[geeks] Career advice

[Scott McCool]

I've been lurking for awhile and soaking in the wealth of geeky topics on
the list.  I've been thrust into a weird job situation that I can't
figure out...

I've got about 2 years experience in "the real world" (plus some part time
admin/coding in school).  I've been at Job 1 in northern Virginia since
July of 2000.  Last Friday, I resigned and accepted an offer for Job 2.  

Job 2 will be good -- it's a unix administrator position (wheras my
current position is "Software Engineer" and has more development stuff
then I want to do)... More responsibility (sole charge of a 15 machine, 30
user solaris 8 dev network & associated apps)... Slight pay raise, maybe a
little less stability in the company (but better morale, Job 1 has been
through 3 massive layoffs).

This morning, I got a call from Job 3.  I'd interviewed there last Winter
but didn't get offered the job.  It's in Charlottesville, which is near my
"long term girlfriend".  She's the reason I'm in this area at all (she's a
grad student down there), and I haven't been able to find work near her
since moving out here.  This is for a system administrator position,
working solely with NT and WebSphere, doing some CM type stuff with build
automation, and a little Struts development.  It's a 6 month
contract-to-hire position, and the pay might be ok (benefits of the FT
university position will be great if I get offered the FT slot).  The last
contractor that worked for them was offered (and took) a full time offer
within 3 months of starting the 6 month contract.  There's a possibility
they'll port the app to Linux in the next year or so, but for now it's
strictly an NT / Websphere admin position.

So that's the story.  I honestly don't know how to make this decision.  I
think I'm ok with the risk of the 6 month contract (believing it's likely
to lead to full time).  The contract rate should let me pay the extra
taxes from 1099 work and short term health insurance premiums... I've
never done just MS admin stuff, and not sure I want to move from unix or
whether I'd hurt my career for future Solaris/Linux/*nix positions...
Since I've been working in the DC area I've driven the 2 hours to
Charlottesville most weekends during the school year, with my girlfriend
coming up to DC over longer breaks.  She'll be in school there (PhD
program) for another 3 years or so at which point we'll likely move out of
the area.... I'm not sure how bad it is to screw company #2 by not
starting there on monday having returned the signed offer letter, I
certainly would be burning at least that bridge....

Advice?  Some framework of how to make this decision or personal
anecdotes?