I will be losing my job in April, have seen another job I want to apply for but feel terribly guilty!

[muminthecity]

I manage a youth project, we were told recently not to expect any further funding from the government, so as of the beginning of the new financial year I will be unemployed.

I have been looking around to see what my chances are of finding a new job with similar pay/prospects etc and have found the perfect job. It's within walking distance from home (big advantage after almost a decade of commuting!) with good pay and reasonable hours. I really want to go for it but the closing date is next week, which means if I were to get it they would probably expect me to start in Feb/March. This would mean leaving my current employer in the lurch, with just a month or 2 left of the project to run, noone to run it and they'd probably be unable to find somebody willing to work for just a month.

Would it be unreasonable/immoral somehow for me to apply for the new job anyway? If I did, there's every chance I won't get it anyway, and if I do I could always ask them to delay my starting date until April, though I would worry that this might put them off employing me.

Another alternative would be for me to try and arrange for one of my current employees to cover for me for the last 4-6 weeks of the project, though this may still cause complications for employer.

WWYD?

[ChippingIn]

muminthecity

Apply for the job - there is nothing wrong with applying for it.

If you don't get it - problem solved.

If you do get it then do everything you can to delay the start date, failing that do everything you can to get someone to run it until the funding runs out... do you best is the key here. If you can't then your employer will have to do their best.

You can't put your life on hold for a job that wont exist in a few months.

Of course it's tough on those who the course is for - but it's not your responsibility and your life is.

[annh]

I doubt you would actually start much before April anyway. If closing date is next week (20 Jan approx?) interviews will not take place until beginning or maybe even mid-Feb. Even assuming only one set of interviews (and there may well be a second round) they would only be in a position to make an offer mid-Feb, presume you have a month's notice where you at, and you're only a few weeks short of the end of your current role. Few employers would turn down a reasonable request for a few extra weeks unless they were desperate for you to start.

[hairyfairylights]

Apply. I work in a sector where we are reliant on funding. We do lose our good staff before the end of projects, but we expect to. Don't feel guilty!

[muminthecity]

Thank you for the replies.

annh - I honestly hadn't considered how long the application process could be. You are quite right that it will probably be a couple of weeks from the application closing date to the actual interview, possibly a second interview, plus a month's notice will actually bring us pretty close to April anyway, so may not be as big a disaster as I'd first imagined.

Thanks for all your help, I will go ahead and apply and see what happens.

[nymphadora]

Would you need a crb? You can't hand notice in til you have on

[muminthecity]

I would need a CRB, but as I already have a current one, they would let me start the new job before the new CRB came through.