John,

Can you visit with some of the people in each division? Ask them what they do, what they like best, how they feel the salaries and promotions are. You may need to have these conversations outside of the office.

Also find out if either potential new boss is a really great or really horrible person to work for. Get some idea how personnel turnover is in that group - do people leave because they hate it? (I left a group like that.)

Will you always work for this company? Will working for either division give you a marketable skill advantage elsewhere in your city/country?

Most of all, choose what will make you happy! I have a boss who allows me a lot of freedom, doesn't micro-manage me, and I spend very little time on boring tasks. I left a group where I was micro-managed, did a lot of non-career enhancing busy-work, didn't have flexible hours, etc. Life improved a lot!


>Hi,
> I am a junior programmer and work in a smart card solution company. My boss want somebody to join a project. And the jobs will deivided into 2 main categories
>1. Smart Card Firmware (AP)
>2. Database management (may involve banking transaction and multi-user environment)
>
>My boss ask me decision, either join the smart card division or database division. As the matter of fact, I don't have any idea. Therefore, I would like to ask for comment from anybody.
>May you give you comment or recommendation? Which is more in potential , higher salaries in future? Or any other issue...
>
>Thank you