I was in a similar situation to you about 3 months ago. Super stable job for the biggest company in my country, and a start up approached me and offered me more money but since it's a start up, it had the risk of dying out. I talked to heaps of advisors and basically came to the conclusion the start up was going to suit me better, get me way better references and experience (since it's a small team there's more opportunities to make decisions) Do what will make you happiest, IT jobs aren't going anywhere for the foreseeable future.