“Should I accept a low-paying job or keep searching for better opportunities after graduating with no internships?”
If you graduated with a BS in Summer 2023 and have no internships, should you accept a local development role for $15 an hour? The position starts at an intern level and offers promotions based on performance. Alternatively, you have been contacted by a Revature recruiter. With no financial stress and living with parents in the US, should you take what you can get or keep searching for better opportunities?
Are you in USA?
Honestly go for it, you can treat the $15 as intern pay.
Low pay is better than no pay.
You haven’t gotten your first job out of college, and it’s been almost a year. We all have our own scales of desperation and what we’re willing to concede… but if I were in your shoes I’d happily take that offer. I would’ve taken it at the 6 month mark too.
Accept it, and keep job searching on the side. If you find something better, awesome, go pursue that and leave this low paying job in this dust. But until then, at least you’re making *some* money, and your resume has real industry experience on it which will make finding your next job significantly easier.
Keep in mind Revature doesn’t exactly have a great reputation…. but that aside, simply being contacted by a recruiter is not comparable to a formal written offer.
Maybe accept and pursue Revature anyways to see what happens, but I wouldn’t turn down the one offer you have for a not sure thing at this point. If I had only been on the job hunt a month or two? Maybe I’d turn offers down. But at this length, I wouldn’t turn anything down.
Do not do Revature! That company is a scam.
I think this is something that applies to most careers. Starting out you have to be willing to take anything. Once you have a couple years of experience, contacts that know your capabilities then you can move up. I think realizing this can be the difference between making it and not- being willing to do whatever it takes to accomplish your goals.
It’s pretty bad, for sure. But pay is better than none, and the #1 thing that effects pay is experience, which you’re not getting right now.
Are they trying to screw you? Yes. And if that’s the kind of relationship they want, you don’t have to feel bad about ditching them at the first possible opportunity.
THAT BEING SAID: I did a quick google search of “Revature is a scam”. Can’t say the word of mouth is very good. They sound VERY sketchy. Do your research.
I am/was nearly in the same EXACT boat as you besides the fact I live with my partner and have loans. Graduated May 2023 with my BS with one internship, and had been job hunting for 4-5 months before I got my offer.
A semi-local company a friend had applied to but they didn’t have any roles for his skillset available, but they did for software. I cold called, got an interview, passed the rather easy tech assessment, and got in a month later WFH $15 an hour. I was hesitant to accept but my job that had gotten me thru college that paid $22 an hour had closed and laid us all off with no notice and.. experience and money is better than no experience and no money. They also promised a promotion within 6 months
Great environment, have learned a lot, very easy going and I am now an entry level SE after 6 months. Thankfully I have my partner to split living costs with in our MCOL area.
However, I read up on Revature and actually backed out of my first meeting with them. Something about them seems predatory/not what it seems. As another commenter said their word of mouth is very poor. I’d rather take a low paying temporary intern position than something that could make my life a living hell in the future.
Had you taken the job last year, you’d have $31K in your pocket and a year of experience.
Take it, just don’t fall in love with it. Leave as soon as you find better. Don’t ever think you owe them for the “experience” they “gave” you.
Dude I would literally curb stomp a baby to have a $15/hr dev job right now. Take it. It’s experience.
I would say yes because a big gap post graduation is very dangerous
However you should know that these intern to fulltime things are almost never honest, very likely that they will just use you for cheap labour with no intention of a promotion
Take the lowball offer and keep searching for better opportunities. I was laughably underpaid for my first job out of college and then got a 40% increase when I switched to my second job. But before finding that first job, I worked a couple temp jobs to build experience. Once you find something with better pay then you can put in your 2 week notice and take the better offer
Yes take it. But don’t stay there. Leave as soon as you can.
$15 is $15.
You also now have professional experience to put on your resume if you don’t already have any.
swallow your pride and take it. you don’t know who someone else knows.
Bro where y’all finding these dev jobs. I feel not many jobs are getting posted.
Do you feel like you need to use your degree? Are you really interested in CS, or are you motivated by money? There are other careers you can take for $15 an hour which could have higher short-to-medium term salary growth potential.
$15 an hour is trash, and you’ll probably not be eligible for promotion until 6 months. You’re pretty much incentivized to keep looking constantly. Hospitality and hotels industry / sales / marketing would almost certainly pay better over the next 4 years given the macroeconomic environment.
yes bro take it.
1) it’s experience
2) you have the opportunity to get promoted
3) once you gain experience for a year or two you can leverage that and move jobs if you really want
4) YOURE LIVING AT HOME. $15/ h is crappy but if you’re living at home I think it’s ok for the time being.
I’d take the $15/hr, especially since Biden just banned non-compete clauses so you can jump ship.
Experience > no experience
I’m from a 3rd world country a similar thing happened to me, they offered me an intern position as a dev for a minimum wage and a possibility to be absorbed depends on my performance. It’s fully remote so I accepted it right away.
I would take the job and keep interviewing. Maybe having a dev job will make you look better to other employers. Bounce as soon as you land a job with real dev pay.