Should I go to this interview?

MissSarah1972

hcb42 wrote: »

and unless things have changed, even on JSA you are able to keep the same job title and salary for x weeks.

It is all relative of course, if you were on £20K and now offered £13K I would not go, as it's too far back, if you are on £50K and have to take a job at £43K, then it's a no brainer, go for the interview, you never know where it will lead.

How is 20k to 13k too far back? If you are out of work and signing on for 26 weeks you have to drop the salary you'd work for to NMW meaning that you spend a lot of time applying for jobs you will not get an interview for unless they think they are onto a good thing but of course you wont stay there,

persa

MissSarah1972 wrote: »

How is 20k to 13k too far back? If you are out of work and signing on for 26 weeks you have to drop the salary you'd work for to NMW meaning that you spend a lot of time applying for jobs you will not get an interview for unless they think they are onto a good thing but of course you wont stay there,

I'm sure you understood the point that hcb42 was trying to make.

Assuming a standard tax code, a drop from £20k to £13k would take you down from £1,345 per month to £945 per month, a £400 drop and a 30% paycut. That would be a serious drop in standard of living.

From £50k to £43k, the drop in take home is less, only £335 due to losing income at a higher marginal rate of tax. Plus the fall in earnings results in only a 10% decrease of take home salary.

Someone losing £7k from a higher starting point is of course going to find it easier to adapt. Don't forget many people live with a partner, which rules them out of top up benefits, so the fall in income won't be replaced by any hand out from the government.

If you're out of work from 6 months, the Job Centre will tell you to lower your expectations and search for anything and everything. However, the OP has only recently been made redundant and is not in that position yet. On top of that, the OP may well have a nice little redundancy package to live off until finding a suitable job.

glitteringgem wrote: »

I have been offered an interview on Monday, however, I have read the info emailed over to me and the salary is extremely low. I have recently been made redundant and am seriously job hunting but this position would see me take a massive £7,000 pay cut, I am willing to take a pay cut but this seems a bit too much of a fall.

Should I politely decline the interview and explain that my salary expectations are higher than what they are offering?

I'd be tempted to go for the interview practice if nothing else. If you made clear you were looking for more money, they've wasted your time with the application, so waste a little of theirs in return and hone your interview skills. Plus, you never know, you may be able to negotiate a higher salary on the day.

How did you get the interview in the first place? If through an agency, you need to be having words as they shouldn't have put you forward for something below your expectations.

Depending on how buoyant the market is in your line of work, it may be worth trying to get an offer and buy some time before making a decision, so you have a backup option if you can't find the job you think you can get.

glitteringgem

Thank you for all your responses.

It would be a drop from £20k to £13k, I couldn't live on such a low income as I live by myself. I have only been job searching for approx. 10 days so I am going to keep going looking for higher paid roles.

I have spoken to the job centre and at this stage they are happy for me to look for jobs around the £16k mark, things would be tight on this salary but I would be able to survive. I am aware that I will have to look at lower paid salaries in the future if I don't find anything but I am still in keeping fingers crossed mode!

I feel going for a job at £13k would be under valuing my skills and experiences and I would be constantly looking for something else. So I have declined the interview and explained that I would not want to waste their time and that it is down to the salary level.

So fingers crossed something else comes my way soon or may be kicking myself over this decision!!

SGina

I agree completely with Persa's post. OP, don't go into panic mode just yet. You followed your instinct and the time that you would have spent sitting in an interview you know you were going to turn down could be used for something more productive.

People who have been out of work for a long period may have a different outlook but it doesn't mean you will spend months or years out of work. Good luck in your job search.

Acc72

glitteringgem wrote: »

responses.

It would be a drop from £20k to £13k, I couldn't live on such a low income as I live by myself.

I have spoken to the job centre and at this stage they are happy for me to look for jobs around the £16k mark,

I am sure that JSA is less than £13k ......

If you are happy to look at jobs paying £16k, then look at it this way - you are looking at a £3k drop (from £16k to £13k) and after tax this is £2k.

There are also other factors to consider.

Firstly, you are worrying about something that might not happen - you have not been offered this new job yet, why not sit down and consider the pros and cons when you have an offer ?

Is this new job closer to home? (less time and travel costs), maybe less hours (to allow to take additional temporary work in the evening/weekend - on the run up to Christmas) ?

Also, as others have said it is easier to get a job when you are already in a job.

And finally ...... you don't say how long you have been in your current job, but an interview (any interview) would be valuable practice for when your "ideal" job comes up.

Good luck as it looks as though you have made up your mind - I genuinely hope that you are not still looking for a job in 6 months and regretting not going for this one.

TheWhiteTiger

glitteringgem wrote: »

I have been offered an interview on Monday, however, I have read the info emailed over to me and the salary is extremely low. I have recently been made redundant and am seriously job hunting but this position would see me take a massive £7,000 pay cut, I am willing to take a pay cut but this seems a bit too much of a fall.

Should I politely decline the interview and explain that my salary expectations are higher than what they are offering?

My advice, personal not pro.. would be to take the job if it is one you would like. If it isn't leave it, but if it is... Well money is not everything really. You need to be happy in your job as well

DCFC79

If it were me I would have gone, yes it is lower than what I would eb looking for but theres no way of telling how long you could be out of work for. its only an interview anyway, you might not even get the job.

Mischa8

Go along for interview BUT if you get second interview etc maybe try and see if they would agree to a review of your salary in say 6 months?

I took a drop in salary of approx £8K to come to my current job 2 years ago. I should have asked for a slightly higher salary too but wanted to appear keen so went for lower option.

Unfortunately in this day and age employers seem to not give pay rises - like my current employer. Or expect their pound of flesh like one Bilingual PA I know - who works from 8am to 8pm and is available (on Blackberry etc) at weekends, if needed.

Mischa8

glitteringgem wrote: »

Thank you for all your responses.

It would be a drop from £20k to £13k, I couldn't live on such a low income as I live by myself. I have only been job searching for approx. 10 days so I am going to keep going looking for higher paid roles.

I have spoken to the job centre and at this stage they are happy for me to look for jobs around the £16k mark, things would be tight on this salary but I would be able to survive. I am aware that I will have to look at lower paid salaries in the future if I don't find anything but I am still in keeping fingers crossed mode!

I feel going for a job at £13k would be under valuing my skills and experiences and I would be constantly looking for something else. So I have declined the interview and explained that I would not want to waste their time and that it is down to the salary level.

So fingers crossed something else comes my way soon or may be kicking myself over this decision!!

I would point out, kindly, that you may want to look at a 2nd job option if you continually get offered jobs under a liveable wage.

Before I had my baby and went back to work I did do babysitting once or twice a week cash in hand to earn more money. Don't do it now but it certainly eased the burden.

Jamie_Carter

glitteringgem wrote: »

Thank you for all your responses.

It would be a drop from £20k to £13k, I couldn't live on such a low income as I live by myself. I have only been job searching for approx. 10 days so I am going to keep going looking for higher paid roles.

I have spoken to the job centre and at this stage they are happy for me to look for jobs around the £16k mark, things would be tight on this salary but I would be able to survive. I am aware that I will have to look at lower paid salaries in the future if I don't find anything but I am still in keeping fingers crossed mode!

I feel going for a job at £13k would be under valuing my skills and experiences and I would be constantly looking for something else. So I have declined the interview and explained that I would not want to waste their time and that it is down to the salary level.

So fingers crossed something else comes my way soon or may be kicking myself over this decision!!

So how much would you be on with JSA??