Too often what we really want eludes us and what we get is a compromise. The job, the house, the car and, dare I say, in personal relationships as well. All these things may be good, they may be very good, but they are not perfect. We’d like to be paid more, have a higher profile perhaps. We would prefer to have a smaller mortgage and another bedroom. We’d love that little red coupe and as for personal relationships, well…does your partner really understand you? Really understand you like you would like to be understood?
Thankfully, most of the time we don’t have time to dwell on this too much. Yes I know that occasionally it all blows up, but then it tends to blow over as well. We settle back to accepting that, on balance, it could always be worse, that we don’t live in Sarajevo, that the mortgage does get paid and there is enough left over for a stiff gin and tonic. Besides, a two door, two seater would never suit the flat packed goodies from IKEA. We also know that when push comes to shove however attractive the new recruit in HR might be, we’d actually prefer the quieter pace of life we have, and anyway that sort of thing is best left to Ally McBeal or Coke commercials.
So, leaving aside the car, the house and one’s partner, what happens when you get made redundant and have time on your hands, thanks to a generous (or perhaps better said, appropriate) redundancy cheque, to find the next job?
Does one jump at the first job offer that comes within last straw clutching distance? Or does one sit back, reflect that life has been harder and wait for the right job to come along. Such is the position I find myself in. On 31 May I left United Assurance on good terms following its takeover by Royal London. It brought to an end a job that promised much but had no time to deliver. However it gives me the chance to claim that I was about to do amazing things and not have those “things” tested by any reality check. The CV is in reasonable shape and apart from Euro 2000, the cricket and the golf have been welcome distractions…. In fact if retirement is this good, I can’t wait.
So far I have had two interviews with companies I was obviously not suited to…. I could only think that both companies needed the interview practice as much as I did. I have had another interview with a third company which, two jobs ago, I would have been very snooty about indeed. Now though I find myself thinking that actually it’s not a bad opportunity…. So the company is too far away, the pay is average and the prospects less than obvious, but THEY WANT ME!
I am reliably informed that I should not compromise. It is only 11 weeks and 3 days since I was last actually earning a wage and that a man of my experience (whatever that means) should be patient because undoubtedly the right job will come along.
Well, I’may or may not follow this advice, but what I do know is that the “right job” will also probably seem like a compromise a week or two after it has begun, so where does that leave me, apart from wishing that I had blown the redundancy cheque on the coupe?
