I'm a dental hygienist since 18 months back. I've been working about 80 miles from my hometown, it's been a lonely existence. But now I'm looking for jobs in my hometown and after being turned down by six different employers over the course of 3 months, I've been offered two different jobs.
One is a temp work, four days a week, for 12 months, with possibility of becoming a full time employee if they have enough patients a year from now, it's fairly close to home, all in all I would spend 1 hour traveling back and forth each day.
The other is a full time employment, five days a week. It's farther from home, it would take about 2.5 hours to get there and back home each day. It's in a wealthy district that I expect will be less troubled by a worsening economy.
(There is no difference in salary between the jobs except I would make 20% more if I work five days a week.)

I'm having a hard time making up my mind, I got until Monday afternoon to make up my mind. Any advice?

If you live in the US take whichever job offers a benefit like health insurance (presumably, the full time one)

Assuming you like both employers equally well (that is, you think you'll fit in fine with either location's culture and people)...

If that's not a worry, ask yourself how crucial that additional salary for working full time would be. If you're young and single and working the four day a week job generates sufficient money to pay your bills and put a little away besides then a shorter commute and more time off might be more attractive, so long as you work your ass off and develop into a Valuable Employee so if they do expand they'll take you one full-time, or in a few years you can apply for a full time job elsewhere with a glowing recommendation.

The chief advantage (other than benefits, which would be of most concern to Americans) of the full time job is that you will make more money. This can be used either to improve your current lifestyle or, if you're really smart (and the pay is decent) you can start saving for your future immediately.

In many ways, the kneejerk/best advice is take the full time job but I've been around long enough to realize that, once you've got your bills covered, qualify of life factors become important. Things like a shorter commute, for instance. Do be aware, however, that small business employers have their downsides, particularly those in struggling areas or just starting out. I think you're aware of that to some degree. The part-time gig, for instance, holds no guarantee of full time work. If you do take it, consider that if it doesn't become full time in 2-3 years at most you really should look for full time work unless there is some over-riding reason not to.

I'm not sure that helps a lot, but good luck whichever way you decide.

Unless you plan to move, take the job closer to home. 2.5 hour everyday is like having another job you don't get paid for.

I live in Sweden and I am 28, no family so I'm leaning towards the one closer to home. I worry that there won't be any available jobs a year from now but I should worry about that when it that time comes, perhaps. Debates about economy on this forum have certainly scared me a bit.

Is moving closer to the job offering full-time not an option?

Maybe Sweden isn't as assholeish about these sorts of things, but "temp work and maybe we'll make you permanent" to me and my experiences basically means "we'll use you as cheap without benefits labor and dump your ass as soon as we don't need you anymore and go fuck yourself." None of those people would even let me use them as a reference either even when I worked there for nine months. Basically, full-time offers more security. Consider this well.

---

DPDarkPrimus is my boyfriend!

SDNW4 Nation: The Refuge And, on Nova Terra, Al-Stan the Totally and Completely Honest and Legitimate Weapons Dealer and Used Starship Salesman slept on a bed made of money, with a blaster under his pillow and his sombrero pulled over his face. This is to say, he slept very well indeed.

2.5 hour commutes are absolutely brutal, if you take it move closer.

Some firms do that. But even though a lot of cold blood floods the veins of people in the dental business, I don't think they do that. I have several classmates who graduated with me who made it full time this way. I'm not counting on it though. I've decided to go with them and see what happens.

Thanks to everyone for taking the time to reply.

My daily commute is usually 2.5 hours total. It's not hard to get used to. I'd take the job with better security and more pay.

For you that may be true, for others not so much. I tried it, stuck it out for about 8 months and couldn't deal with it, personally I think a long commute makes any job not worth it.

It does depend partly on the way you commute. Driving through heavy traffic both ways? Horrible. Riding a train with wireless internet, not nearly so bad. For quite some time in Washington I had a commute that was at least an hour one way, but one hour of it was on a big ferry boat, so I could nap or read or chat with the IRS people or have quality time on my DS or whatever.

---

DPDarkPrimus is my boyfriend!

SDNW4 Nation: The Refuge And, on Nova Terra, Al-Stan the Totally and Completely Honest and Legitimate Weapons Dealer and Used Starship Salesman slept on a bed made of money, with a blaster under his pillow and his sombrero pulled over his face. This is to say, he slept very well indeed.

Your train had Wifi? Goddamn. I work in fucking NYC, and yet I'm lucky if my train has a working toilet. Fuck the MTA

It's easier to do a 2.5 hour commute if taking a train, driving can be a real pain in the ass especially if putting on lots of miles leads to some breakdown. When I was driving from south Orange County to Carlsbad, CA (about 100 miles round trip) 5 days per week, I lost a ton of the lifespan on my then-dying car in a short period of time.

I drove from Long Island to Secaucus, NJ (and later to Englewood Cliffs, NJ) every day for a few years. That's indeed a rough commute.

Yep, all the commuter and regional trains in Puget Sound have wifi, and so do the ferries that Amy and I ended up riding to work a fair bit from Bremerton, though that was pay to play on the ferry... Free on the Sounder commuter trains, however.

---

The threshold for inclusion in Wikipedia is verifiability, not truth. -- Wikipedia's No Original Research policy page.

In 1966 the Soviets find something on the dark side of the Moon. In 2104 they come back. -- Red Banner / White Star, a nBSG continuation story. Updated to Chapter 4.0 -- 14 January 2013.

Whereas I took the bus, and then the train from West New York, NJ to Greenwich, CT. Pretty rough, but nowhere near as bad as driving. Take the permanent job.

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

---

My Fundie Guide The World Has Ended.....Life Goes On

You're shitting me. I'm lucky if I can reliably hop on my cable company's wifi at the station house. Ugh. I pay well over 200/mo for my ticket and they don't even have a full fleet of modernized cars. Again, fuck the MTA.

I agree that it depends on your life situation, benefits, and what kind of commute you'll be taking.

If your commute is a long distance personal drive (like, 60 miles each way) you're going to end up burning 20 gallons of gas (so $60-$80) every week, plus 600 miles of wear, plus you'll be out 12.5 hours of personal time; less than half that if you go with the more local option. Commuting by train would be less terrible, but in any case your stated purpose was finding something closer to home which that is only barely.

Give in. Come to Seattle. Get addicted to caffeine in a new and more intensely meaningful way!

---

The threshold for inclusion in Wikipedia is verifiability, not truth. -- Wikipedia's No Original Research policy page.

In 1966 the Soviets find something on the dark side of the Moon. In 2104 they come back. -- Red Banner / White Star, a nBSG continuation story. Updated to Chapter 4.0 -- 14 January 2013.

Marina does love touting her home region's perks.

---

”A Radical is a man with both feet planted firmly in the air.” – Franklin Delano Roosevelt

"No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism." - Sir Winston L. S. Churchill, Princips Britannia

American Conservatism is about the exercise of personal responsibility without state interference in the lives of the citizenry..... unless, of course, it involves using the bludgeon of state power to suppress things Conservatives do not like.

Moderator of SDN, Former Spacebattles Super-Mod, Veteran Chatnik

As much as wifi-on-a-train entices me, I'll stay where I can get a good slice of pizza from any hole in the wall and a bagel that doesn't taste like a coaster

Ultracoffeeland does have lots of great pizza and bagels too.

And mail-in voting for everyone!

---

DPDarkPrimus is my boyfriend!

SDNW4 Nation: The Refuge And, on Nova Terra, Al-Stan the Totally and Completely Honest and Legitimate Weapons Dealer and Used Starship Salesman slept on a bed made of money, with a blaster under his pillow and his sombrero pulled over his face. This is to say, he slept very well indeed.

do you have to cook when you get in?

for a while I was doing the 1.5 hrs in 1.5hrs out commute.

nice and easy hour on the train and 30min on the bike afterwards.

but I'd get back about 7.30, cook dinner, eat, stare at computer for 40min and then sleep.
it was pretty lonely. The actual commute was quite fun, did a lot of writing, but it cut into the rest of my life pretty badly
(that said, at the time I didn't have weekends, so all chores like shopping also had to be done in the evening, sans car)

---

"Aid, trade, green technology and peace." - Hans Rosling.
"Market forces are a good servant but a poor master." - Zaune