I've gotten some good advice from this forum before, so I'm hoping you guys can help me out again.. I'm 25 and a bit at a loss for how I want my career to progress.. I've been at the same company since shortly after I graduated college, and work on military software. The people there are good and the job isn't too demanding, but I feel that I'm a bit underpaid and my company generally doesn't give great raises. I'm also in a support role which requires off-shifts more than I'd like, and I'm getting a bit bored of the work. Occasionally I get to do some development work which I enjoy a lot more, and I'd ultimately like to move my career in that direction.
I'm also not super thrilled with where I'm living. I'm in a suburb of DC and have lived here most of my life. I recently visited Portland, OR and fell in love with it, I often feel that I'd be happier living there even though I don't know anyone in the area. I've been kicking around the idea of quitting my job in March-April of next year, then taking a month to travel somewhere, and spending another month or so brushing up on programming so I can apply to dev jobs, and then moving to Portland to look for work. My 'stache is somewhere around $130k so I'm not too concerned about money, though obviously I don't want to burn through too much of my savings. Though sometimes this seems too risky to me, and I wonder what my parents would think. I also have a fear about moving to a new city.. My parents and friends are here (no wife or kid though) and I worry I won't be able to meet people if I move.
On the other hand, there is a software development position open with my company currently and I'm wondering if I should talk to my boss about moving into it. I think I'd be a good fit for the role and would find it more interesting than my current job, though I also don't know how people would feel about me leaving my current support role open, as it has a more immediate need/impact. If I did move into this position it would probably delay any move by a couple years, I wouldn't feel good about leaving six months after taking on a new role. I guess I should also mention that I don't always feel great about working for a defense contractor. My ideal career would in some way benefit humanity, though I recognize that it's not necessarily realistic for my morals and my job to line up.
Then I guess my third option is just to stay in my current position, not take any risks, and remain personally and professionally unsatisfied. Anyway, sorry for the long post, hopefully this is more readable than I think it is.