Was made redundant earlier this year, so I'm job hunting. It's a long time since I've done this, so please be gentle.
I applied for one job a while ago and have just been invited to interview. I may or may not get it, but I reckon my chances are pretty good as I'm a really good fit with what they're looking for and have some other advantages that would work really well for them even though they're not actually on the person spec. The salary is not bad at all, but it's less than what I was on before. T&C good, and the job looks interesting, but not exciting and probably not the most strategic move from a career perspective.
Since applying for that one, I have seen my absolute dream job. Totally up my street in terms of what I want to do, in a field that I'm passionate about, and a salary that would at least match my last one. Also good T&C. I meet/exceed many aspects of the person spec but there are a couple of requirements that I only partially meet at best, so it would be quite an aspirational role for me, but not beyond the scope of what's possible. It would be an amazing move in terms of career. The application deadline will fall just after the interview for the other job, but it's likely that the whole recruitment timetable would be about a month behind the first one.
What's the etiquette here? If I was offered the first job and accepted it, should I just abandon all interest in the other one? WIBU unreasonable to pursue it anyway, with the intention of giving my notice to the first one on the off chance that I was successful? I know from experience how time consuming recruitment is, and I would really hate to let the first organisation down, so I'm inclined to think I would need to give up on the second job if I was offered and accepted the first. However, my friends are saying to just go for both regardless, take the best offer and that I'm overthinking the whole thing. This doesn't sit quite right with me but I know I have a terrible habit of overthinking everything, so I'm interested to know what the general views are.
Of course, it's all hypothetical at the moment as I might not be offered either
, but just trying to work out what the etiquette would be if I was lucky enough to get an offer from both. If I applied for the second job before attending the interview for the first, would it be very unreasonable to still pursue it if I was offered the first job in the interim? I'm so confused!
For background info, I am the main breadwinner so need a job pretty soon. Consequently, I couldn't really afford to turn the first job down if it was offered -it would be like looking a gift horse in the mouth. However, I would be desperately sad to lose the other opportunity which is like a once in a lifetime chance. What to do?!
WWYD? Please be honest but kind!