I'm working for a company which has started a one-year project with government aid. For this project the composition of the team and every member must be approved by the government. Because of some reasons it was easier to start the project without me and switch me and a coworker after two months. Now all documents for my approval are prepared and I only have to interview with someone from the government.
Since we started the project I got an offer to work for another company with which I worked before as a freelancer. They don't have an open position, but they are willing to create one for me and we want to talk about everything in a few weeks. Because it's not an open position I'm not sure if and when I could start at this other firm, but I would prefer to work for them.
Now I looked into the government contract and it stresses that there can't be an exchange of team members after six months. I'm pretty sure the new job wouldn't start until these six months are over but before the end of the year and therefore if I switch now into the team I would risk the whole project failing.
I really don't want my current company to lose this project, but I can't think of an excuse why after all the preparation I now suddenly can't switch with my coworker and I don't want to tell them about the offer because at this moment it's too vague. What can I do? The interview could be this week and after that the exchange is complete.
P.S.: I didn't sign anything new. I can legally quit and leave the company after 30 days if I want to. But the government put in the contract with the company that if they change the team after the 6 months the government is allowed to stop the project.
I'm not a huge fan of burning bridges. I love to work for my current company and they were always more than fair. I finished my master thesis while working for them and they never had any problem with taking time off or leaving mid-day for a meeting with my prof. But I hear you and maybe I'm just a little naive to think they would do something similar if the roles were inverted.