Quandry

I should probably be pleased but I'm not. I've just had a phone call from a former employer saying he's looking to replace two guys who have just handed in their notice, and I was the first person he thought of. It's an IT job in the financial sector.

I haven't been working for a couple of years, been living off savings which I am lucky to have had, but I'm at the stage where I need to start looking for work. I applied to get into a university course to train for nursing last year and was in the final stages when I got into some trouble - I was depressed and abusing drugs and alcohol quite heavily, jumped out my bedroom window, broke my foot, police were involved, charged with possession. I was advised by family to be honest with the university who were going to take me on but that didn't work out well as they turned down my application after I told them (eventually, after a long bureaucratic process where my case went to a national board). The charges were dropped shortly after I'd been refused admission.

Anyway I had been thinking about applying again for next year. I was fed up of working in IT, especially in finance, and I have no reason to want to go back except money and I think it would actually help my application for nursing if I'm in work rather than not. It would probably help me looking for any other work too.

I don't know what to do, should I go for a job I actually hate but that gets me back into work and a "stronger" position generally? Or am I kidding myself that it makes any difference? I've also been getting involved in the local SolFed group and I'm excited about that and the possibilities for organising, but I think there is limited scope for organising in this company as the workers do have comparatively good conditions and are generally pretty complacent. There is no class struggle activity, just a "mock" union which is organised by the company (it's a former mutual).

I'm really not happy about going back to work at this place but it's not great for my CV that I've been out of work for so long so it's sort of an easy option. The immediate manager wants me to email him today (a confused request for my contact details which he already has).

Any help to clarify my thinking would be appreciated.

edit: I'm sorry for asking this here as it's not a careers advice board But my thinking includes "does this have scope for class struggle activity" and you're the only people I know who would understand that!