Internal job change, while interviewing with another company. Thoughts?

boredgamelad

Here's the story. I've been in infosec for about 2 years now (September). Mostly what I do is first level analysis--security incidents are generated for various customer devices and I'm part of the 5 person team that evaluates them and decides what needs to be escalated. We do suspicious traffic, authentication, and availability (device up/down) monitoring.

I plateaued on my learning after about 8 months. The depth of knowledge at this company is not very deep--there are a few long-timers who know a lot, and then there's our team. The "analysts". In quotes because we don't analyze much. We have a knowledgebase for various attacks and some general guidelines on what needs to be escalated and when, but for the most part, it's monkey work.

The real work is done by the people who carry the security engineer title. They are the ones with the Check Point/Juniper/BlueCoat/F5/Cisco ASA knowledge. The sad fact is that we're so busy and understaffed that they have no time to collaborate or mentor the lower-level analysts on how to do their jobs better/learn more about infosec. So all the knowledge lies with their team and the only real way to gain access to any of it is to move to that side of the house.

I have an opportunity to move to that side of the house. My efforts in certification/self-study have paid off (I'm the only person on our team with a CCNA/Net+/Sec+ and until two people recently got their Sec+ I was the only certified member of our team) and I've gotten noticed.

I interview on Thursday for the job. The VP of our entire service division is going to be in town (not for me but because of a company meeting) and wants to talk to me about it. The switch is almost guaranteed and the interview is all but a formality. The job change will likely not come with a pay raise, as the last person who was shifted to the other side of the house (over a year ago) hasn't gotten one.

But now, after being contacted by a recruiter, I'm interviewing this week for a contract job with another company doing similar work. And I'm apparently a front-runner due to the fact that the supervisor at the new job used to work for my current employer (albeit in a completely separate department). I am not SURE I will be getting the job, but I'm feeling confident. And it's a big change--I'd be on contract/1099 and would lose my current benefits (health/dental/PTO) but would gain a 50% pay increase and extra long commute (65 miles--with traffic, 1.5 hours in the mornings and 2-2.5 at night). And the experience sounds like it will be much better than what I'm doing here--actual analysis and understanding of attacks rather than just copy/pasting evaluations from an in-house wiki, with a chance for some engineering work and the intent for there to be a full time offer after 1 year.

I am doing a phone interview tomorrow, with a physical interview to follow at a later date. But I won't have time for both before Thursday, when I'm interviewing for the engineer job at my current office.

Normally I'd just, I dunno, wait it out. But things are coming to a head. If I take the job with my current employer and then leave shortly thereafter, I will put my supervisor in hot water--he's convinced our VP to let me do the job here rather than Virginia and has lobbied hard for me to get the offer--and I don't want to burn bridges with him if I do go to another company. On the other hand, I am feeling very confident that I'll get and take the contract job.

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Too long, didn't read version:

1.) Company I'm with now is "ok" but I am interviewing for a change in responsibilities which will increase my opportunities to learn but not my paycheck.
2.) Other company I'm interviewing with is a great opportunity with a major pay increase and strong chance of putting me neck deep in real infosec work.

Problem: Interview for company in (2) will not come before interview with company in (1), so I don't know how to respond to job offer in (1), because boss at (1) has pulled some strings to open the opportunity up for me and I don't want to burn bridges by taking the (1) offer and then jumping ship to (2). I don't want to straight up turn down the offer from (1) in case I botch the interview with (2).

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I'm not sure what to do. The wife suggested I be honest--tell them that I was contacted directly about an open position and would like some time to consider both options. I don't think that's a good idea; they might rescind the offer and then the contract job might not work out; or it will make my current environment hostile/weird if the other position falls through and I'm still given the offer from my current job. Everything I've read on TE about similar situations suggested not trying to play the offer-counteroffer game, which I don't plan to do, but the way the timing is working out with the two interviews, things are muddled.

Am I counting my chickens before they hatch? Maybe, but I think it's best that I consider what would happen if I got the offer from (2) and it's really wracking my brain. My instinct is to ask whether I can think about the offer from (1) while I wait to see if I get an offer from (2), without mentioning that I'm doing so.

All things considered it's just a weird situation and I thought I would ask TE, what would you do?

Devilry

I don't think I would mention that you are interviewing elsewhere, that typically doesn't turn out well. In my opinion the fact you have shown initiative in advancing your career and knowledge through certifications probably gives them the idea you could be going somewhere else.

However, I would start taking some notes on how you will handle the point of a raise with a promotion. I would try hard as possible to make it a point to get the appropriate pay grade with the new title, do some research on your local market for that position and use it in your offer/acceptance stage.

If all else fails, I suggest taking the better title at the current company, partly because benefits are very valuable. Take the position solely so you can gain the title to put on your resume and it will give you a better response when putting your resume out there.

The other job sounds like a step down if you factor in benefits (typically worth about 30% of a persons salary if they were paid out of the employees pocket) and the extra commute hours spent all is money; time is money.

I'd look for another job with your new title showing you have been somewhere (your resume will lead for others you have been in that position the entire time depending on how you write your resume) for a while. This will all make it easier to get someone interested in you.

Just my 2 cents!

boredgamelad

All great points, Devilry. Thanks for the reply.

Keener

Like it was mentioned, negotiate for a pay raise along with the new position. Benefits will take up a lot of that increase in pay. Also, the extra drive time will cost you as well. If you spend an extra 3 hours a day on the road that is taking time away from other things (studying, friends, family, side work if desired). Not to mention the extra drive can get old rather quickly and has forced others to change jobs as well.

It sounds like you will get into new areas with the new position in the same company as well. Even though, it may not pay more, the knowledge gained can be useful. Coming from a company that didn't give a pay raise for 3 years in a row, a new position withthe opportunity to learn new things can be beneficial too.

boredgamelad

Just got an offer from my current employer; very surprised to find they offered me a 38% raise along with the responsibility/title change. Salary wise it's less than the contract job but taking loss of benefits/increased drive time necessary to take the contractor position, this is a definite step up. I'll also be moving to a 4x10 shift which will mean an extra two days off per month with my wife. (right now we only have 6 full days off together per month due to our mismatched schedules).

Thank you both for your advice, turns out you were spot on.

onesaint

Awesome you got the offer and the raise! Plus the time save on the drive, plus benefits are major pluses.

Devilry

boredgamelad wrote: »

Just got an offer from my current employer; very surprised to find they offered me a 38% raise along with the responsibility/title change. Salary wise it's less than the contract job but taking loss of benefits/increased drive time necessary to take the contractor position, this is a definite step up. I'll also be moving to a 4x10 shift which will mean an extra two days off per month with my wife. (right now we only have 6 full days off together per month due to our mismatched schedules).

Thank you both for your advice, turns out you were spot on.

That is wonderful news! I am glad they made you a good offer. Are you going to accept it?

boredgamelad

I already did, it's effective July 1st. It will be the end of August before I'm fully transitioned to the other team though, so I'll have a foot in both the monitoring and ticket/change processing sides for a while.