Received an offer. Should I take it???

aqueoushumour01

Hoping for a bit of advice about graduate schemes.

I left it a bit late to apply and so have only been to one assessment centre so far. I have been offered a position with a good company/wage but it's not perfect for two reasons. One, it's outside of London (although not a million miles away) and 2) It's not my preferred line of business although it provides good career prospects.

I had one interview today and another last week with other companies. I may have a few more coming up over the next few weeks. All are offering positions in my preferred business areas.

I have about one week and a half to decide whether to accept or decline the offer and I'm torn. On the one hand if I take it, I'm worried I may regret my decision (I really want to be in London) But if I decline and have no more offers, what would I do then. I'm 24 and so I don't know whether graduate scheme recruiters will take me seriously if I apply from oct 2008 (I graduated in 2006).

Has anyone else been in this situation? Can anyone offer any advice???

Any help would be much appreciated. :beer:

ka7e

I'd say take the offer. Presumably it doesn't involve an immediate start so there is no reason why you can't attend interviews with other organisations. If you get a better offer, withdraw from the first, otherwise it's your safety net!

robpw2

do what your heart wants

melancholly

well you have a week and a half - so don't panic now! take time to think about it and if this is a job you want to do, then go for it!! if it's not, then i'm with ka7e, accept the offer - until you physically sign a contract, then you're fine.

pinkshoes

What's so great about London? I wouldn't move there unless a company was paying at least £28k as a graduate starting salary!!

I would use the fact you've already been offered a job as a bargaining tool in your up and coming interviews. In my gap year, I got offered a job with sponsorship, but had also applied to another job with better sponsorship that I was hoping to get a 2nd interview for.

The job I got offered was held open for 2 weeks, so I phoned up the other company to ask when they were going to make the decision about the 2nd interview (I knew people who'd already been rejected, so knew mine wasn't a definite 'no').

I got the 2nd interview, but took a gamble and turned down the first job. Lucky for me it paid off, but it IS a gamble...

Do you feel confident you'll get one of these other jobs?

What have you been doing for the last 2 years?

aqueoushumour01

pinkshoes wrote: »

What's so great about London? I wouldn't move there unless a company was paying at least £28k as a graduate starting salary!!

I would use the fact you've already been offered a job as a bargaining tool in your up and coming interviews. In my gap year, I got offered a job with sponsorship, but had also applied to another job with better sponsorship that I was hoping to get a 2nd interview for.

The job I got offered was held open for 2 weeks, so I phoned up the other company to ask when they were going to make the decision about the 2nd interview (I knew people who'd already been rejected, so knew mine wasn't a definite 'no').

I got the 2nd interview, but took a gamble and turned down the first job. Lucky for me it paid off, but it IS a gamble...

Do you feel confident you'll get one of these other jobs?

What have you been doing for the last 2 years?

Since graduating I've done a few unpaid work experience placements. It's always been an ambition of mine to work in London and I love it everytime I go there.

Would it be the end of the world if I had to apply again later in the year and get something I really want? I can't decide.

aqueoushumour01

ka7e wrote: »

I'd say take the offer. Presumably it doesn't involve an immediate start so there is no reason why you can't attend interviews with other organisations. If you get a better offer, withdraw from the first, otherwise it's your safety net!

I thought that a signed offer forms a wrriten contract and therefore an agreement to work for the company unless they find something wrong with the references. Isn't this the case??

pinkshoes

aqueoushumour01 wrote: »

Since graduating I've done a few unpaid work experience placements. It's always been an ambition of mine to work in London and I love it everytime I go there.

Would it be the end of the world if I had to apply again later in the year and get something I really want? I can't decide.

So long as what you do between now and next year is relevant to the career you want to get into, then there should be no problem.

It's unexplained gaps in your CV since graduating that companies tend to have a problem with!! And companies DO like those who already have work experience in the chosen field...

I love London, but I'd never want to live there. All my mates live there, so I get the best of both worlds - can visit them when I want, don't have to live there.

Blacksheep1979

can I ask what your 'preferred line of business' is?

GoldenEye

I have been in this situation. I applied for an engineering grad job but got offered two different graduate roles within the same company. I turned down both job offers and ended up unemployed for a long time!
You can always accept the job, gain valuable employment experience and leave later. That was one thing I didn’t consider. Trust me, unemployment is difficult to explain to an employer!

Graduate jobs are VERY hard to find. Reports say that only 10% of all graduates actually get on graduate schemes. Graduates are going to find it harder from now on, especially under the current economy "crisis".

Though I agree with some of the other posters that say, "follow your heart", it wouldn’t be the worse thing in life if you take the job. I speak from experience when things went frequently wrong, though life has worked out extremely well for me!

Good luck!

aqueoushumour01

Blacksheep1979 wrote: »

can I ask what your 'preferred line of business' is?

i'm looking to get into the insurance industry