Finish school or take 40k job offer for desktop support?

Got myself in quite a situation right now, have a job offer with a fortune 500 company located downtown for a desktop analyst position, starting salary is 40k with huge room to grow. I currently work a pretty miserable helpdesk job making about $12 an hour.

Issue is I'm in school, have at least 2 more years left, the fortune 500 job is typical work hours, M-F 9-6pm, no way I'd have time to finish school because the classes for my major are held during the weekdays around 11am-3pm. My current job is extremely flexible when it comes to school which is great, the work is just absolute misery.

Really not sure what to do, drop school and start work at fortune 500 desktop analyst or continue on with school? The thought of commuting downtown in the morning and evening with an insane amount of traffic really is not appealing at all either.

Find more posts tagged with

Free for TechExams community: Cybersecurity salary guide

Compare cert salaries and plan your next career move

Button

Comments

MSP-IT

Take the job, enroll at WGU.

chrisone

Finish school , LOL @ choosing 40k over an education that will net you over 60-90k in the future. Plus fortune 500 companies will always be hiring techs and engineers, especially those with a degree and certs.

But seriously can you do both? Many of us worked and went to school at the same time. You can do either part time job and full time school or full time job and part time school?

krjay

I'd take the job, especially since you mentioned there is room to grow. I went through this exact same situation when I was in my second year of university. I took a job that I knew would make it difficult or impossible to go to school. I found ways to continue my university education. I took classes at multiple institutions for scheduling reasons etc.. Bottom line I think it's a lot harder right now to find a good entry level IT position with room to grow than it is to finish a university program.

edit: Take the job and find a way to make school fit in. WGU, community college, long commute, whatever it takes.

tom_dub

Last interview I had with the VP of the company said to make it my #1 priority to finish school, put everything aside and finish school no matter what, was a pretty real conversation. Anyway, there's just no way I can do my degree with a 9-6, the in major courses are held in morning/afternoon hours, not interested in WGU either. Leaning towards rejecting it though to finish school, just wanted more opinions.

krjay

What degree are you pursuing?

tom_dub

Computer Science

puertorico1985

I was in a similar area not too long ago, and maybe my experience will help you decide. You are currently in IT, so the job is not a must have right now. (If you were not in IT, I would recommend pursuing the job, as many companies want experienced individuals.) School is by far the best option for you now, and it better be high up on your list. You may or may not see immediate benefit from it, but in the long run it will pay off more than you know. If you are able to study and work at the same time, I would recommend doing so. 40k is a pretty significant bump in pay, but that should not take priority over school. You stated that you were not interested in WGU (neither was I), but there are many reputable online universities that you could pursue while working full-time. I was working helpdesk while pursuing my BS degree online, and while it was extremely difficult, the degree and the work experience paid off. My 2 cents.

coreyb80

tom_dub wrote: »

Last interview I had with the VP of the company said to make it my #1 priority to finish school, put everything aside and finish school no matter what, was a pretty real conversation. Anyway, there's just no way I can do my degree with a 9-6, the in major courses are held in morning/afternoon hours, not interested in WGU either. Leaning towards rejecting it though to finish school, just wanted more opinions.

None of the classes are offered online. I work full time and take most of my classes online. Next semester I have to take one class in the evening. Evening classes are not an option? You would be limiting yourself by not taking the position. Catch 22, but you have to find a situation that allows for both the job and school. It's out here.

NetworkVeteran

tom_dub wrote: »

Computer Science

I would absolutely finish school if that's at all possible. $40k is peanuts compared to what you'll make with a Computer Science degree; it has long-time high value and opens up so many options. You can't complete a degree like that at WGU.

If possible, try to find a summer job or internship to get a little experience before you graduate.

Khaos1911

Take the job and transfer if need be. Although, in this day and age it's kinda weird that your school isn't offering some night classes for your degree. I think most people go to school in order to learn the things needed to obtain a career. I'd personally take the job and the salary bump you'd get and just try to figure out the school situation going forward. When I was in undergrad, I worked three jobs and went to school...I don't miss those day.

boredgamelad

NetworkVeteran wrote: »

I would absolutely finish school if that's at all possible. $40k is peanuts compared to what you'll make with a Computer Science degree; it has long-time high value and opens up so many options. You can't complete a degree like that at WGU.

This. This right here. 100%.

Qord

Have you told this potential employer that you'd like to take the job, but would also like the flexibility to finish your schooling?

tom_dub

I appreciate all of the opinions. The CS degree in itself is one of the reasons I'm choosing to possibly reject this. There's no possible way I could do 45 hours a week and finish a CS degree before I'm 30 (I'm 25). My current job has some pretty decent growth opportunity as well (sys admin, development, business analysts, all with flexible hours), just the current grunt work is horrible. Pay also isn't as good.

BradleyHU

wait...wat city is this in? saying downtown is very vague....so that $40K might be peanuts, or might be decent depending where its at....

Akaricloud

I was in a very, very similar position myself. I could have taken a Desktop Support position paying $46k and dragged my education out for years, or continue my full time education and work my $11/hr support job.

I ended up choosing to finish my degree and within 1.5 years I'm already about to break the $80k mark. My advice would be to resist the temptation of short reward and focus on the long term return on your education.

rsutton

It really depends on what you want to do with your career. Having a degree is less valuable for certain positions, and arguably required for others. If you plan on devoting your career to the tech side of things, a degree is nice but experience will trump the degree. I would say the inverse about going in to the business side of things.

bobloblaw

Finish school. Not having a degree will hurt you in the long run. I don't have mine, and it's definitely hurt regardless of whatever certifications you acquire (short of CCIE).

ptilsen

As someone who makes a lot more than $40K and deferred school to make that money, I recommend finishing CS. It might take five years for this decision to pay off, but it will. I think it's likely you'll be happier, too, unless you really don't like what you're studying, in which case you have a different problem.

tom_dub

Double checking over the 2013 Fall schedule, so many required courses like discrete structs, algorithms, software eng, all beginning in the morning/early evening, some only having just one class time, nothing is offered past 5pm. Really doesn't look like this would be a good idea to take at the moment, it's a lot of money and a much more stress free environment, but in the long run I think jobs like that will always be there, along with other jobs offering more money with a degree. Think I'll just stick with my stressful but flexible IT job, still getting experience and can move up to other positions.

traceyke

I would take the job. Experience trumps paper. I've "finished school" and got my Bachelor's back in 2009...and I STILL have not made anywhere near 40k yet.

ptilsen

It's not like OP isn't working now. DST is only marginally better on a resume than helpdesk. I think the money is nice and the experience change certainly doesn't hurt, but the flexibility to focus on school is something I would give up a significant amount of salary for, frankly.

Nutsacjac

Finish the degree. It opens up many doors.

shodown

If you getting a IT degree I would say take the job. Since you are getting a computer science degree its better to stay in school. You will see way better jobs down the line with the CompSci degree.

This is one of the few cases where I suggest staying in school.

sratakhin

Why not take a job and transfer to a college where you can get your degree online? Unless you are currently attending an Ivy League school, the name of the school where you got your Bachelor's won't matter that much.

boobobobobob

Get your degree. If you don't do it now chances are you never will. But make sure you're employable after graduating by working part time or getting some certs.

Legacy User

@Original Post

I know where you are coming from but would you be any bit interested taking online classes? I work a 9-5 and still am able to work on my Bachelors in CS degree at Thomas Edison State College online*. I take 3 classes per term/12 weeks and there are 4 terms in a year. I'm not sure what your financial situation is (living home with parents or on your own) but a 40k paycheck does make a huge difference compared to a $12/hr check especially if you are living on your own. I know how lousy a $12/hr check is. At my last job I was getting paid $13.65/hr and I really was pinching pennies. I chose to find a better paying job and within the yr I was making 40k/yr.

I could relate to the current job being flexible I turned down an opportunity as a Network Engineer for a fortune 500 bank which would have been a 20k bump. As I mentioned before I also am enrolled in school and felt this is my opportunity to finally finish and have the freedom to work on my papers and such in between the craziness at my current job. The bump would have been more then great but financially I am comfortable so I chose to stay.

If I was you I would personally take it pending I can find an alternative school online. I'm not saying to drop out if you can juggle both I say do it if not stay at your current job. Because that hr check mark for Bachelors is worth its weight in gold.

YFZblu

I think you should complete your degree. 40k sounds nice right now, sure, but 40k for your first job will always be there. Conversely, the degree tends to elude us as time goes on. IMO the biggest thing to consider here is momentum. You currently have momentum behind you, you're about halfway done with your Bachelor's. If you enter the workforce and change schools, it could very well tack a year onto your completion time because coursework doesn't typically align cleanly unless you paused midway to attain an Associate's degree.

Now you have to spend more time than planned getting your Bachelor's, picking up more debt, momentum is gone, etc etc. On top of everything you're working 8+ hours a day and the last thing you will want to do is homework.

Hope this helps.

tbhouston

It is getting harder and harder to get employed without a degree. It is a major barrier of entry these days. It can be an arts and crafts degree from school like WGU, it just doesn’t matter—that check box needs to be checked. If you can afford to stay in school and finish that is the best option long term. Once you leave school it will become harder and harder to get back into it

dbrink

Stay i school and get your degree.

hiker93

Stay in school. Get the Computer Science degree with the highest grades possible. After that, $40+K will be below your starting salary with full benefits, bonuses and likely quick advancement if things go well at all. Check Monster, Careerbuilder, or any other hi tech job site and I think you will find that having a CompSci degree will make you qualified for many, many more good jobs sooner than another 2 years on the Help Desk. As long as your finances hold out, go for the degree. Be an intern at the Fortune 500 company between semesters.