isn't actually that fulfilling (and isn't even well paid).

if you have moral scruples (and it sounds like you do), then making money will not be enough to make you happy. however, money can give you independence to make freer decision in the future - which might even include quitting the rat-race to start your own charity.

good luck.

PasturesNew

Speaking as somebody who seems unable to get a job, which I feel is partly due to my age, I'd say stick with the money while it's there. Once you hit 40, then 50 less and less choices will be available to you, so make hay while the sun shines. You can always do the charity stuff in 15 years' time or so.

Ageism doesn't exist ... until you get to those ages and realise that it does.

So many adverts want people to work in a "vibrant team" and even though you can do the job standing on your head, when you walk in there looking like everybody's mum, you know you won't be picked.

So go with the money ... one day the money won't be there any more as a choice.