3 Positions I have been accepted for... Which one to take?

So here is my delimia. I have done contract work for all the companies so I know how each company works internally. I am currently hired on as a Systems Administrator for my current company and I have an offer to become a Field Engineer in the companies commercial sector.

Company 1: Current Company

Pros: Pay increase of maybe 15k max, Great Experience, unlimited training, Huge Office with windows and I am the Technical Liason for all projects in the State of Alaska and Hawaii currently.

Cons: Low Pay, 3 weeks out of a month of travel instate. Usually 3-4 days each week to rural areas in Alaska (should be home before Friday).

Company 2: Hospital

Pros: 20k pay increase position goes up to 92k yr, Awesome Employees, Great work environment, I would be one of the highest technically qualified poeple in the position in the company. No Travel

Cons: Possible after hours work (normal in this position), dealing with doctors, Managers in different departments etc. MANY projects at once, reactive application fixing rather than proactive so I would be busy all the time (which is actually good for me)

Company 3: Largest Oil company in the world

Pros: 30k pay increase and position goes up to 100k yr, Head Engineer for the entire companies sharepoint/MS Project Application. Training immediatly upon hire. Wouldn't have to worry about getting a job with another company ever again. No Travel

Cons: High availability position, if I screwed up the whole company would know. Only person for the entire company in this position, no place for advice. After hours work defiantly required. Could be working a lot more than 8-5.

Personal Problem: Wife is requiring me to get away from the travel. I have traveled a lot for this company and my last company and we haven't spent much time together over the past 3 years. I have brought this up to my current employer and he said I wouldn't be traveling, but by the title obviously I would.

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Comments

dynamik

TechJunky wrote:

3 Positions I have been accepted for... Which one to take?

That's what she said.

That's too much to read on an empty stomach. I'll check it out when I get home...

JavonR

#3 sounds like a pretty sweet deal if you ask me. Although there is more accountability you should be able to adapt in no time. It will require you to be independent in your learning but I think the money makes up for that.

cbigbrick

My rule is never work for doctors, lawyers or scientist....ever again!!!

banderas1978

cbigbrick wrote:

My rule is never work for doctors, lawyers or scientist....ever again!!!

Wow! And why is that?

ULWiz

My GF is a doctor. Doctors demand perfection and to be treated like one. They are extremely demanding and what their issue solved right away even if they dont understand the actual issue if there even is one. Usually human error.

TechJunky

My father in law is a doctor and the President of a few things at the Hospital so I understand working with doctors, I dont think that will be a problem.

cbigbrick

banderas1978 wrote:

cbigbrick wrote:

My rule is never work for doctors, lawyers or scientist....ever again!!!

Wow! And why is that?

Because I had to stop sniffing glue.....

phantasm

cbigbrick wrote:

My rule is never work for doctors, lawyers or scientist....ever again!!!

I concur. I work for Doctors now and can't wait to leave. Never worked for scientists or lawyers, but my wife is a scientist and we get along fine. lol.

the_Grinch

Go with #3. Great money and while there is no one to look to for advice you can set things up the way you like them. I'd stay away from the hospital because Doctors are like teachers. I've worked for two school districts and the teachers think they are the end all be all. One district was great because they had it set in the teacher's heads that the techs were above them and not to mess with them. The other district let the teachers crap on us and it sucked. Doctors will be 10x worse then the teachers!

As an aside I think its time to move to Alaska! I would love to travel a lot for a couple of years!

nanga

# 3 for sure....good pay and lot of responsibilities on your own would definitely make u a better person in technical aspect. take up the challenge.

HeroPsycho

cbigbrick wrote:

Because I had to stop sniffing glue.....

And I thought you had picked the wrong day to quit amphetamines...

skrpune

cbigbrick wrote:

My rule is never work for doctors, lawyers or scientist....ever again!!!

I think it really depends on the person, not the job role. My hubby's a scientist (I'm a non-practicing one, we both studied geology - I didn't stick with it but he did and is now a professor), and we have both worked for some great- and not so great to-work-for scientists. He went from working for a total hippy dude to the queen of ****-retentivity. Each brought their own unique challenges, but the hippy dude was way more fun to work for & hang out with at the bar after work!

skrpune

if your wife is a bit sick of you travelling all the time, then she might also not really be supportive of position 1 (lots of instate travel) or position 3 (possible oodles of overtime). I wouldn't worry too much about working for doctors vs other groups of people. Just remember: everyone is a human being underneath their lab coats or doctor's coats or whatever uniform they wear/don't wear. They're all flawed people just like you or me (as much as I hate to admit those flaws!), and there will be people who suck everywhere, it's just that some will have more education and a bigger vocabulary to annoy you with at certain places!

I can't tell you what to do and no one else can either, but I can offer some opinions. I personally can't advocate going to work for an oil company (I'm a bit of a tree hugger and was an environmental geology major so I don't think I have to elaborate there), and I'm not a huge fan of travelling for work due to the stresses it can put on a family, so my slightly biased vote would be for job #2. Not glamorous but certainly sounds challenging and it's a significant step up in pay, and who knows, maybe you can change the dynamic and make it so you're doing preventive care instead of performing triage on the systems there (sorry for the blatant pun, but some of the docs who are more enlightened might understand this since it's a movement in healthcare too!). And it would keep the missus happier too, I'd bet. (Just trying to give you a female perspective on it...the little lady might be a bit taken aback if you know she'd like to spend more time with you and you go and pick a job that involves travel or gobs of overtime and turn down the one that might give you more home time.)

UnixGuy

#1

stay with the one with trainings and experience. This is how you grow

kalebksp

I would go with number one or number three. Only choose number three if you are ready for it. It sounds like a lot of responsibility, and if you're ready for it that would probably be the best position. If you're not ready it could be a very bad experience.

The current company sounds pretty nice and I'm a sucker for a huge office (probably because I've never had one). I can't tell from your post whether you're an Alaskan or not, but if you have a problem with cold weather, it's probably not the job for you (depending on where you traveling to, some place aren't too bad).

-Kale

PS. If you happen to take the first one and you need a hard working and competent IT professional in Alaska let me know!

BradleyHU

dynamik wrote:

TechJunky wrote:

3 Positions I have been accepted for... Which one to take?

That's what she said.

That's too much to read on an empty stomach. I'll check it out when I get home...

lol....

homerj742

My initial impression, position 3. Mostly because you stated "Wouldn't have to worry about getting a job with another company ever again. No Travel"

zen master

Position #3. Seems like a no brainer to me. These are tough economic times. Go with a stable job at a massive company, for great money.

TechJunky

The consensus seems to be job #3 and thats where I was heading as well... However, I just received a call yesterday and found out that job #2 could pretty much match job #3 as far as pay. I have personally been leaning towards #2 just because I know 90% of their IT staff and they are all knowledgable and a very good group of people to work with. Plus medical bennies are dirt cheap.

#1 I have been leaning away from because from the start the company hasn't been honest with me and has had me doing job roles that were no where near what I was initially hired on for. I feel they would continue to put me in a role where it works best for their company and disreguard my needs.

Plus I would be moving from a Systems Administrator Role to a Field Engineer role. This obviously indicates travel in the title. Only big perk I see is the company trusts me 100% with my technical abilities to choose my own technical team here in Alaska. So I have already stated that I wanted to pull a fellow employee from Virginia and move them to Alaska because he has stated interest and the President has already contacted him and explained the job roles etc to him.

Either way, only up from here. Just have to decide where to go.

MCPWannabe

TechJunky wrote:

So here is my delimia. I have done contract work for all the companies so I know how each company works internally. I am currently hired on as a Systems Administrator for my current company and I have an offer to become a Field Engineer in the companies commercial sector.

Company 1: Current Company

Pros: Pay increase of maybe 15k max, Great Experience, unlimited training, Huge Office with windows and I am the Technical Liason for all projects in the State of Alaska and Hawaii currently.

Cons: Low Pay, 3 weeks out of a month of travel instate. Usually 3-4 days each week to rural areas in Alaska (should be home before Friday).

Company 2: Hospital

Pros: 20k pay increase position goes up to 92k yr, Awesome Employees, Great work environment, I would be one of the highest technically qualified poeple in the position in the company. No Travel

Cons: Possible after hours work (normal in this position), dealing with doctors, Managers in different departments etc. MANY projects at once, reactive application fixing rather than proactive so I would be busy all the time (which is actually good for me)

Company 3: Largest Oil company in the world

Pros: 30k pay increase and position goes up to 100k yr, Head Engineer for the entire companies sharepoint/MS Project Application. Training immediatly upon hire. Wouldn't have to worry about getting a job with another company ever again. No Travel

Cons: High availability position, if I screwed up the whole company would know. Only person for the entire company in this position, no place for advice. After hours work defiantly required. Could be working a lot more than 8-5.

Personal Problem: Wife is requiring me to get away from the travel. I have traveled a lot for this company and my last company and we haven't spent much time together over the past 3 years. I have brought this up to my current employer and he said I wouldn't be traveling, but by the title obviously I would.

Excellent Dilemma.. Now, on to what the previous poster's said: dealing with doctor's, lawyers, and scientists sucks. You are often dealing with the worst of both worlds: non-technical and arrogant. Both of these groups have gone through lots of school and expect an undue amount of respect.

However, the abuse factor usually occurs on the help desk/ user support level -- not on the MCSE/Software Design level. So, you should be okay.

All of the choices sound very good.

gorebrush

#3 I'd go for.

You just cannot buy Job Security anymore, and this one sounds like a real step up as well as pay increase, etc.

unclerico

TechJunky wrote:

So here is my delimia. I have done contract work for all the companies so I know how each company works internally. I am currently hired on as a Systems Administrator for my current company and I have an offer to become a Field Engineer in the companies commercial sector.

Company 1: Current Company

Pros: Pay increase of maybe 15k max, Great Experience, unlimited training, Huge Office with windows and I am the Technical Liason for all projects in the State of Alaska and Hawaii currently.

Cons: Low Pay, 3 weeks out of a month of travel instate. Usually 3-4 days each week to rural areas in Alaska (should be home before Friday).

Company 2: Hospital

Pros: 20k pay increase position goes up to 92k yr, Awesome Employees, Great work environment, I would be one of the highest technically qualified poeple in the position in the company. No Travel

Cons: Possible after hours work (normal in this position), dealing with doctors, Managers in different departments etc. MANY projects at once, reactive application fixing rather than proactive so I would be busy all the time (which is actually good for me)

Company 3: Largest Oil company in the world

Pros: 30k pay increase and position goes up to 100k yr, Head Engineer for the entire companies sharepoint/MS Project Application. Training immediatly upon hire. Wouldn't have to worry about getting a job with another company ever again. No Travel

Cons: High availability position, if I screwed up the whole company would know. Only person for the entire company in this position, no place for advice. After hours work defiantly required. Could be working a lot more than 8-5.

Personal Problem: Wife is requiring me to get away from the travel. I have traveled a lot for this company and my last company and we haven't spent much time together over the past 3 years. I have brought this up to my current employer and he said I wouldn't be traveling, but by the title obviously I would.

I'm sure that by now you've made your decision, but IMHO, I would go with #2. I agree with most others on here that dealing with doctors and lawyers (i'd also throw CPA's out there) is not the most fun, as a matter of fact I'll never, ever work for another law firm for as long as I live. On a side note one of my greatest work experiences was with a pharmaceutical company and the scientists/chemists/etc. were great people. Anyway, my reasoning behind #2 is that you have an opportunity to become a SME with their core health systems. If you want opportunities for great earning potential get yourself really comfortable with those systems to the point that all hostpitals and clinics will call you to be a consultant on big projects. It would be an excellent opportunity for starting your own consulting firm down the road.

Don't go with #3 just because they are a large corporation. We've all seen that large corporations are just as susceptable to failure as smaller ones. With the price of oil continuing to fall and the nations supposed drive for renewable fuels you might find that the company will lay off nonessesstial staff including highly paid technical people.

#1 sounds pretty good in terms of training and you can't really get any more stable than working for a state agency. Yeah you deal with budget constraints and all that jazz, but if you're looking for stability that will be your best bet.

Just my x02 cents

TechJunky

Ok, I went into Employer #3 today and met with the person writing my offer letter. We both agreed on a dollar amount and said she just needed the Manager in the department to approve the offer letter and hopefully I would have it by later today or tomorrow.

I was very candid with her as she was with me and this sounds like a much more put together organization.

Once I sign the offer letter I will let everyone know who the company is.

TechJunky

So company #2 called me back today and made me an offer I couldn't refuse. It actually paid just as much as company #3 and better bennies, plus there is still room to grow.

So as of today I took job #2!

LarryDaMan

TechJunky wrote:

So company #2 called me back today and made me an offer I couldn't refuse. It actually paid just as much as company #3 and better bennies, plus there is still room to grow.

So as of today I took job #2!

Congrats man!

Who says the economy is down?

dynamik

Congratulations! Keep us posted

snadam

happy to hear that you made your choice!!!

skrpune

congrats!!

vsmith3rd

Cool.

jamesp1983

nanga wrote:

# 3 for sure....good pay and lot of responsibilities on your own would definitely make u a better person in technical aspect. take up the challenge.

plus it sounds like you'd never be bored