Say you're in a contracting developer role at a bank that pays well and will probably be extended.

Then you get offered a permanent role at an IT solution provider as a Senior Developer/Technical Lead.

Would you stick with the contracting, or go to the permanent role?

The contract role:

• pays well
• will probably be extended
• provides finance industry experience
• is reasonably challenging, although I don't get much ownership over the projects

The permanent role:

• pays less
• gives me technical lead/team lead experience-
• involves a range of websites for different clients, and I get to take ownership of projects
• much more challenging technically, as I have to "earn my stripes" within the team before I'll be given team lead responsibilities.

If you were in this situation, would you take the pay-cut and go with the permanent role? Or would you continue contracting, and not feel like you might have missed out on something really good?