r/personalfinance•
Yboc

Should I take a job following my internship at a great company in a great industry, or continue getting my bachelors?

Employment

This will ultimately be a little verbose but I'll try my best to paint the picture, first starting with personal stuff.

26yo male. I started school when I was 23 and have 16 classes(4 semesters) remaining in my Bachelors of Science in Information Systems at the University of Utah. I am currently interning with a great CA based software company at their Utah offices. I make $22/h until the internship ends in late August. I've been trying to save this summer while also enjoy my personal life and at the end of summer I'll have roughly $14,000 in savings.

Current plan for the last few months has been to go back to school in August and continue taking 4 classes a semester. This fall I have a few time consuming classes and was planning to be frugal and not work in order to make sure I'm doing well in school and not wasting any time or money by failing. I've gotten to this point and only taken out one $6000 subsidized loan in order to keep money in my pocket for living, and I've also gotten $7000 of next year's $8000 tuition paid for with a couple grants I was fortunate to get.

A few other things that influence this. I'm pretty happy to be getting a valuable technical/business degree in an area with a massive influx of tech companies. I've also proven myself to be pretty valuable in the job market by trying to straddle the line between business and tech knowledge while also being incredibly personal and a good communicator(which is 100% of the reason I've been able to get good internships). I know I want to work for tech/software companies, but not as a developer. My current internship is for Implementation/Professional Services and it definitely interests me, but it's not a long term dream that's for sure. Ultimately I'd like to do some sort of management or decision making, but that's down the road so most of all I just want real world experience and to get my foot in the door with good companies and make good connections.

The company I'm interning with right now is awesome. Well established and managed, they've got an industry leading position and money to research and grow. Good culture and work/life balance, stock options(currently $91), no 401k match yet but its been a conversation. I don't have details on the salary of the position yet. I'm assuming $60-70k, which is huge for me as up to this summer in my life I've never made more than $13/h. The position will ultimately be something I could work remotely with, which would be great for working with school, but I genuinely dont think I can handle that work load. I know both will suffer under the stress. I could take fewer classes each semester, but I have to get my degree. Its huge for me personally as well as career wise, but I'm 26 and have barely made any money in my life and feel so behind as far as earnings and retirement go. It will be so long before I can afford a home let alone put a huge percent of money down for retirement.

I come from a pretty poor family. I dont think either parent made much more than $15/h. My dad died a few years ago and my mother has financial troubles of her own. I have a small family and nobody can offer me much more than a couch to sleep on if things go south financially. So for all intents and purposes, I'm pretty alone in my life and school, and dont have any kind of support. I'm noting this because it comes into play when making decisions about my future, and this one is a pretty big one. I've done a good job being frugal and saving while still trying to enjoy life and make good decisions. I had saved almost $40,000 at one point but I ended up not working for a while and studying on my own to place higher in math and focus on school. Not really relevant but I studied math all last summer and was able to place 2 courses higher and save $2200 and 2 semesters. Stoked about that. Like I said, now I'm down to about $14,000 and have to try to be smart about spending and jobs while still being efficient with school and time. Thats be biggest struggle. I'm pretty stressed about money and scared about hardships. I'm on a good path education and career wise, but with 4 semesters left it still feels so far away. I want to make money and sense that comfort, but I also really want to finish school.

I appreciate any input and ideas. Thanks

Posted Jul 21, 2017, 9:35 PM UTC

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