Hey all,
So I could potentially be getting a job offer from a pretty well established (from my research) security company. I wouldn't be doing actual security work, rather supporting their security product, Netwitness. The position title is Sr. Support Engineer, and I would be coming from Tier 2 desktop support tech, so its a decent bump in title. I have read some good things about the company, and they were very recently purchased by RSA, the security division of EMC. All in all the company looks solid from that perspective.
Where I am having a problem is the salary/benefits. The salary range is 80-103k a year which is fantastic considering the low end is almost double my current salary. The real stickler is the benefits. Where I currently work, I have awesome benefits. $3000 a year tuition reimbursement, unlimited technical certification reimbursement, 1 training event per year (this year I am going to attend the week long GSEC course, on company time... so that's about 5k), decent medical, 401k, and pretty good vacation time (15 days per year, that's sick and vacation in one, plus federal holidays), and fun company sponsored events that I really do enjoy (weekends with small groups of the company doing team building exercises like camping and rock climbing, fully paid for). All in all its a great benefits package. For salary, I make about 55k a year with bonuses. Base salary is about 46k, so the lowest end of the bracket for the new job would be almost double (not sure if they offer a bonus structure), and I am thinking I can pull 85-87k out of them.
From what I can tell, the benefits where I would be going are not quite as good. A bit more vacation time (23 days a year, that's sick time included), slightly better tuition reimbursement ($5500 a year for undergrad, 10k a year for masters), as far as I can tell NO certification or training at all (huge sticking point for me, I love getting certs and going to week long training), and its also quite a bit farther commute (45 minute drive, traffic gods willing, as opposed to 20 minute bicycle ride).
A few other things that might help. My current job is with a gvmt contractor and I HATE being a contractor. The new job would be with the company, but still customer facing. With the new job, I would be getting a lot more exposure to Linux and overall more difficult tasks, but I doubt I will get much exposure to anything outside of their product and maybe simple networking experience. My current job, I get no exposure to anything new at all, ever. I solve simple windows and mac issues all day, every day, 9-5. Another thing is the new job will have some shift work, 4am to 8pm are the support hours I believe.
I am just so on the fence right now. I don't know whether its worth moving to a new company that is a farther commute, in my opinion less benefits, and still not doing what I want to do (security) for that salary jump. I am sure there are going to be people that are like, "omg double your salary", and I get that, I really do. But if I have to pay for my own training and take my vacation time to go, it starts to eat into that "bigger" salary. As well as adding commute costs, about 350 a month from what I can tell.
Let me know what you guys think, don't hold anything back
