Am I mental? Job content

I’m soon to come out as a graduate and I’ve had trouble lining up a job. I got a call from a recruiter the other day saying offering me the perfect job. In London.

Now as I really really want a job, and it was such a good role, I was all excited. Now I think the prospect of having to live there is eating away at me. Plus I’d be away from the misses and have a hard time getting any riding in.

Collective thoughts? Suck it up and take the location for a few years on the basis of the job being such a fit for me?

You won’t be the only one working in London in the week and travelling home at weekends.

Depends on how long you and your partner can keep that up for though, I give it 2 years before either one of you freaks out.

Do it, you might just love London.

(I didn’t, but that was probably more to do with the job being shite)

So you’ve spent years training for this line of work, are about to graduate, are offered the ideal job and you decide riding is more important!

If the salary is good then take the job and keep looking for something else, plan to move in a year or so.

You will be more employable if you have a job. Use it as a stop gap till you find something else.
So yes, suck it up (I am sure that your loving partner will understand)

The best qualification for getting a good job is already having a good job. EDIT – As Fasthaggis just beat me to saying.

Go for it, as soon as you have the offer in your hands (and not a moment before) you can question if you actually want the job. As soon as you start, get on with making your plans to get a new but similar job nearer to home.

If you’re young, early 20s, then that’s not the time to be inflexible about where you can and cannot work (appreciate if you’re older you may have more on your plate).

Besides, London can be a mesmerising place – it’s not all shandies and shit mountain biking. You have to try it at some point in your life.

Can’t your partner move too? I’m guessing if you’ve just graduated, then you are both of the kind of age where you have fewer ties to your current area, (kids settled in good schools, looming exams, elderly parents etc.)

From experience, once you have worked in London, similar businesses anywhere else always look more favourably on you relative to an equivalent candidate.

Even if you stick it out for 18 months to 2 years, it’s a perfect stepping stone. You can easily then justify to the next employer that you took the perfect role in London at a young graduate age, but now are ready to relocate out of the capital for a better lifestyle.

So you’ve spent years training for this line of work, are about to graduate, are offered the ideal job and you decide riding is more important!

Priorities in correct order*. I could get paid great rates in that London, but I actively avoid it.

*I struggle with doing sensible adult-type things.

Think this is very good advice, though:

You will be more employable if you have a job. Use it as a stop gap till you find something else.

Definitely do it, London is a great place to me as a recent grad as long as you have a little bit of spending money left after paying your rent. It’s the experiences you have now that will set you up for the rest of your career – note that they may not necessarily be work related experiences. I took the safe route, still enjoyed myself,but know that I would be in a better place if I had done the London thing for a couple of years when I was in my 20s.
Latter in life, once you’re more settled, particularly with kids, and need more space then working in London and commuting in becomes a real bind.

Think of it as a years ‘sabbatical.’ You get little or no riding in but you get a lot of experience, and also the chance to tick off all the cultural stuff that London is good for. At the end of it (which will come round surprisingly quickly), you can then look elsewhere with some (hopefully) decent prospects as you’ve worked hard to build up your knowledge.

What Rob said. Theres barely a day go by when I don’t get called by an agency offering me work in London. Would I do it? No. Bloody. Way. I’m in a different situation than the OP though but I personally value the life outside of work which my job affords me. And if that means a 30 minute commute home to a house in the grim north with some excellent riding on my doorstep then so be it 😉

London ain’t so bad for riding as you think. Riding IN London is pretty good, so long as you keep your wits about you. It’s less than an hour on the train to the Surrey Hills and some pretty fine MTBing.

I planned to do roughly what you’re thinking of – stay for a year or so. I finally upped and left after 17. Still visit London quite regularly and its still a cool place to work, but yup, the living and riding outside the SE is ultimately WAY better.

Priorities in correct order*. I could get paid great rates in that London, but I actively avoid it.

It sounds like the OP isn’t in that fortunate position though – he’s already stated he’s having trouble lining up a job.

I got a call from a recruiter the other day saying offering me the perfect job.

It will be a lie.

Don’t believe a single word that comes out of their mouths – as bad as (if not worse than) estate agents, in my experience.

(except for one person at my current agency, who actually seems capable of stringing together two words without either of them being a lie).

Dave

It will be a lie.

Don’t believe a single word that comes out of their mouths – as bad as (if not worse than) estate agents, in my experience.

(except for one person at my current agency, who actually seems capable of stringing together two words without either of them being a lie).

Dave

Talking from experience? They do seem very sharkish/salesmany

I had a phone interview, the companies a big player in my industry. Shame about the location.

You won’t be the only one working in London in the week and travelling home at weekends.

Depends on how long you and your partner can keep that up for though, I give it 2 years before either one of you freaks out.

That lifestyle must be weird though? Having somewhere just to sleep during the week, then going back up north for two nights?

If you’re young, early 20s, then that’s not the time to be inflexible about where you can and cannot work (appreciate if you’re older you may have more on your plate).

Its not that I’m inflexible it’s that I draw a line across milton keynes. Wait, that’s being inflexible….

Remember it’s always easier to find a new job when you’ve already got a job.

Apologies if this has already been said, I can’t be bothered to read through.

I do see the benefits of living there. Me and her always agreed no to it, that’s why I think she’s rather miffed that I’m considering it. She would move, its just not to London. Have other offers from other companies, its just this role seems to be the pick of the litter.

Mountain bikes are a bad idea at the moment, too much uncertainty about wheel sizes and fear of trails coming alive (and presumably consuming me like a giant tongue?). Not wanting to invest in the betamax of MTB (thanks combined shifters/ levers preventing V brake uptake and QR wheel set limiting fork options) I’d sell all my kit, buy a vintage track bike and some mismatched carbon rims and hang out at the track for a few years working your dream job. Then quit, buy a 26′, flat barred, aluminium (its the next niche) framed 3×8 geared mtg and then ride BW’s following paper maps in the Hills.

Thanks everyone, and everyone for their words of wisdom.

meehaja – Member
Mountain bikes are a bad idea at the moment, too much uncertainty about wheel sizes and fear of trails coming alive (and presumably consuming me like a giant tongue?). Not wanting to invest in the betamax of MTB (thanks combined shifters/ levers preventing V brake uptake and QR wheel set limiting fork options) I’d sell all my kit, buy a vintage track bike and some mismatched carbon rims and hang out at the track for a few years working your dream job. Then quit, buy a 26′, flat barred, aluminium (its the next niche) framed 3×8 geared mtg and then ride BW’s following paper maps in the Hills.

Best advice I’ve ever received!

Talking from experience? They do seem very sharkish/salesmany

I had a phone interview, the companies a big player in my industry. Shame about the location.

Ah right, never mind then – if you get to the point where they’re talking about a real company with real roles, then you’re ok. My experience is that lots of them will try to sucker you in to talking to them with pretend roles, or example companies.

I’ve done the ‘living in the country, working in London during the week’ lifestyle. It can be worked, but you’ll massively eat into your biking life.

Worth an ask whether they’d allow you compress hours at all. I started late on Mondays, and finished early on Fridays, so I could do my travel off-peak and keep my weekends to be actually weekends. I even managed to compress 5 days into 4 for a bit, so I had long weekends at home. That is more of an ask of an employer though.

Dave

Never thought of that, asking couldn’t hurt. Never know they might prefer me doing that.

I’m soon to come out as a graduate

Just building up the courage… 😉

Do it. It’s a job, at a company worth getting experience at. And after the bedding in period, you’ll either love London, or decide it’s not for you – either way you can say you did it.

Just building up the courage…

You have no idea how ‘hard’ its been…

“Remember it”s always easier to find a new job when you’ve already got a job.”

So true

I say do it, but I am bias since moving to London I have had the best time of my life

Only a hop to the Surrey Hills. best woodland riding in the UK – FACT

Perfect job? It may well be. But you don’t have to take their word for it. Do you know – or can you find – anyone else who’s worked for or with this company?
You don’t mention how big the firm is, but if it’s a large one you might be able to find employee references on it at a site like glassdoor.com.
And look at LinkedIn. See if you can find profiles of other people who’ve had the same job at the same firm. Where did they come from and where did they go? And how long did they stay?
Here’s a useful search query: site:uk.linkedin.com “company name” “position title”
(Bing seems to give more reliable results for this sort of search than Google, no idea why).