It may not come to this at all, but basically I have been made redundant but my employers have let me stay on 'gardening leave' to follow up some internal roles that were in the offing.
I'm apparently on to the second stage for one of them - like the other ones they are a totally different job to my 20+ year career so far, though a decent skills match, basically they are sales support rather than content/editorial which has been my work life for two decades.
The skills part doesn't especially worry me, I think I can do them without difficulty. The scary part is I have always appreciated having jobs that I could work 9-5 and have a lunch break. I like to be busy, but I'm a work-to-live person, not a live-to-work one. This role would be more money and potential large bonuses but I think it would mean long days with no let-up much of the time. And I'm not sure how I'd feel about it. I might love it, I might hate it; I might crash and burn; I might find I should have been doing this all my life.
One thing people at the business have said is that it's worth taking anything internal when made redundant (I do like the business a lot and would like to stay in it) and that if you don't like the role, stick with it for a year and then apply for something else internal - it's a vast business so there are lots of opportunities. Would you give something like this a shot?
I also have a 2nd interview next week for an external role which is not super-exciting and not as much money but I can definitely do and I think might result in an offer. My current feeling is I would try out the internal one in the unlikely event of being offered both and kind of view it as 'trying out', and will step back from it after a year if it feels like just too much. Be interested to hear if anyone else has done similar.