Alistair,

Short-time-reader, first-time-advice-seeker. So, I’m about to graduate from college, and have had a couple of promising interviews. One is for a market research position with a small start-up. The other is an assistant position for a self-proclaimed prophet hellbent on bringing back the forgotten traditions of a darker time. Both pay about the same, but the latter has better benefits. Which should I go with?

Torn in Two (maybe literally, dependent on job performance)

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Torn,

That’s the tricky thing about startups, isn’t it? They demand performance, and quick, because they’re a half step from being tarred and feathered by the free market themselves

While the dark prophet definitely promises better benefits, one has to bear in mind that the thing about prophets is their ‘In for a penny, in for a pound’ nature. He’s already claiming to be in league with enshadowed powers and terrifying nightmares giving him a glimpse through the veil of time; it’s kind of small fry at that point to say you provide dental.

Neither job, statistically, is going to last very long. After you’ve weighed the enjoyability of the work itself, think about your exit strategy. Would you have your mind destroyed through having glimpsed horrors beyond that which man should see and end up slain as a sacrifice to ever-more-demanding remnants of ancient forces; or would you rather have to reenter the job search with a marginally stronger resume? I can’t pretend to tell you which is preferable, as that’s really a personal decision.

Alistair