The Employment Dilemma

As the saying goes, it never rains, but it pours. So now I have a welcome, but difficult, dilemma.

Which is better, a job with little security and no benefits, but pays very, very well and involves interaction with a lot of people, or a job that doesn't pay that well, has benefits and security, but requires a great deal of solitutde and driving?

As I mentioned earlier, I had two interviews with the hospice firm. It's now down to me and one other person for at least one of the two positions offered. Thing is, the job involves a ton of driving in an area far from my home. Traffic being the way it is around here, we're talking a lot of time spent on the road, alone, with little interaction with colleagues. On the plus side, there's job security and very good benefits. My income will be just so-so, however.

Meanwhile, I was all but offered the addiction therapist "fee base" position here at the hospital. Fee base means that I work on a renewable 6-month contract for an incredible amount of money. On the down side, there are no benefits, including no vacation. So if I don't work, I don't get paid. I'll also have to pay for my own health insurance, retirement, and so forth. There are permanent positions that are coming open that I may be able to jump to, but until then, I can be terminated due to lack of work, funding, or any other reason (or lack thereof) with little or no notice.

Which would you choose? Obviously, we're all in different places in life, but if you were married (with no children) to a wife who was a Ph.D. student (so we're going to be moving in roughly 3 years), which would be more appealing? By the way, the chaplain job opportunities here with which I've been fighting for the last several months are all but dead and buried. Looks like there's just no way I can make that work.

More on this as I find out more. I'll probably be making a decision within the next week or so. I'm exhausted from the job search limbo. One of my deciding factors is based on my contemplating this question: where can I do the most good for the most people?

In the meantime, though, I'm trying to get the advice of as many people as possible. So, again, what do you think about this?