Hey guys-
I’ll be transferring to either UC Davis or UC berkeley on the fall 2016 semester as an applied mathematics/electrical engineering double major undergraduate (I know I can’t transfer as a double major, but that’s the plan. Now hush with the semantics xD). I’ve been working full time through community college as a computer repair tech with Geek Squad. The plan has always been to leave my job once I transfer to university, in order to fully devote myself to extra curriculars (research, internships, etc).
Here’s my dilemma: I’ve stumbled across a remote net eng/tech support position for a local ISP. The pay is great (starting at $22/hr, moving up to $25-30 within a year), and the experience sounds better. I’m new to networking, but I made a great impression with the boss. I’ll be starting out tech support, but the plan is to fast track me to network engineering/security. I know I’ll get a lot of valuable work experience, knowledge, and certs. The time commitment is 2-3 years though. They’re committed to working around my school schedule, but working 30-40hrs a week plus school won’t leave me with much time for extra curriculars.
I’m torn, because on one hand I know this job is great for two reasons: it pays the bills and it’s great experience. It’s the type of job I’ve been looking for, where it’s a step up from thethe basic shit I do at Geek Squad. I don’t know if the experience, knowledge, and referrals/connections I’ll make at this job are worth the opportunity costs of what I’ll be missing at University. I do have plans of going to grad school, so I understand how important it is to try and get involved in undergraduate research.
I’m looking for advice and thoughts of how you guys think the experience of this job compares to what else I could/should be doing at University.
Thanks in a advance