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Schischnaschnappi

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Malthusian

I wouldn't hold the reference situation against L&G. It wouldn't have looked great from L&G's perspective but the important thing is that everything got straightened out in the end. Both companies are massive and unfortunately both of them will be prone to one hand not knowing what the other is doing.

If you're uncomfortable with hassling people about their debts for a living and are leaning towards the L&G job, and it has the advantage of starting one month earlier (not just one month extra pay, but one less month they can change their minds), then I see no reason to believe you are wrong.

A level 2 NVQ in Financial Services is equivalent to a GCSE. It's not my area, but is it going to make that much of a difference to your career prospects in the long run? (I'm trying my hardest to not make jokes about having a certificate saying "Professional Banker" on your cubicle wall.)

If you take the L&G job you can always study for an equally good or better qualification in your own time out of your own pocket.

Lioness_Twinkletoes

It's really bad form to delete a post that has received responses.

Apologies in advance because I feel like this is very long winded!

I have recently been offered 2 jobs and am struggling to decide which one to take. They are both paying a similar salary and benefits, the same hours and virtually the same city centre location.

My main issue really is which company is going to offer me the best prospects career wise so I'm hoping someone on here will be able to give me some first-hand information about the companies in question or just general advise.

The first position is as a personal claims manager at Legal and General, the second is a customer service advisor for RBS.

I am aware RBS is now the majority government owned and the advise from a few people I know have said that could affect job security and any career progression.

The thing that I liked about this position was the qualifications on offer - a Level 2 NVQ in Financial Services and a Professional Banker certificate.

The thing that I disliked about this job was that the role would be within collections for unsecured loans and I am aware it'll be very high pressure and target orientated. However as it is a 18 month apprenticeship, only 6 months would be in direct customer contact, the remainder would be back office paperwork.

My hope would be to have the potential to move areas when I had finished my qualification if I didn't enjoy that environment.

Legal and General as a whole I think I would prefer. As this is still call centre work I am aware this too will be high pressure and target orientated but in a different respect to RBS - trying to get people to pay money they don't have. However L&G have give me a right run around since I was offered the job. I was originally offered the same role with them in July until there was an issue with my reference.

I took some time off sick from my last job and was called to a disciplinary hearing for my abscence. Problem was my employer sent all correspondence to the wrong address and I was sacked in my abscence. I went through ACAS and they have since agreed due to their own error this wouldn't be put on any future references. Problem was that this was still ongoing when legal and general requested my reference. I did make them aware of the ongoing dispute and this was all confirmed to be okay.

Fast forward several weeks of referencing and sending various documentation and it is the Friday before the Monday I am due to start. I have had no correspondence from L&G and I spent the best part of the day chasing them up to be told unfortunately due to my reference saying I was dismissed, my offer was withdrawn.
Obviously this was irritating as they were aware of this and still continued with the other various processes needed for referencing and then didn't bother to get in touch to let me know they had reached this decision.

The woman I spoke to said if my dismissal is overturned, they can look at other prospects for me and to get in touch. So I did and they offered me a September start date whilst RBS is October.

Now here I am with 2 job offers and not the slightest idea of what to do... Help!