How to say no

So I've been looking for another job for a little while now. There are a number of reasons behind, but mostly due to the lack of opportunity for me where I am.

So it may suprise to find that I turned down an interview that was supposed to happen today. Why?

Well, ordinarily I would always jump at an interview even where I am a little wary of the firm: you never kniw, they may convince me to join, they may actually be better than they seem, and it's usually at least worth a look.

So, why was it not even worth a look this time? Surely a change is as good as a rest? Surely a move with any sort of prospect is better than my current lack of opportunity?

And it really did take a lot for me to talk myself out of the interview.

But I was wary of the new job. In my previous role I was working for a firm with 6 partners and 20 qualified fee earners. The previous firm was smaller than that with 5 partners and around 12 other fee-earners. The prospect firm was to be smaller still: 5 partners, and 3 others. A real step back. And unless my prospects within the firm were going to be amazing, outside the firm they would have been just as limited as they were currently. Future prospects would have wondered why I went for a firm so tiny.

And I've been stung by small firms too. It doesn't take much of a change in the economy and therefore the income of a firm for them to make cuts. Having been made redundant from a previous role because the drop-off needed cuts, and I was the only fee-earner in a department of two partners and me they were not going to lose a partner.

So my transition would have been precarious and my motive perhaps not quite preposterous, but questionable.

But what about the actual job, the actual work? Well, again this was a bit of a concern. They were one of these firms that try to have a toe in every rockpool. My previous firms have been like this, but with many more people to be able to specialise in the areas properly. In order to offer as many sevices as they claimed, each partner or fee earner would have to offer at least three different areas. And it doesn't take much for clients to get too big for the firm and move on. And in my particular area of speciality, the information suggested it was very much 'scratch-the-surface', basics. Nothing to particularly stretch me. But maybe I could have done that myself, made the role my own and provided the firm with additional 'functionality', an addition revenue stream.

But, for the start at least, it was absolute basics.

And then there was the distance. Whilst at the moment I am looking anywhere for a job and willing to commute or relocate, it was just too far for a 'patch-up' solution to my short-term dead-ending. Had the town been one where I could have move to another firm quickly or at least easily, then I would have considered it, but the town was so close to London that that would have been the next step. Not worth moving and settling to be consitently on the watch for the next move. Had the job been in Manchester, Leeds or Birmingham or such like with other, bigger firms around that would have been more accessible after the move then I would have considered it.

And that was another factor: the town was small. If I am to relocate it is going to be to somewhere fun, not some sleepy back-water. The town very much has small-town mentality when it comes to socialising, and that would have frustrated me, particularly when 'just a couple of years' (which is what I would have been looking for with the job) takes me dangerously close to my mid-thirties, and retirement from excitement.

So, was it not even worth the interview? Ordinarily I would have gone along for a poke around. What harm can it do? Well, on this occasion the harm equated to £80 and a half-day holiday. Eighty pounds is a lot to spend when I am so wary. Usually the half-day would be neither here nor there, but this year, with my trip-of-a-lifetime coming up, even half-days are at a premium; particularly where I may have to have other interviews.

And so, with some considerable reluctance I turned it down.

But I'm sure there will be another opportunity.

Hopefully.