Take a job I don't love or keep on temping?

Crasher

Hi! I've been reading these forums for ages, but never had a question to ask before today.

So, here goes. It might get long. Sorry...

I've been trying to break into the charity industry, specifically communications roles, for almost a year now. I've been temping through an agency who've so far been awesome at putting me straight into another job when the preceding one ends (knock on wood). I've started applying for jobs like a maniac. Temping is great as a stop-gap, but I'm 30 now and want to start climbing the ladder. I studied journalism at uni, speak English and French fluently, work hard, etc etc. After uni, though, I traveled for a year, taught English in S.E. Asia, took a photography course, etc. Then, I moved to Manchester in the middle of the credit crunch, took the first job that came my way (Insurance, which is now the only thing I get calls from recruiters about). And thus, I've built up loads of life experience but my CV doesn't scream 'hire me to do communications'.

Interviews slow in coming at first, but in the last month, things have picked up. I have had 5 communications-ish interviews so far since mid Jan - One was posponned as the line manager was off on long term sick, one said I didn't have enough experience in an aspect of the position, one offered no feedback, and the fourth one, pretty much a dream job for me, rejected me yesterday. They said I interviewed really well, and it came down to me and one other candidate (out of hundreds of applications). They were really impressed by me, but I didn't know some UK-centric stuff that the other applicant knew (annoying, as I wasn't born here) so they gave it to them.

The 5th interview was yesterday. It was for an admin assistant with a small charity - doing basic stuff. Filing, answering phones, etc. The pay is less, it's a year long contract, the hours are longer, and I'm pretty sure they force you to take some of your holiday allotment at Christmas (annoying as I don't celebrate Christmas). Obviously this is hypothetical as they've not made me an offer yet, but if they do.. I'm not sure I want to take it.


Knowing that I was in the running for a job like the communications one above, well, it makes me want to hold out for something that'd better use my skills.
Here is a pros and cons list to taking that job (or any similar offer, for that matter).

PROS
- It's steady, for a year (possibly longer), which is more than I have now
- Apparently it's easier to find a job when you have a job
- They're keen on sending whoever gets the job on courses, and training them.
- The woman who interviewed me said she started as admin, and now she's worked her way up and she's keen for others to do the same
- I've been looking for a dream job for ages now. Maybe I should settle for this, volunteer in communications and then get my foot in the door that way?
-My temp job will quite likely end at the end of March

CONS
- I might want to keep looking for a job. Where I am now, I can take all the time I want to go to interviews. There, I'd feel guilty, and find it hard to explain. Plus, job-hopping looks bad on a CV. No?
-Not fantastic pay, 9-5:30 (that's 10h a month extra!), boring job, etc,


-It's not building experience in the area I want
Whew. Hope I covered everything. But what would you do? I think past of this is because I've just turned 30, and I don't want to waste time mucking about in low paid, low prospect jobs. Y'know?

Crasher

Wow. Sorry to anyone who had to read that before I figured out how to paragraph on here. Geesh.

whitewing

Take the new job. Continue to apply but only for dream jobs, but at least have the respect to not mention it 'off the record' to work friends. You don't have to commit to your new job for a whole year, do you? I don't mean leave at the drop of a hat, as I don't think that is fair, but neither is there a need to hold yourself back.

Volunteer at a charity too. That will help tremendously for hearing about opportunities etc.

McKneff

Can't help but agree with whitewing, get your foot in the door and it gives you the chance of hearing about other opportunities.

Good luck with it, whatever you decide.

WolfSong2000

If you're looking to get into the charity sector and you speak french, look at organisations that deal with Africa...quite a lot of them require candidates who speak French. Saw a communications job the other day which required French language skills, but have been applying for so many myself recently that I can't remember which organisation it was - sorry.

With the perm job, look at the organisation as a whole. If the woman interviewing you moved up, you could to. Would you enjoy working in another area of that company? If not, stick with the temp work for now and try and supplement it with voluntary work. If you decide you want to go down that route, let me know and I may be able to help

Crasher

Thanks for your replies. I really, really appreciate your help.

As an aside, I didn't intend to apply for this job. I've been focusing on communications roles and fundraising / marketing / PR / press roles with a high level of communications stuff in the job description. One of my agencies put me forward for this and I thought I might as well give it a go.

I guess my major concern with this is all is, will it hinder me in getting to a good job in the near future? I'll work my tail off while I'm there, but would it look bad on me if 3 or 6 months on I move on, and have that as a blip on my CV? What about references? I wouldn't want a stream of places calling them up and telling them I've applied there. Is it hard to schedule interviews (especially those short notice ones places seem so fond of) and sneak around behind their backs to get to them? Will jobs look past me with the last few jobs on my CV being this admin one, then temp jobs for a few months before that, then insurance before that?

@Whitewing and McKneff - If it's a year contract, that doesn't mean anything bad happens if I don't stick out the year other than the usual semi-annoyed bosses if you leave too quickly, right? I'd never mention it to anyone there at all, and absolutely only leave if it was a true dream job. And yeah, I'm all

@WolfSong2000 Ooh! Good call. I've seen a few pop up here and there, but they're usually accompanied by "must have knowledge of Africa". I'll look into some more, though. As for this charity, without giving too much away, the nature of it doesn't really lend itself to having a massive communications department. I don't know if it has one at all at the moment, which might be a good chance to step up and do whatever comes along, but I can't imagine it'd be much. But whichever route I choose, I have ever intention of supplementing with voluntary work. An extra reference, extra experience and doing good in the world all in one fell swoop. Any help you can offer, I'd love to hear more about.

heretolearn_2

If it were in a business, i'd understand hesitating. But one of your big problems is lack of experience. You want to work in charities communications yet you have no experience of either charities or communications. This is the opportunity to get some charity experience and you could learn a lot in an admin role that will be extremely useful to you.

I worked in charity communications a few years ago (and do regret moving away from it) and got there because of communications experience in commercial sector. I found there was a huge amount to learn and adapt to in the charity field. Equally, I met lots of people who worked in similar roles who got there through other roles at charities and then moved into communications. I never met anyone who went straight in with no experience on either side unless they were a graduate trainee straight from uni.

whitewing

I guess because of the way charities are funded, esp in difficult economic times, they are offering the job for a year as they potentially won't know if there will be funding for it after that year. You would have to check your contract, but I wouldn't imagine anything awful would happen if you left early. I wouldn't expect you to have too many interviews during that time as I would expect you to only be applying for really relevant jobs. So annual leave could take care of that. Some places may allow a bit of flexi time anyway - just depends if you would need to cover the phone.

C_Mababejive

Whats love got to do with it? The main thing is cash in the bank and regularly..

magenta22

Only you can make the decision but...

I took on a contract role that was supposed to be for 9 months, it lasted for 6 months only.

Temping is not really job hopping, it is showing initiative and that you are willing to try your hand at other things, it also shows that you are confident as you can go into a new company and get on with the job.

It will give you some experience in the field you are looking to get into.

WolfSong2000

Crasher - have sent you a Private Message (PM) about voluntary communications work that's available