What should I do.

flyingjimmyb

Okay got a dilemma. I am about to start work with a top 5 defense contractor in the DC area for cyber security but I just got offered a student volunteer position for the summer with the U.S. Secret Service. Should I keep the job or go for the volunteer position and hope I can get picked up later this year with them?

markulous

Which one is more beneficial to your career and your goals?

paul78

You're going to need to provide a tad more information about your scenario before any decent advice can be offered. For example, where exactly are you in your career (fresh out of school, 2-5 years experience)? Is the job at the contractor permanent or temporary? What would you be doing at the Secret Service versus DoD contractor? What exactly do you want to do with your career in 1, 5, 10 years (i.e what @markulous said)?

flyingjimmyb

In the IT world I am newbie. Will be finishing up school in December with a Bachelors degree. The contractor job is permanent. With the contractor I would be doing Network Security, IPS/IDS, firewalls, policy, PKI, VPNs and some other stuff. With the Secret Service is a volunteer unpaid internship doing computer forensics. Well to be honest my career goals are just to have a good job, make some money and be able to retire in 20 years, that being said I have 10 years of government work under my belt.

paul78

Interesting... So you have 10 years of work experience in the government and you now have a job offer with a DoD contractor for permanent work but you are contemplating an unpaid temporary work with the goal to make enough money to retire in 20 years.

That seems like a pretty straight-forward decision to me - take the permanent job that actually pays you money.

aderon

Monetarily it seems to make more sense to go with the D.C. job. It's paid versus unpaid and there's no guarantee that the Secret Service job will lead to anything. So unless you have other reasons for wanting to work there, I'd go with the D.C. job. Either way though there's far worse decisions you could have to be making than picking between two great opportunities. Congrats!