Big company vs. Small company

I'm in a fairly tight spot and looking for advice. I have two different job offers.

1) One is with a large company that will pay me 60K to work for them and also 5k to relocate. The only down fall that I can see work for the large company is I will be messing with PACS as a Field Engineer. PACS is a digitial x-ray meachine.

2) The other job offer is with a small company that will pay me 45k as a Junior Network Engineer and will not pay for me to relocate. The #1 thing that I like about the small company is that they will pay for me get more certifications and I will not be limited to one specific type of work.

My goal in 5 years is to get a job in the security side of IT.

Find more posts tagged with

Save $250 on 2025 certification boot camps from Infosec!

Book now with code EOY2025

Button

Comments

darkerosxx

Clear choice, imo!

Big company - use your extra pay and relocation money to more than cover the costs of certs and for buying books/classes to make up for the knowledge you may not be getting.

However, you didn't really specify what the jobs were, so it may not be that clear.

dynamik

Unless you need the money, I'd go with whatever offers the best experience (which may coincidentally be the company that pays more). That'll get you a better position and better pay in the future. Like darkerosxx said, the paid training doesn't really seem to be a deciding factor in this case. I'd be quite surprised if the extra $15k couldn't cover your training/certification needs.

brad-

I'd say based on what you wrote, go with the large company. If you really want more certs, the cost of them is really not that high compared to the salary difference, so pay for them yourself. You're basically going to clear about $1000 more a month with the large company.

certifyme

I would say go with the small company. To start out in the IT field or any field, i think experience is much greater than the pay and the certs. After a year or two in the field, with the experience you can move on to other company if the pay is still low after your raises. Take a look at it, would it be easier to get a job in Network Security with the X-ray machine experience or with the Networking experience.

whistler

My 2 cents.

Try to find out if either or both companies promote from within. Especially the larger firm if it sounds like you can move over to a entry level network security job once you have some certifications under your belt. Then the larger firm moght be better. If not then the smaller firm might offer you more upward movement by giving you experience in network administration and the potential of paying for your certifications, check their repay requirements.

mengo17

**** wrote:

I would say go with the small company. To start out in the IT field or any field, i think experience is much greater than the pay and the certs. After a year or two in the field, with the experience you can move on to other company if the pay is still low after your raises. Take a look at it, would it be easier to get a job in Network Security with the X-ray machine experience or with the Networking experience.

remyforbes777

You may be really tempted to go with the money but what I would do is evaluate the job tasks and see what is going to benefit you more. I just left a company that was perhaps the best company i have ever worked for to go to a company that would really raise my skill level. I was only at the other company 9 months. It was the hardest decision I had to make but I had to think, where do I want to be in 5 years.

empc4000xl

rdix2501 wrote:

I'm in a fairly tight spot and looking for advice. I have two different job offers.

1) One is with a large company that will pay me 60K to work for them and also 5k to relocate. The only down fall that I can see work for the large company is I will be messing with PACS as a Field Engineer. PACS is a digitial x-ray meachine.

2) The other job offer is with a small company that will pay me 45k as a Junior Network Engineer and will not pay for me to relocate. The #1 thing that I like about the small company is that they will pay for me get more certifications and I will not be limited to one specific type of work.

My goal in 5 years is to get a job in the security side of IT.

I have a few friends who do PACS, they do sun solaris, cisco routers/switch and firewall stuff. I would ask more questions about the technologies used and how often you have to travel with the PACS job. For the Jr Engineer job line those technologies up against the pacs job and see which one has the highest gain for your goals.