Background info - last September I was laid off from my job. At the time, I was taking courses to obtain my teacher certification, so I continued taking the courses and am now eligible to teach. Of course, I’m not really anticipating any job openings until the next school year since the school year’s almost over and all.
Because it was a layoff, I qualified for unemployment, which has requirements for looking for a job. I have faithfully followed these guidelines and have not in any way tried not to get hired. IE, I did not dumb down my resume in order to look unappealing, I have really applied for jobs in my former field that I would be well-qualified for, I have done the required number of job searches each week, etc. I haven’t exactly been rushing around knocking on doors quite like I would have if I were not counting on getting hired for a teaching position, but I have honestly followed the rules.
(In the meantime, I’ve been substitute teaching quite a lot, as much as possible, not just for the experience but to supplement the unemployment. In other words, I haven’t been laying around sponging off the system. I’m just trying to get through the next few weeks/months until interviews begin for next school year.)
Okay then…it finally happened. I got a call from an interested company that wants to interview me. I talked to the HR woman today and set up an interview for next week. This is a job that I’m well-qualified for and actually sounds like it would be interesting, if not what I want to end up doing now that I have a new career goal.
I’m torn on what to do, knowing that my plans are to teach. I mean, I haven’t been offered the job yet, of course, but if I am, I am obligated by unemployment rules to accept it. It seems unethical to deliberately throw the interview and try not to get hired, and it would probably be breaking some rules for unemployment. (Plus, I could really, really use the money at this point, as unemployment sucks and even if you work instead, you can still only earn up to a certain amount before you’re cut off each week.)
On the other hand, if I did get hired, it seems morally wrong to not inform the company that I really would only plan to work there for three or four months. Then, of course, they wouldn’t want to hire me and then unemployment might hear about it.
What to do, what to do? I want to look after myself and my economic interests, while staying within the rules, but I don’t want to feel like crap by potentially wasting a company’s time and money to train me, either. It’s not like they couldn’t let me go at any time if they didn’t like me, or that I couldn’t quit anytime if I didn’t like them, but it just seems wrong to plan to quit four months down the road in advance of the job offer!
Opinions? I appreciate any feedback. Please note I’m about to head out to a friend’s house with no Internet access, so it may be a day or so before I can get back to this thread…depends on when I can hit the nearby Starbucks.