Help me choose

[vivid parcel]

Hi I'm a new grad recently got offers from a defense contractor and a car company. Defense contractor is remote and I'll be working on various full stack stuff using your typical frameworks like React, Node, Java Spring etc. etc. Car company is for infotainment team using C/C++ and Java/Kotlin (I'm assuming bc of android development) . I'm required to move to Michigan for this position tho.

I don't care about TC I only care about exit opportunities. I plan to exit to big tech or big tech equivalents as quick as possible. I kind of messed up during college and wasn't able to secure the best opportunities. I'm thinking maybe I can leverage the car company experience for ev companies or av companies but I don't know much about software engineering at car companies. I've heard a lot of mixed stuff about defense mostly negative, so I don't really know if I want to go down that path. Which one do you guys think will give me the best exit opportunities? Also dm if you want more details and for company names if you need them.

[fair cliff]

what do you mean “exit opportunites”

if i’m reading you right, i’d say defense counterintuitively

but if it’s web programming i’m not sure then

you’d probably gain more technical skill at the car place but defense means many things and could open a lot of doors

i assume clearance

[fair cliff]

lots of leverage for ppl with clearance and defense background but honestly there is not enough detail

i know you don’t care abt tc

[tiny cedar]

Depends what you want to do long term and where you want to live. Defense can be soul crushing & boring but it's a reliable ecosystem for jobs.

[vivid parcel]

as in what gives me the best opportunities to job hop to a better company like a big tech company

[vivid parcel]

does location heavily restrict job opportunities? I heard a lot of companies actually prefer local candidates and I've also been lying about where I live in some of my more recent apps and have been getting more interviews.

[tiny cedar]

Yes, of course!? Even though covid has made this less so

[vivid parcel]

would you recommend I take the remote regardless of everything else then for better exit opportunities? I live in a major metro area for tech alr (LA/SF/Seattle/NYC).

[tiny cedar]

I don't know what an "exit opportunity" means in this context but it sounds like you mean, what would give you better opportunities in the future? Being in an area with lots of tech jobs is useful even if you are remote, but more important to your future career are going to be the people you meet and the industry connections you make. Working remote is actually going to make that a bit harder; and defense industry connections are a very different beast than automotive industry

[vivid parcel]

What do you mean by the difference in connections? Does defense pigeonhole you into defense? Is that something that you don't have to worry about at a car company?

i just keep using exit opportunity bc its a common term i've always heard from my finance/consulting friends lol. Think its more common in their industry than ours

[tiny cedar]

Yeah so any connections you make in the defense industry are going to be defense industry connections. Anybody you meet in the car industry is likely to know other car folks. It's possible to move between industries and skills are transferable but if you're interested in a particular industry over another you'll want to make connections in that industry! Defense can be particularly siloed because of clearance and citizenship requirements.

[vivid parcel]

Which industry would you say is easier to move in/out of?

[tiny cedar]

I've worked for both briefly in my career. Defense is definitely harder to get into and most of the time you can't talk about your work when you leave!

[vivid parcel]

Which one did you like better? Did you work on infotainment systems as well?