[ewan]

In what seems like an eternity ago I had a similar decision to make - choosing between a very large (100k+ employees; non-IT focus) organisation and what today would probably have been called a startup (~10 people across 2 continents; IT product development & sales)

I chose (your) option 1, partly because I figured they were a good company to have on my cv whatever the outcome, and partly because they offered a few k more a year. Frankly I think you should try to ignore the money aspect, but when a few k is a sizeable percentage of your total salary, I know this is difficult to do.

10+ years later I've lived in 3 countries, flown business a lot more often then I would probably have paid for myself, and enjoyed the sort of perks you seem to like the look of in option 1. I've done some interesting technology based work along the way, but I've also done a lot of administrativa.

In my case, it was important that the organisation kept trading for the duration of my year's internship, or I wouldn't have recieved the course credit. If this is applicable to you, it is something to consider in your choice. Remember both organisations (their Australian office at least) could have risks in this regard.

Good luck!