A tangled web

[j4]

They're currently recruiting for the position of Junior Web Developer (or "Junior Wed Developer" if you believe their website -- <giggle>) at the Cambridge Evening News. They say they'd like somebody with some experience but they're willing to train the right candidate. There's no indication of the sort of salary they'd be offering, though, and other jobs I've seen at the CEN have been staggeringly badly paid. Anybody think it's worth me applying for it?

Comments

[addedentry.livejournal.com]

Hell yes.

[jiggery-pokery.livejournal.com]

In principle, yes. In practice, I have to confess that I have concerns about whether it would make you happy if you were to get the job. If the job would seem to involve the less desirable parts of your current work, but only more so, I have concerns that it might end up being an overall net minus.

Mind you, my attitude to work, jobs and the like is fairly well-known and not exactly conducive to being a productive, happy member of society in the first place, so I probably wouldn't listen to me. :-)

[j4.livejournal.com]

If the job would seem to involve the less desirable parts of your current work, but only more so, I have concerns that it might end up being an overall net minus.

Hmmm. The less desirable aspects of my current work are mostly that I've been stuck doing the same tedious stuff for the last 2 years or thereabouts -- namely doing the same crap half-fixes for the same data issues that nobody can be bothered to JUST GET RIGHT IN THE FIRST PLACE. I think there's a risk that anywhere will suffer from the same problems, but a) hopefully I'd see the warning signs quicker if I started getting into a rut again, and be able to do something about it more effectively, and b) I think this is one case where a change really would be as good as a rest, if not better (after all I get plenty of time to rest and/or faff aimlessly in the current job, and it's one of the things that makes it dull).

The main problem with applying for jobs at the moment is that I'm concerned it'll look really indecisive if I go from publishing to web design and then later want to move into something else entirely. I don't think I'd want to make a career out of web design; although having web design experience would probably be useful for a lot of information-ish jobs, and would be useful/interesting anyway, so ... I dunno.

My attitude to work, jobs etc. is that they're a necessary evil; and since I have to do some sort of work I'd rather do something that a) is vaguely useful in a kind of woolly 'worthwhile' way, b) doesn't suck too much from my point of view, and c) pays me a reliable income. (Even if it's not a big reliable income it'd mean that I could plan for things.)

[jiggery-pokery.livejournal.com]

In that case, I'm with m'honourable college. Hell yes.

(It should be "colleague", but I rather like the brainfart.)

[angua.livejournal.com]

There's no harm in applying.. you can always turn it down if it looks shite.

I was once offered a job as a DTP bod there. They wanted to pay me 12k for working mon-wed 10am-11pm.

I told them to shove it :)

[j4.livejournal.com]

10am-11pm?! Aren't there laws about hours of work and stuff that stop people doing things like that?

I'm not sure I would be able to turn it down even if it did turn out to be shite -- I think I'd end up feeling too guilty to turn it down, and convincing myself that it'd still be better than the current situation. My brain is not in a good place at the moment. :-/

[angua.livejournal.com]

If I remember right they gave you all the required breaks but the fact remains you had to be there all the damn time for three days a week.

I have to admit it was bloody hard to turn down the job because I needed one desperately at the time but I think it was the right thing to do. I could see it being so soul destroying that I would end up in an even worse position mentally.

[bopeepsheep.livejournal.com]

Sadly enough, I'd have taken that, pre-baby. I used to sit in my office at the Bodleian from 6am to 10pm, voluntarily, three days a week, mainly because I got uninterrupted online time and a PC that had The Sims on it. Did all my work before 9am when there were no fwits to distract me, although I suspect that wouldn't be the case at CEN. Four day weekends suit me just fine.

[imc.livejournal.com]

Four day weekends suit me just fine.

Me too. :-)

I'd probably have taken it in my just-out-of-uni days, as 10am-11pm almost (but not quite) describes some of the days I spent in the lab and I didn't have much else to do at the time.

[chrisvenus]

Anything with "junior" in the title is not likely to be great pay but I'd probably apply for that kind of job if I lived anywhere near cambridge. :) As others say, definitely apply and talk to them about pay which is the only issue that *I* can see there. :)