RlP posted... Here are some questions you should answer (to yourself) that will help you make a good decision:
1. What is the cost of living/salary ratio between both options?
2. Are you willing to relocate to a different place? Knowing new cities is actually a plus for some people but others might want to stay put if it might impact your family for example.
3. Is anyone else impacted by your decison? E.g. wife, kids. If so, what do they think?
4. What are your career goals? Do you want to grow or are you fine doing whatever? Which options provides more room for growth, assuming you want that.
5. How important is work life balance at this point in life for you? Regardless of the new company having more workload, joining a new team is its own effort.
6. How open would your existing company be to welcome you back in case you dont like the new one? Would you be willing to relocate back to your current area if the new job doesnt work out?
Overall it is about taking risks depending on what you want. You can decide to take a risk and try it out, see if you like it (assuming no family, you dont mind the hassle of a temporal relocation and you can get your job back if the plan fails). If the risk is too much or the effort to try out the new option is too high for you, then you could consider staying at your current position.
I'm curious, what was your experience working at Amazon / Facebook and what did you do?
These are great questions, thank you. I have thought about a lot of these questions, but the question about my company taking me back is almost zero, which is definitely a risk. I do have a cushy job, so it this new opportunity doesn't work it's like holy shit I gave up a very cushy job which I definitely need to consider.