Advice please?

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I have a part-time janitorial job cleaning at a retail store, and the company I'm employed by is being sold to another company. A week ago I was told about this, and that my last day of work would be August 26th. Today someone from the new company came and offered me a position with them, working at the same store. This took me by surprise, and I told him I wasn't sure what I wanted to do, so he gave me a business card and told me to submit an application online if I was interested.

The thing is, I'd been planning to quit my current job sometime within the next two months anyway, because I can't handle another holiday season working in a retail store, even if I'm not directly dealing with customers. We had three people taking shifts to clean the store - one full-time worker, me, and one other part-time worker. Last year, the other part-time worker quit the day after Black Friday, and for most of the holiday season, no one to take over his position. Since I was the other part-time worker, I was asked to cover every shift he would have been working (seriously, every one, every week). I always took one or two extra shifts every week, but I felt inadequate because I couldn't do more than that (I was also fostering a service dog in training and had to be with him a certain number of hours). The stress and stuff is probably what brought my depression back this time, and is absolutely what got me started cutting myself again. Recently I've also had suicidal thoughts returning, and I'm afraid that I wouldn't make it through another holiday season if it was anything like last year's.

However, it took me six months after graduating from college to get even this job, and I've been looking for another job, or at least another part-time job so I can afford to live on my own, while I've had it, which has been over a year. I applied to over thirty different places during that first six months, and only ever heard anything back from two of them (one of which gave me a preliminary interview, which I promptly failed because I have a tremor that makes me look much more nervous than I am, and the other of which had no interview and gave me my current job). My dad also seems to think that having any sort of employment gap looks absolutely horrible on a resume, and was extremely opposed to the idea of me quitting my job so I could devote all my time to getting a better one when I mentioned it to him. Whether he's right about that or not, he's probably going to yell at me about how I clearly don't care about my future and stuff if I don't take this job, and I can't handle that right now, either. He has a tendency to yell stuff like that at me when he doesn't like something I suggest or the way I've handled a situation, and I'm very afraid he's going to do it again - and I'm already struggling with thoughts of feeling worthless and inadequate, so I really don't need him telling me that, too.

So my question is, should I take the job offer while I have it, since at least it's something, or not?

^ I agree with Cat, and I think the application is just a formality, to keep accurate records that aren't hand-me-downs from the previous company.

Thank you. I asked my mom, and she agrees. Apparently having any sort of employment gap at all is the worst thing short of a criminal record that one can have on a resume - so I technically have a choice, but if I don't take the job, I'll be reducing my already low chances of being hired for a better job to almost nothing. It will mean trapping myself into working another holiday season, because it will also look bad if I take a new job and quit it too soon, or if I leave a job working in a retail store during the holiday season, but it looks like I don't actually have much choice. Here's hoping this year is better than last, at least.

Not only does an employment gap look bad, but looking to improve your situation actually makes you look good to employers. HR staffers are usually told to look for people looking to grow, with the hope they'll grow within their organization. You see what I'm getting at? If you apply on other jobs while you already have one, you can easily land a better job than you have now, while if you're unemployed, you'll have to look at your current "level".

Take the job, and start applying on jobs with some more responsibilities (and pay ). Maybe you can start with the store you're at. There's bound to be some job description in there that keeps you away from the holiday frenzy, and you already have a foot squarely in that door even with the new ownership.

Good luck!

I wasn't sure how soon would be too soon to leave this job - I figured two or three months at least, but I guess that means late October would be OK. I have a bachelor's degree in biology, and I think I could work full time if I could get hired for a full time job. I'm just working part time because that's the only job I could get.

Oh, I forgot to mention, about applying for another job at the store, they seem to rotate the employees among all the positions, so I don't think there is a position where I would just be working in the back away from customers - I'd also be expected to work the registers and customer service desk sometimes, which I could only maybe handle for two hours every three or four days. That kind of intense social interaction drains me so much that I shut down and am unable to speak much, if at all.

Then it's clear to me: keep the janitor job for now, and start looking for a job that will put your degree to use! When holidays come just remember, it's not your life, just a short, weird nightmare.

It occurred to me that since my sleep schedule is already messed up due to chronic sleep problems and I've developed the ability to sleep during the day (which I didn't have when I was intensely searching for jobs before), I could also apply for overnight stocking jobs, where I'd be working when there aren't even any customers in the store. That might be a preferable option for me, to tide me over until I can get a better job. The start/end times would just have to be reasonable enough for my parents, who both work during the day, to drive me, since I can't drive myself.

Since everyone seems to agree that a gap in employment looks really bad, my plan is to apply for something, at least, by Monday. If I can't find anything else that looks promising, I'll take the cleaning job then.

I just sent you, a PM.....