u/TanukiThing

It’s kinda crazy they’re charging 50 a month for the gym when it’s only open 6-8 during the week and noon to 6 on the weekends.

I am expecting to be receiving two offers within the next few weeks with virtually identical compensation. Both roles are in the US Midwest.

One of the two roles is much more interesting and adjusted for cost of living pays potentially slightly higher, though the insurance is slightly higher monthly. It is working in applied sciences making and evaluating on ML models for a top agrochemical company (think Bayer). I’ve also had a lot of family work at this company, such as my grandmother who worked there for decades. The position is however a 12 month contract-to-hire, and the hiring manager has expressed a high degree of interest in hiring the candidate after the contract expires. For me, this is the no brainer choice, however this is a tough job market and there is a serious risk for unemployment after the contract expires if the company pulls back on hiring. The company is rapidly expanding however, so the risk of not getting hired feels relatively low.

The other position is moderately interesting and in a better location (Naperville area), though it’s more expensive. It would be as a data scientist working on ML model development and deployment with some agentic AI work as well.

Is the risk of a contract role worth it for much more interesting work with more ownership at a more notable company? This is for a role in the 2-3 years experience range, and currently I have a high impact resume mostly in government operations research / ML-adjacent optimization / analytics work.