Applying for a new job, however...

[Ki3r]

I currently work at Tescos in the petrol station. Its not where I planed to be if I'm honest, coming up to 4 years in a couple of weeks, but its a job at the end of the day.

I've started my application for the Army, however it could be a while (6/7 months at the earliest) before I start training, the thought of being stuck at Tescos for that long is depressing. I'm already at the stage were I'm having to drag myself to work.

I want to have a look for some other jobs, not sure what I want yet, but part of me feels a little bit bad as I don't plan on staying that long.

On one side, its my life and I want to enjoy life, which at Tescos I'm not. But, I don't like the idea of letting someone down, someone is going to spend time training me and what not, for me to leave in a few months seems pretty stty.

Does anyone have any advice? Have you been in a similar situation? If you employed someone, and they left after a few months, would you be annoyed?

I would be completely honest with them, wouldn't just say 'oh I'm leaving next week to join the Army'.

Any help would be great!

If anyone wants to give me a job as well...xD

[rog007]

I would first need to have confidence in the timeline to Army recruitment. Speak to your careers office and try to get some reassurance of when. Only with that reassurance can you realistically make any call on what to do next. Personally, I'd stay put, work hard, try to get some new experiences, but most importantly, earn money while you wait. Good luck!

[Puggit]

Amusingly, the only time I've been in a similar situation is when I left school, knowing I was going to Uni in a few months. I applied to Tesco (just to work the summer), but I suspect they knew I wouldn't hang around and declined to offer me an interview, saying I was over-qualified!

[Ki3r]

rog007 said:

I would first need to have confidence in the timeline to Army recruitment. Speak to your careers office and try to get some reassurance of when. Only with that reassurance can you realistically make any call on what to do next. Personally, I'd stay put, work hard, try to get some new experiences, but most importantly, earn money while you wait. Good luck!

Its really down to me, if I work hard and get my fitness up it could be before the end of the year, if not longer. Am trying with my fitness, so hopefully this year!

Bit tricky to get new experiences at Tesco without going for a team leader role...which I applied for, but changed my mind. Pretty much can do everything in the petrol station, kinda like a team leader I guess.

Puggit said:

Amusingly, the only time I've been in a similar situation is when I left school, knowing I was going to Uni in a few months. I applied to Tesco (just to work the summer), but I suspect they knew I wouldn't hang around and declined to offer me an interview, saying I was over-qualified!

Thats what I was worrying about, I don't want to waste my time either.

[Jonathan27]

You could go and work in a call centre, they genuinely don’t expect most people to stay for long. Your unlikely to find an ideal job as a stop gap, so perhaps staying with Tesco for a few more month s(knowing that its not long) would be the best option.

[Frog Dog]

Stick it out mate, you'll be amazed how much nicer it will be when you have been accepted into the army and you won't even care about the Tesco job anymore, it won't matter if anyone gets the hump with you or if you turn up late.

[SteveS Cup]

How fit do you need to be to apply for the army out of interest?

[Ki3r]

Jonathan27 said:

You could go and work in a call centre, they genuinely don’t expect most people to stay for long. Your unlikely to find an ideal job as a stop gap, so perhaps staying with Tesco for a few more month s(knowing that its not long) would be the best option.

I was looking at LV, they've got some jobs in a call centre...but I don't think I would last long at all, I get a fair amount of abuse at Tesco at the moment (more than when I'm on duty with the Police!), think I would end up hanging myself lol.

SteveS Cup said:

How fit do you need to be to apply for the army out of interest?

Mile and a half run in 10:30.
44 press ups in 2 minutes.
50 sit ups in 2 minutes.
As many pull ups as possible in 2 minutes I believe.

Might not seem hard for some...but I did weigh over 21 stone, so still getting there!

Have to say, going to the gym/run makes me feel a lot better for the rest of the day. Hopefully work will be OK today!

[swiftpete]

Fitness requirements.


http://www.army.mod.uk/join/20153.aspx

It's pretty vague, doing something as many times as you can doesn't really mean much.

You can always get a courier job, presuming you can drive. I did this about 10 years ago and drove all over the UK and sometimes Ireland. I was only there for a few months as I was going to Australia, but I didn't hide that fact and it didn't matter. It was alright really as I got to see a lot of places that I probably wouldn't have done otherwise.

Edited by swiftpete on Wednesday 24th August 12:25

Edited by swiftpete on Wednesday 24th August 12:26

[Ki3r]

swiftpete, I was looking into courier work, but I've only got a B, B1 and fkp on my license. All the driving jobs on the local paper ask for LGV.

doogz, the money isn't too bad really, £7 a hour. Plus its a safe job, chances of me turning up tomorrow and being told that its my last day isn't going to happen really. Can't take the chance with being a labourer. Saw a advert in the paper today, just apply at the building site and start straight away...can guess you can just get sacked that quickly as well.

Decided that I'm going to have a look around for something else, if something comes up, brilliant. If not its only a few more months. Might try and get transfered to the main store as well, gets a bit boring working with middle aged women all day!

[Keep it stiff]

If you are confident that your army application will go through successfully I think you would be better to stay put until it does.

Having given good service to your employer you won't be letting anyone down to move on, just be sure to give the correct period of notice in due course.

If you jumped ship to something else in the meantime no sooner would you be up to speed than you would be off to the army. That would most likely rankle.

I suggest you find something else to invigorate yourself between now and your army offer coming through. Previous replies have picked up on the army fitness requirements, an interim fitness regime might be one idea. Alternatively, you could do something academic or perhaps something for charity. Set yourself a challenge, Tesco pays your bills and at the same time they demand no more than 25% of your time, sleep demands perhaps 33%, so you have 40% of your time available to you right now, fill this productively and the interim drudgery of Tesco won't seem so bad.

Good luck.