I’ve stupidly accepted 2 jobs - Help deciding please 🙏🏻

[Isabella83]

Ok so I know I’m being unreasonable but I need an outside perspective on which job I should actually go through with.

Job A - 40-50 min drive, £26k, 4 days a week working 8.30-5; with 1 day WFH.

Job B - 5 min drive/15 minute walk, £27.5k, 4 long days working 8-6 OR 5 normal days working 9-5 where I could fit the morning school run in.

Job A is my preferred choice in terms of job satisfaction, client group, and the team I’d be working with.

But Job B is obviously more convenient in terms of juggling childcare and involves less travel/fuel costs etc.

Help me decide please?

Which has better long term or promotion prospects? Working 4xlonger days I’ve always found better as I can flex move the spare day if an Emergency comes up. And yes get the childcare sorted as that’s really key.

You haven't actually told us anything about the actual jobs here. Sure just going on the terms job B looks better, but it's not just about that.

Job B, hands down. If it's your first post-qualifying job then I'd probably say 9-5 5 days to start with, to give you a bit more down time each day and also so that you are 'present' each day to see what's going on. Also, my experience of four long days is that you end up getting sucked into things on your day off if you unless you are very, very disciplined about it. However, I would try and keep that on the table so that once you feel you are up to speed with everything and are well settled in, you could shift onto it if you wanted.

I’m an allied health professional. Job A is in children and adolescent mental health services and job B is forensic mental health (offenders).

To do both those roles you need to be able to demonstrate an understanding of ethical behaviour. You're obviously lacking that quality.

Job B. Better hours and money (four days working works out great) and way more interesting.

With it being your first job post qual, i would go with which has better career progression/ is in the area you want to work in
Short term pain for long term gain

It's perfectly normal for newly-quallified HCPs to apply for more than one job immediately post-qualification. Wind your neck in.

I'd go for B but tbf that would interest me more regardless of convenience etc.

Did 12 years working with kids and adolescents and very happy to be out of it tbh!

I hope it becomes known that you've accepted two jobs, they're both withdrawn and you're blacklisted. If you have any kind of professional registration you're unfit to hold it. You knew full well when accepting the second job you'd already accepted the first one.

Applying for several jobs is normal. Accepting more than one isn't.

I don’t know why people are questioning your ethics. I’m sure you didn’t realise you were going to be offered both. You don’t tell a potential new employer that you would like a few days to wait and see if you’re offered another job. You also wouldn’t say can I give you an answer in a few days because you’ve accepted another role and your not sure. Most employer wouldn’t wait, they would just go with the next candidate. Which is exactly what one of these employers will do once OP rejects the role. Every worker/candidate is completely replaceable. The OP has done the right thing in weighing up her choices.

OP you haven’t been stupid. They sound like different roles which very different implications for your life and future career. Take your time to make your decision. I would say B for convenience but you need to think about your future career. If A has better prospects for what you want to do long term then you need to weigh up whether that outweighs the inconvenience… if not definitely go for B

Job B.

8 hours a week commuting… what a waste.

Once you've accepted a role you aren't free to accept another one.

Thank you for your thoughts everyone, I really appreciate it.

I obviously didn't expect to be in this position, and I basically have 2 employers who are really keen to get me on their team which I'm very grateful for. I need to have a think about it over the next day or so. The start date for either job isn't until August so I'm sure either one won't have an issue in finding a new candidate before then.

@ilovesooty you need to chill out a bit.

How old are your children?

Can you not leverage the fact you have another offer to negotiate on working from home/part time work for the role you prefer?

Two offers is great! Well done!

DD is 8

If you are an OT or similar which I suspect you are, you will be surprised at how small a community it can be. People network and stay in touch with ex colleagues. If it comes to light you have actually accepted 2 jobs it will be frowned on as a minimum and makes you look flaky and disingenuous. Also both organisations will be working behind the scenes with dbs checks etc.

And aside from this don't you care that another candidate has missed out because of you and may subsequently accept a job they didn't want as much as one of these? It's pretty selfish don't you agree?

@Cheeseandlobster no I don’t.

Says rather a lot about you I think. I wouldn't have wanted to work with someone who behaves as you have. I hope those teams do communicate with one another. Yes people who are challenged for their behaviour often suggest that those who challenge them 'chill out'.

Of course it’s normal to apply to multiple jobs - you’d be mad not to. Most people don’t accept multiple jobs as the OP has.

@Talia99 exactly.

Wow.

I am an OT. I hope I don't end up working with you in future. You appear to have no insight

Some of these replies are bonkers. Op you have don't nothing wrong in applying for two job. It's very usual to apply for roles within different areas.

When I qualified we went through central recruitment and were placed where needed, I reapplied for the area I wanted.