Ok, here’s the deal.
I have been offered a position by a contract company (expected to complete their project in 2 years) paying more than twice my salary at my current ‘permanent’ job. They offer yearly contracts that can be (are) renewed for a further year.
I did not expect to be offered the position since it appeared that my career objectives and the company’s did not really mesh too well. I guess I was wrong.
At the time of sending the application I was involved in networking, PBX administration, Report Generation, Web Development, some database administration, etc. Since then my company has moved me into a DBA position (bearing in mind that I wanted to be involed in more database administration and application development) and have committed to enroll and have even enrolled me in some database admin training. I still am involved in the other areas but to a lesser extent since we have hired another person to deal with those areas. My company is cool (they just don’t pay very well). I have autonomy in my job and plan and schedule my tasks. I work 8hrs, have benefits, get time off for exams etc. and most importantly I can get to evening classes on time.
In the contract job, I ofcourse get more money, am closer to home (I can walk to work & and will save on trasportation costs since I currently have to travel to my job) but I will work 10hrs per day and due to that fact I will arrive late to 2 out of my 3 evening classes which I would have to travel to. In the interview at the contract company I did mention that 2 of my classes start when work lets out and I woud then have to travel to class. I am a little concerned that a girl in my class (who works there as well) is always late for class and for the past two weeks was unable to attend class since she had to work late. Also I would not be able to focus on my database administration and application since I would be the only IT person apart from the manager and would have to support everything from the phone systems to the computer systems. Infact the mgr indicated in the interview that the job would not focus on any one area.
Some of my friends think I should take the offer for the money (ofcourse) and because it would make me a more complete IT professional (in their opinion) since I would be involved in all the areas of IT rather than just focussing on one or two areas.
Others say that I should stay at my current company, complete my studies, benefit from the training being provided and develop myself further in database administration and application development since that is the area I wanted to focus on. Bear in mind that I did also outline my goals/objectives in the interview.
I am tempted to accept the second piece of advice but can I/should I REALLY pass up all that money???
Oh when I think of the investments I could make………..
