jontukontar

In the last two weeks, my life has taken a turn for the better.  I have had two companies seek me out and offer me employment in the IT field.  Considering that I've been working for years to acquire such a job, it has come as a very welcome and pleasant surprise to be so in demand.  Though this popularity is not without it's downside:  Which job do I take?

The first job offers an interesting challenge to my skills.  What they want me to do is provide periodic support for their users and to set up a network from some relatively disconnected client machines.  Their "network" includes approximately 200 client machines (Windows XP Pro), an Avaya IP phone system, and a couple of Linux boxes.

This first job keeps me in the local area and around my friends and family.  It offers me a bit more than what I am currently making in my current job as a salesman.  The ideal plan is after stabilizing myself in the new career, that I would move into the city where this job takes place to cut some costs.

The second job is also interesting but in a different way.  They want me to be an "Assistant Operations Manager" and support the operators of a "high availability" Unix server system.  This will challenge me to learn more about Unix internals, SQL queries, and other related technologies.

The second job takes me over two hours away from everyone and everything that I know.  However, it is a significant wage increase from my current job and is even half again more than the first job offer.  This is obviously very nice but I don't know the cost of having to move and live in what may be my new home town. 

The problem with either choice is: time.  I don't have much of it to burn making my choice.