Which job would you choose

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Background - I have a 3 year old in preschool and my youngest will be 6-8 months when new job starts.
I've worked part time 3 days a week since 3yo was born. I'm looking forward to new career direction but worried on the impact on the youngest being in childcare full time.
Husband works flexi close to home so can easily do all the preschool pick ups and drop offs.
I would have to do all the nursery/childminder pick ups and drop offs.

Both jobs include retraining.

Job 1: Civil service, 36k, flexi hybrid working. Part-time available also. Need some days in office and the commute to city centre will be a whopping 1.5hrs (car /train /walk)

Job 2: Private company, 35k. 44k after completing 6 months training. No flexibility, in office 9-5 5xdays a week. 45min drive on a good day.

Are you sure Job 2 has no flexibility even over time? Does the job by its nature require you to be in the office? Companies may advertise 5 days in week but in reality, if the job can be done from home, people often WFH some part of the week.

I would pick civil sector job 1, flexibility and from the perspective of good pension contribution. But if my children are in school and don't need too much effort then I would have picked option 2

Also, travel time would be pretty much the same. If you’re doing 2 days in an office and rest from home with job 1 and everyday commute with job 2.

@blueshoes they were the ones that mentioned the lack of flexibility to me in the pre-interview stage which surprised me!
It is definitely the type of job that would be doable from home so maybe I should query if it is possible after the first 6 months training.

@redrobininmygarden I'm leaning towards 1 for those reasons

I thought you should be leaning to 2 if it is ultimately the same number of hours of commute. 2 is more money which adds up over time.

Which one has more progression?

2 would probably also have more progression but it is hard to tell.
I think it is the inflexibility playing on my mind.

If it makes a difference, both jobs require DV security clearance. Job 1 needs it before the job starts so can push the start date by several months. Job 2 would start with SC clearance and do the DV clearance whilst already working.

This might also be swaying my decision as I'm on maternity leave and I get to spend more time with baby for job 1.
Heart says 1, head says 2. The difference in wage will be huge for our family.

Since your dh has flex, I would go for 2. More money more progression.

The way I see it, is if you don't have the aggro of trying to be in 2 places at once (because your dh can pick up a decent amount of slack), then you might as well maximise the pay for the time that you are paid to work.

You are thinking short term wanting to spend time with dcs on maternity leave. But I am thinking long term re: financial security, paying for dcs' school trips, nice holidays, uni costs, a house deposit, paying off a mortgage and ultimately earlier retirement. My dcs are late teens and decisions made early on do ultimately come home to roost or pay off over the years.

Most jobs however inflexible will allow flexibility to their existing employees over time because they want to keep them. There are laws relating to flexible working, parental leave etc that the company has to abide by anyway

That is just me. I understand if you feel exhausted thinking about it at this stage.

Guess it depends upon your priorities, I really wanted to see school plays, sports days etc, in-service days always popped up aand holidays so I chose the flexibility whilst they were at primary school. Now they are older I'm changing jobs again and flexibility isn't as important.

My husband did have a very non flexible job so 🤷‍♀️

Everyone is so different, I did feel like i was stagnant in my job progression but I really don't think you an have it all. When you look back what are you going to remember?

I'd go for 1. I couldn't do a job with zero flexibility.