My dream job has come up locally - not sure how it would work with home life.

Your husband is entitled to request flexible working. What do single parents do if they work for his employer?

This sounds like a great opportunity and you may as well be 100% optimistic about it at the moment.
I would offer them that you work 9-6 on a Saturday every Saturday and shorter weekdays. That makes you permanently available for the weddings, which must be an advantage to them.

Almost no applicant ever has every single aspect of a job advert covered 100%. The important thing is first to get your application in. If the timeline is generous enough to allow for an informal chat, use that to tailor your CV and application. Once that's done, then you can think about whether you could make it work. Is the increase in salary enough to compensate for the loss of weekend time with your family and able to fund additional childcare? There's always lots to think about but it's not a waste of time to apply.

Apply and you can make decisions if or when you need to. I have a friend who when she sees a job she wants does this, she does all the weighing up and tells us all about each job application and what she's wearing to the interview (she never takes our advice on board anyway despite 1 of us being a recruitment expert and 1 being a recruiter in her specific field) and then there's the massive crash after she doesn't get the job. Thankfully, she finally did manage to nail one she was gagging for but it was exhausting!

A few things I've thought from what you've said:

• weddings will mean some evenings (to meet couples) and some weekends (to be present at events), this might appeal to you and it could work well
• it's from home most of the time, which could work well if they're happy to be flexible to allow you to still to school drop offs in the morning. depending on their age, they could be in the house while you work after school or you have to sort some after school childcare.
• your previous experience sounds great for the customer service side and dealing with pressure but one key area I think you'll need to evidence and have a think about is event planning and project management. I've recently recruited someone for an events role and the people who did the best in interview were the ones who understood and could communicate the timelines and considerations for an event (could be a conference, a show, a wedding, whatever)
• I love that you sound passionate about the job and the location. Which is fabulous. The area I've seen most promising people fall down in interviews in various organisations and projects is when they've not done the research about the organisation who they'll be working with. I've sat in an interview where someone's said "I loved x because it did y innovatively, it's such a good idea" and I was like "why haven't they mentioned that the company that's interviewing them is the leader in Y?!" They sat there and told this company how to suck eggs when they created egg sucking, advocate for it and train others in it. Wild! So your local knowledge about what makes this venue and location unique and why their vision and values match yours are what makes me really hope you throw your hat in the ring.

Look, it's an opportunity to brush up your application skills, maybe hopefully get some interview experience.

I've gone for jobs when I've known I'm not the perfect fit for a role but I really want to work for that organisation and TWICE in different decades of my life it's ended up with them going "you're not experienced enough for that role but we're looking for someone to do this other role and no one we interviewed for it was as good a fit as you" - I did the other job and ended up in the role I'd initially interviewed for but a couple of years later. The other was me going "I know I've not got experience with this specific thing but I'm available for 2 days a week around my other job and I bring x, y, z to you and I love what you're doing." to which they went "you're right, this isn't the job for you but we're in the middle of applying for funding for a (better) post which you'll be perfect for" and in a couple of months I ended up in that really cool role. I've waffled on to make the point that you've got to put yourself out there, take some chances, be a bit vulnerable but also be yourself. If you're not the best fit, that's their loss!

Definitely apply OP

Apply

I would imagine that a lot of the work would be weekends and evenings especially summer and spring.

How old are your children? If they are still very young, I think it will be tricky to make this job happen unless you have plenty of childcare options available. If your DC are secondary school aged you should definitely apply.

What would put me off would be the weekend work. I would assume the role would be very busy most weekends in wedding season? But maybe that would work well for you as a family?

I would apply, see what happens.

If you get to the interview stage then see what the full job entails - how much wfh? Will you need to be present during the wedding days? Realistically how much on site work is there and what days? How are they expecting appointments to be managed - face to face or phone or video calls? Is there a team or just you?

If you get a job offer then start thinking about childcare and how things will work.

Something to think about though is if there is a lot of on site work and you need to be present for the wedding days is how often weddings are taking place and what days - weekends, evenings into nights, early morning starts if you need to be there to manage set up and arrival of vendors. Some venues have weddings every day of the week, some are every Friday and Saturday. Some only have a few weddings every year.

I’d apply. If there’s an option for an informal chat you could ask what does a typical week look like in terms of hours. Don’t mention childcare just try and get a flavour of job. I’d assume weekend work and less hours in week.

If you apply, it doesn’t guarantee you an interview.
If you get an interview, it doesn’t guarantee you the job.
If you’re offered the job, you don’t have to accept it.
If you accept it and it doesn’t work out, go back to plan A
If you accept it and it works out- happy days.

If you don’t apply, none of the above applies.

Good idea to ask for an informal chat.

I think it’s valuable experience to do the application and interview if you get one and tbh, it’s probably best to go in with the mindset that it’ll just be for that experience.

Where did I say that? I suggested her DH look at flexi working
and her DH would be around on the weekends to look after the kids

Are you abd the rest of your family happy for you to be working Saturdays?

Overthinking!

Apply. See what happens!

You'll figure it out.
What if you didn't apply and someone you knew got it?

Why should you not go for it other than you are a mother? You'd apply like a shot if you were a father.

Apply. Or at least find out a bit more about when and where you would be required to work. No point talking yourself out of it without more information.

Apply and see what happens, but make sure you have thought through the ‘WFH except for… ‘ situations. You would likely need to be able to see clients in the afternoons/evenings (because they work) and weddings are usually Fridays and Saturdays - what would be your plan for school pick ups and childcare? Who looks after your kids if they are sick, as you can’t skip a wedding on the day? Is your DH flexible and able to WFH in those cases, do you have a DM/DMiL who can step in at short notice?

You’ll need answers for this at interview, but more importantly, if you get an offer, you need to have these firmed in your mind and with your DH.

Is it as the coordinator at a local venue or for a company that helps couples find local venues/contractors, in which case would you need to be available to do prospective site visits etc. Again, not putting you off, just make sure you have it sorted in your mind and a plan in place.

Hmm I’m in two minds. One part of me says go for it, life is short, wasn’t it Richard Branson who said something along the lines of “say yes to everything and work out how to do it later “. I kinda like that.

Then in the other hand, there are the practicalities… how will your children get to and from school if your husband can’t do it, will your husband and kids support you every weekend in the summer if you’re at event, what will school holidays look like if you’re working from home or need childcare in the day. Whilst I don’t want to be a downer, these are things that need to be sorted. Great if you have a husband who is super flexible or a grandmother who can pick up the harder days but what if you don’t.

id hate for you to apply , get the job and then the reality of your situation means you can’t take it. Unfortunately companies do remember things like this. Say the opportunity comes up later down the line, say another 5 years, they will remember you went through the whole process, not to take it in the end. Companies hate that and it is remembered.

on the other hand if you think it’s totally doable then go for it!

Definitely apply. I would imagine that most of that work could be done within school hours.

Also you would probably need to work quite a few weekends if you are actually attending the weddings (don’t know if that is the expectation?) so there has to be some give and take in the week.

Why is childcare solely her responsibility?

Ask for an informal chat with the recruiter. That's the only way you know will know about the hours expectations and what flexibility exists. One thing I am sure you have already considered is that you will lose mostly all of your weekends in the summer.

Years ago I went to a recruitment seminar thing and they advised asking for an informal meeting about the prospective job. I have no idea on stats if it makes you more likely to get the job if you are chosen to interview, but its something to consider asking for.

And yes, I would go for it.

In these circumstances you always apply. You can turn down something you have been offered but you can’t go back to apply if you change your mind. So go do it and work out the rest as you go along