TL;DR: choosing between doing a ~$40k master's degree in a year or taking a $160,000 job; $40,000 in loans, interest in research/PhD, discomfort at the idea of corporate slavery
-----------
I am currently 20 and an undergraduate senior at a well known university in the United States. I have received a job offer from a large tech company in Seattle for a software engineering position that starts after I graduate, a few months after I turn 21. I also applied to (and was accepted to) my school's accelerated master's program for computer science, which I can drop out of at any point or finish within an extra year. My job offer expires in 4 days.
As someone who has no idea what they want to do with my life, I have been wracking my brains about what I would like to do - especially since the offer is a mind-boggling $160,000 in total first year compensation. This is especially ridiculous to me, coming from a once-dirt-poor immigrant family that as far as I know has never even broken $100k in household income. It is well known that engineers at the company can quickly progress to $200,000 after a year or so, and then a cool $350,000+ within ~5 years of graduation. Being a longtime lurker on /r/financialindependence, it seems like an extremely lucrative opportunity FIRE-wise, and from a purely financial perspective, it seems like a no-brainer. It would also allow me to rapidly eradicate my $40,000+ student loans.
I am also concerned about being chained to a desk for a large part of my adult life in the pursuit of capitalism, but that is another post (novella?) in itself. Suffice it to say that although I interned for this company over the summer and found the work at least somewhat interesting (although very intense), the prospect of doing cutting edge research and "helping the world" instead is extremely enticing, and I feel I would in some sense be selling out if I took the job. I could also potentially kill myself by doing both at the same time (online master's).
If I wanted to do the master's or a PhD later (company will pay for some of it after a year of work), it would take 2 years and would not be at the same caliber of institution as my current one, due to my underwhelming 3.2 GPA. (I do have research experience, but it is not too focused). If I wanted to do the Master's, I can also convert this full-time offer to another summer internship and then start in 2020 with a salary bump as well - the company is not going anywhere. However, the Master's would run me about $40,000 in total for the year- about a $200,000 opportunity cost. Is this really worth it?
I am sorry if this sounds condescending or hoity-toity to anyone. I am just as confused as you as to why somebody wants to pay me three times the median household income as soon as I can legally have a drink. I would really appreciate any help, especially from engineers/scientists who have gone through something similar. Thank you!
Edit: $160,000 is in total compensation and in writing; the salary is about $100k with the rest being a signing bonus and stock
Submitted October 27, 2018 at 09:58AM by throwawaytechguy512 https://ift.tt/2RiPv9Z
