Full-time on college or full-time at data center job?
23m So I’m in a little dilemma on whether I should focus full-time on school or work this 85K base AI data center job while doing part-time school. The associates degree that I’m getting is network security administration and then my bachelors would be in computer systems with a long-term projection of network engineering/cloud then later in my career project management within IT depending what opportunities that may come my way.
If I do full-time schooling, I’ll get my bachelors + whatever certs I achieve along the way, my bachelors degree itself would be 70% free due to the program that they have which I qualify for. I really want to value my education, but experience in this field is needed and something I can’t neglect which is making me wonder if I should at least work six months within this position (assuming I get it) plus part-time school and once summer rolls around for fall of 2027 I can decide whether to quit and go full-time on school or keep working there and continue doing part-time. Best case scenario I could get a part-time position with them depending if they want to work with me, but realistically, I don’t think that would be happening.
I just need some advice on what I should prioritize or if this is experience is worth getting since I live in West Texas area and the AI data centers are popping up even more so I feel like I should get my foot in the door before it really really takes off but tell me what y’all think.
For a bit of context for my background, I have 3+ years of data and experience within a crypto mining facility + 8 months at a police academy in between that (another story for another time). Some of my coworkers have already gotten in with way less experience than I have. And currently after the company laid everyone off I have been doing full-time school with 18 hours in classes for this current semester.