When I was looking for my “first real job” I had several great opportunities and didn’t know which to take. I had the choice of a more prestigious position (software developer at IBM) or a position that offered more room for growth and learning at a smaller company (NCR).
At the smaller company I was promised the opportunity to participate in all aspects of software development… design, implementation, testing, QA, etc. I was also promised more responsibility and opportunities for leadership. IBM is an excellent company to work for, I later ended up working with them as part of a research grant. But at least in this case, it was clear where the opportunity for growth was, but I was still drawn to IBM given the name recognition… I mean, it’s IBM.
I was pretty stuck on what job to take and so I asked a mentor what would be best, and they told me something I’ll never forget, “When you’re early in your career, go where you’ll grow“. I took the advice and went for the job that would let me grow more. I was able to experience a much larger range of work with more responsibility than I would have at the other position.
In particular I was assigned applied research projects and tasked with teaching the incoming developers how to work on our projects. I found myself way more excited to complete this type of work than any other, and I was able to get some practical experience with both through this job. This influenced my future career direction, and I don’t know where I would’ve ended up if not for this experience.
If you’re earlier in your career, I suggest you follow my mentor’s advice too. Go where you’ll grow. Go where you’ll be given a range of experiences, responsibility, and opportunities to learn. There will always be time for more prestigious and higher paying opportunities later, but those first few years of your career are the best time to put growth first as the experience will pay large dividends for the rest of your career.