I enjoy my job but I think it is time to move on and have been exploring new opportunities.

I have been offered a job with a rival company and I think it would be perfect, but it is only a six-month position as maternity cover. If I want it, I need to say so immediately.

I might also land a job at the overseas head office of my current employer. That would suit me just as well but there will be no decisions made for several weeks. What should I do?

Name and address supplied

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I fear you are tangling yourself up in knots through what behavioural economists call “hyperbolic discounting”, a common but irrational obsession with having things now.

Many people would rather have ₤10 today than ₤11 tomorrow, but ask them if they would rather have ₤10 on September 30 next year or ₤11 the day after that, they will sensibly choose the ₤11 a day later. Come next year, of course, they will have a change of heart.

Securing the new, cool job permanently at either company is uncertain. But if you stay with your current employer and fail to win the new job you still have your old, enjoyable job and can try again. Quit to take the job as maternity cover and if things don’t work out you’ll be unemployed. Taking the maternity cover looks unwise to me, but to you it simply looks immediate.

To make a more rational decision, try a thought experiment. Imagine that neither job will be available for a year, but you need to decide now, in advance, which one you will go for. The thought experiment may outwit your hyperbolic discount rate, as well as your urge to gamble your career away.

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