If you're capable of doing the alternate role and prepared to do that role for a reasonable period of time (say at least 12 months) despite it not being your primary interest then I'd say it's acceptable.
As with anything there are pros and cons to this strategy though:
Pros
- You get an opportunity to demonstrate your work ethic to the company
- You get an opportunity to make useful contacts within the company to potentially aid in transitioning later
Cons
- If the alternate role is too far removed from the ideal one you may be harming your employ-ability for that
- If you're too good at the alternate role they may resist "losing" you to the preferred one!
manpreet![Tuteehub forum best answer]()
Best Answer
2 years ago
I recently (a couple of weeks ago) sent a speculative application to a company I like, asking about a role I'd love to work in. It's a locally founded coffee company that's soon to expand to nearby cities, and I applied for work in the roastery. I haven't heard anything from that application in the past couple of weeks.
Since then, I've found that the same company is advertising a front-of-house role in one of their cafés, which I'm not really interested in (due to working hours, and a disinclination to return to customer service work) but think I'd have a good chance of getting the job due to past experience in a similar role.
What would be the 'pros' and 'cons' of applying for the café job, just to get an 'in' with the company?