Staying in-house or moving to Fed job Forum

[Anonymous User]

I'm facing a huge dilemma and was hoping to get some opinions.

I'm currently working in-house for a hospital system. I've been here for about 8 months, and am gaining great experience. I was extremely fortunate to land this position, not only because of the obvious difficulties of obtaining an in-house position so early in my career, but because health law is and will be in demand in the next 5 years or so. Pay is good, not great, and the work is challenging. Get in before 9, leave by 5:30; sometimes i take work home on the weekends. Benefits suck, however. Also, I commute about 25 mins to work (50 minutes total a day).

I was recently offered an opportunity to jump into the Fed gov't as an Attorney Advisor for a particular agency. The job will be extremely boring: it primarily involves heavy analysis of medical records, and cutting and pasting ALJ decisions all day. This job will also be a significant pay cut for the first year (15k), but after the first year I will receive a pay increase in line with what I am receiving now. However, the benefits of this job are incredible: this job is strictly 9-5 (7-3 or 8-4 if i wish); after 2 years, i can "work" at home (i.e. telecommute) 2 days a week; federal benefits and pension; job security (strong fed union for attorneys); excellent pto/sick leave/holidays; and overtime for anything beyond 40 hours. I will never have to take work home here. However, my commute will be 2 hours a day (1 hour there and 1 hour back).

My gut is telling me to stay at my current job, but this federal position may be a little too sweet to pass up.

[jselson]

Personally, I would stay at the job I found more interesting, especially if the work-life balance wasn't substantially different. 8 hours doing mind-numbing work feels way worse than a bit more doing something you enjoy.

[FSK]

Do you have ambitions beyond working in FedGov? If not, sounds like its time to live-more-strive-less.

[Anonymous User]

Personally, I would stay at the job I found more interesting, especially if the work-life balance wasn't substantially different. 8 hours doing mind-numbing work feels way worse than a bit more doing something you enjoy.

At this point in my career, its hard to disagree with this ^ just because gaining as much substantive experience as a junior attorney is critical. That's why my gut is telling me to stay. However...

Personally, I would stay at the job I found more interesting, especially if the work-life balance wasn't substantially different. 8 hours doing mind-numbing work feels way worse than a bit more doing something you enjoy.

I know eventually, I would love to have own a business (franchise) in the next 5-7 years. The fed job would allow me that kind of flexibility.

Also, forgot to mention this, but fed job is eligible for LRAP: 10 years of minimum student loan payments and the remaining debt is forgiven.

[dixiecupdrinking]

Sounds like the commute will eat up most of the extra downtime, the new job sucks, and pays less. Don't see the draw here.