Leaving one job for another

alvorada

Hi,

I'm looking for a little bit of advice and hopefully someone can help me out. I'm a graduate who is currently in full-time permanent employment, however not in a graduate job or a job that has anything to do with my degree. I have been in this position for 16 months now. I don't love it -- in fact, the job is getting worse and worse the longer I'm there. We're understaffed so myself and my co-workers are expected to work over and above our contracted hours, we have no support or structure from management, etc. It's just not the best.

I randomly, sort of out of nowhere, got a phone call from a lady who works for Grovelands, a financial recruiting company here in the UK. She said she saw my CV on a graduate employment website and was interested in speaking to me about a position I may be interested in.

Naturally I was curious at first, though a bit hesitant. My degree is in Journalism, this job is in Finance. Now I'm not opposed to going into a different career from what I initially hoped -- right now I just wanted a good job, to be honest. It's a graduate position, the job is better paid than what I'm currently on... but there's a few downsides/queries that I still have. The job is initially only for 6 months, however the lady from the recruiting company says that their client is very keen on keeping on employers after the initial 6 months, it just all depends on performance, which I guess is fair enough. I then asked her what the work pattern would be like, meaning how many days/hours I would be working. She said the shifts vary and I don't have a problem with the shift times, but she didn't answer how many days I would be working, which is a bit of an issue because I wouldn't want to leave a full-time job for a part-time one.

I have to sit two online tests - a verbal test and a mathematics test and then I have a Skype interview with the lady on Monday morning. I suppose this will give me the opportunity to ask more questions which is good... I'm just a bit dubious about the whole thing?

Has anyone ever heard of this recruiting company before and are they trustworthy/reliable?

I also don't know whether it's a good idea to pursue this and leave the job I'm currently in, because it might lead nowhere and subsequently lead to be me being out of work, which would be the worst scenario out of all of this.

I just don't know whether I should be a lot more cautious with this or if I should just go for it? And I don't know if I'm just overly keen to go for it because I'm currently not happy where I am, but at the end of the day it's a full-time job and I can put up with it if I have to until something better comes along. Though I don't want to have any what if's if I decide not to go for this job. Any advice would be hugely appreciated.

jobbingmusician

My first thought was 'it's a scam! Run!'. After all, why would any financial company want to approach a graduate whose first degree was not in finance (or anything mathematical, it seems, if they want you to do a maths test).

However, when I looked them up, they are just an agency. They want to harvest your CV to add to their collection and tout to possible clients. That's all fine, if you are looking to leave your current job (and it sounds as if you are) and can afford the time to put in with them and any clients who might want to see you. You probably realised all this on one level. But on another level - you are likely to be a VERY long way from being offered a job and having to make any decision about leaving your current one.

So my advice, FWIW (and being a board guide does NOT make me a expert!) is to look for another job, if that's what you want to do. I wouldn't bother with an agency, generally. Look online and in the papers, instead. On the other hand, I would pursue this interview on Monday and see what happens. I wouldn't be likely to give up permanent employment to take a 6 month job unless it hit all sorts of buttons for me. Especially one where they were using such seemingly random methods of selecting candidates.....

I look forward to hearing more, though!

getmore4less

Sounds from your post you are just waiting for a job to fall onto your lap.

If you want to find a new job you need to do something and start looking.

This may be a start to getting you act together.

anamenottaken

I don't know what questions of your own you have lined up but if the job is in France you need to know whether you will be an employee of a French company or an expatriate employee of a UK company.

Whether your journalism degree is itself of interest depends on the job, doesn't it? Is the job actually a Finance job or simply one in a financial organisations? Have you seen a job description and person specification?

alvorada

Getmore4less, I'm not naive nor lazy enough to think a decent job will just fall into my lap. I've spent a lot of time job hunting but these things take time and so far I haven't had much luck, not for a lack of trying! I definitely have my "act together", which is precisely why I'm not wanting to rush into another job that may not be beneficial for me. As much as my current job may bother me, it's a job and it pays my finances and I'm grateful for that. I'm just always looking for jobs that will broaden my experiences and I thought this one may do that, but of course I was cautious, hence my posting here.

Thank you, jobbingmusician, for your advice. I've decided to not proceed with this current application and stick in at my current job and keep the job hunt going and perhaps I'll find myself in something better soon enough.

Anamenittaken - the job is not in France, it's in the UK. I saw the job description and it's a finance role within a financial company, though as I've stated above, I will not be pursuing this position.