> This probably goes without saying, but be sure you look at the possibilities for advancement. You don't want a dead-end job, no matter how attractive it seems.
> Howard

I don't know if "possibilities for advancement" really applies much, these days, unless you mean the job will look good on your resume when getting your next job. That's always important. I'm quite lucky in having very good qualifications and skills which are relevant to all sorts of jobs, and I have already spent a few years at senior or management level in a couple of different fields. So I don't have to prove a lot to prospective employers anymore, or need to take a job solely so I can learn for a future career.

I'm not really interested in advancement within a career, as I have no particular career and don't feel the need for one. I've completely changed careers every time I've changed jobs. This is one of the things I find slightly annoying about signing up for recruitment agencies or job search websites -- they only let you list one or two career titles or fields that you're supposedly looking for. I look at *all* the ads and apply for the ones that I think sound interesting or fun, regardless of whether I've done that sort of work before. Unless there's a very particular requirement which I don't have and can't learn quickly, such as a Master's degree in geology or something, I apply for anything good that's going. That's how I've got some of the better jobs I've ever had.

I've only once stayed with a company for longer than a year and advanced to a different position within the company -- and even then, it was only because the total staff consisted of four people, one of them quit, and I had to take over her job.

This isn't to say I wouldn't stay working for the same company for years, if the job turned out to be a good one and the option was there, but long-term (more than a couple of years) employment just isn't something I have ever expected or assumed when I look for jobs. I tend to assume I will stay in the job until I get bored with it, until I get made redundant, and/or until I find a different job that pays more.

A dead-end job, to me, is anything that future employers will recognise as a lower level of skill/qualification/pay than I reached with the most senior-level job I ever had. That's why I don't intend to take a secretarial job unless I'm forced to. The economy being what it is, I think it should be reasonable enough to expect employers to overlook a year in lower-paid, lower-skilled work, but I'm worried (justifiably, I think) that if I spend another year doing work which generally only requires a high school education and a year or two of experience, I'll never be able to get back up to where I was before. So yes, that would be a dead-end job for me.

However, I'm not yet in a position to be actively worrying about this possibility. Apparently the company with the writing job will be calling applicants for interviews from the end of this week, so that's the next step to anticipate.