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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.

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.

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

jselson wrote: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...

jselson wrote: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.

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.