Engineering Masters degree - Research Project vs. Part-time Job? Which is better to do?

Graduate School
1

Hi guys,

I kind of need help for a scenario: If you were an entering Masters of Engineering student and you have the option to take up a graduate research project or a part-time job (both while taking courses), which would you do?

But here are the constraints:
1.) Your part-time job is in your field but not ideally related to your exact career industry work. You also get $$ from it.
2.) You don’t get $$ for working on the graduate research project, but you get experience related to your dream career/industry.
3.) You have no intention on ever pursuing a PhD.

Please tell me which you would choose and why? (This is my exact scenario right now. I am in a dilemma. I can’t figure out which would be the best decision.)

2

Will the research project give you an in to the industry job you seek or will the work experience plus the Masters degree be a more powerful combination? For me, the latter is better since companies like to see work experience over research. You might come up with a different answer.