I currently have a government job as a Systems Administrator. The pay is decent and I can go for days and weeks without doing any real work. The dilemma is that I am getting a lot of job offers from private firms that are offering more money and with better positions (IT Manager, Hardware Engineer, Software Engineer). I have been weighing the pro and cons and don’t know what to do. I can make decent money and do next to nothing. Or I can make more money and have more stress and be overworked. The government job seems very secure and I won’t have to worry about losing my job. On the other hand the job with the private firms offer more money and better title, but who knows if the job will be around in a year or two. But with the government job I feel like I will not be able to move up because they do not promote based on performance. I am still relatively young (25) and I feel that I need to be challenged. I feel like I can move up fast with a private firm, but I feel like I would be gambling job security. I have a B.S. in Computer Engineering and the government job is spending a lot of money for training towards Certifications. Right now they are training me for A+, Network+ and Macintosh certifications. And with the next fiscal year they will probably pay for my training for the Microsoft Track…with the Cisco track the following year.
I have no idea what I should do. My goal is to become IT Manager and eventually become vice president, IT. Right now my decision is to stay for five years (when my pension becomes vested) and let them pay for my training to get my MCSE and CCNA. And maybe get my MBA along the way since my work isn’t too stressful. What do you guys think I should do?