Friday, June 05, 2009

A job?

Sort of.

I've been volunteering with a charity over the last 2 months, and as a paid position to do exactly what I do as an un-paid volunteer came up, I applied. I got shortlisted, and had an interview, and came second. I didn't get the job, and if I had been writing this yesterday, when I was told I didn't get it, I would undoubtedly have included a much greater amount of disappointment and surly comments. However, even though I was disappointed, I thought a lot about it last night and I realised that maybe it was fine. Decided to take it in my stride, be normal at work, get over myself and my big ego and the assumptions I had unconsciously developed of getting the job because the function covers what I'm doing now and they seem to like what I do.

Another position with the same organisation has come up, as a fundraiser, and I might actually want that job more..? I decided to shift my workload from doing just one day of fundraising to now two a week, whilst retaining my engagement as a facilitator, which was what I was taken onboard to do. After arranging this, at the end of the day, the director asked me aside and offered me a %-paid position.. I'll still be volunteering (I have another month to go) and will increase my hours from 4 to 5 days. The major change is that they will now pay me for 2 days work a week as an interim thing until I either get the fundraising position or my volunteer term comes to an end, at which point I'm sure we'd have a chat about what next. It's really pleasing that they like what I'm doing so much, 'cause really, they didn't actually have to pay for me to stay as I've committed to another month anyway.

This will sound horrible (it does to me!) but before I can actually commit to this new paid position I have to look into what it will mean to the benefits I am currently receiving. If it means I loose more than I will be earning.. well, I'll have to look into how to deal with that. THIS is the trouble of benefits. Hopefully sanity will prevail and it'll be best if I take the job.

Phew, that felt good to write out!

4 comments:

moif said...

It sounds like the same dilemma I've had to face for years, Finding a job cut into my existing funds so that that until I found a well paid job, the only thing that changed was the amount of time I had to my own devices.

Well, good luck, I hope it works out for you. =)

mlj said...

Thanks!

It's weird, isn't it, to be in a space where you actually want to work, but by receiving payment for working you might wind up in a poorer financial state..

I'm going to speak to my advisor tomorrow, so hopefully he can help me understand the terms. It'd be pretty cool to have a 'job'!

I hope your job is going well too :.D

moif said...

Well, its going okay. Its still too early to tell if I will get full employment in August, though I'm sure I will as long as nothing untoward takes place.

mlj said...

That's great moif! I'm really glad to hear that things are looking up, and that you actually like it! I guess that's pretty instrumental in you securing a further position, and in wanting to stay on...