Accepting a job where the pay is far from perfect

[edc]

My advice would be to care less about the pay for the first 3 years or so if it is a career you want. If you learn and can apply your experience and have some tactical moves to increase your learning and salary then you will not only be not behind the curve but ahead of it in the not too distant future. I started out working for small companies in non graduate roles unlike most of my peers who went into traditional graduate streams. I'm quite happy how my career has panned out some 10 to 15 years after initially graduating I haven't retired at 35 like I thought I wanted to do at 18 and whilst not running or owning my own business empire, I have gained a lot of transferable skills which I can take with me across multiple industries which opens up a bigger job opportunity market.

[NorthernSky]

If you stand to make contacts, learn an industry or trade from the inside or build experience (or a combination of all of these!), I'd suggest it'd be wise to go for this. Zero hour contracts don't lead anywhere.

T

[Jimmy No Hands]

I'm a similar age, and if I'm honest with myself I'm nowhere near where I'd like to be (at a similar age to you) in reality. I have a pretty much dead end role at the moment, but it's fairly easy going. Pay isn't minimum but there's no scope. But I look probably every day for new roles to appear, keep my CV up to date but also keep my work ethic up to scratch and ensure I still put a 100% in even if ultimately, it's not a job what I want forever. Something will crop up, and in my experience it doesn't take a long time to make a good impression if you have the right mind set.

My partner graduated a year ago, and although shes in an industry completed unrelated to her degree and not exactly what she wants to do, she knuckles down and has just taken a promotion after only 12 months. (With a good step up the pay scale) Once you find where you want to be, the money will follow. Don't get too hung up on it.

[UK345]

Just to update this

Three months since i opened this thread and my working life has changed. I was able to land myself a decent job with plenty of perks and i am really enjoying it. I have been given a company car and i am out and about all the time. I am a Business Development Executive for a large food and beverage company. Luckily, i was able to reject the other job i had lined up so that was a relief. I started with this job two months ago now and have been making excellent progress. I no longer have any financial worries and as far as im concerned i have started to finally build the foundations to my career. There is excellent scope for development in my role and i have the option of working on different accounts (the company have contracts many big companies).

What i have learned from my experience is that you should never give up on finding the ideal job and that you should carry out extensive research before taking interviews. One of the reasons i was offered the job was because i carried out primary and secondary research on the company and their activities. The interviewer on the phone actually thought i already worked with them since i knew that much. I had applied for a 3 months temporary role but they liked me that much that they gave me a permanent position.

So yeah all is going well for me now and i thought i would update this thread to let you guys know. I would also like to thank those who contributed to my thread.

[MrsMiggins]

Congrats.