Turnover is often a red herring - profit and long term route to profitability is key. Thomas Cook had really quite good revenue streams......thousands of pounds of losses isnt that unusual depending on the size of the company. 

The default on the loan is the biggest concern for me. That leads often to reduced borrowing headroom and higher interest. Making it a vicious downwards spiral.

But - if they have a route to sufficient working capital and a plan to get out of the mess they are in then the HR journey can be an amazing learning and growing experience (and can in some circumstances be financially rewarding). But only if you go into it with your eyes open, understand the real future strategy and have a reasonable approach to the risk of being out of a job without compensation.

You also need to be ready for a job that maybe permanent firefighting, quite unpleasant and be able and ready to make some very tough decisions to help the business survive.

In reply to Keith:

Thanks Keith
The loan looks fairly recent, which was the biggest concern, the fact that they are also a training company is a concern with all of the news surrounding apprenticeship companies 'going under'

They are connected with a private equity company, who's finances also do not look great. The fear for me, is having no employment rights and being made redundant. This would be my first BP role, so just want to make sure that it is the right move, as they are said to be really keen to have me on board.

In reply to Laura :

A lot of private apprenticeship providers have struggled recently due to losing funding on the back of a poor inspection report - I'd want to know when the provider was last inspected, what the result was, when they expect their next inspection (although that's often down to an educated guess), how long they've been on the register of apprenticeship training providers and how reliant they are on ESFA funding in terms of their general finances.
(Apologies if you already know all of this!)

Hi Laura,

I once took a permanent job across two companies (under the same parent company). One of those companies folded and so less than six months later I had to make everyone redundant and deal with the winding down of the company. There wasn't enough work from the second company so I was also made redundant.

When I interviewed for my next role, I was asked whether I would've taken that job if it had been a FTC purely to execute all of the above. On reflection, had that been the case, I would've felt a lot more mentally prepared for what was a lot of tough unpleasant work in an unhappy environment and I would've felt a lot more comfortable about my own position had I know I was just there for six months to do a specific job.

Having said all of that, experience is never wasted and it was certainly one for the CV!