Hello everyone, I am in a bit of a pickle. I just graduated as a math major with some experience as a data scientist at a small startup. I have been trying to get work as a software engineer or data scientist, but I lack some experience and knowledge of the former and the latter seems to primarily be looking to hire masters/phds.It isn’t ideal to me, but this has me considering applying to get a masters in CS. I went to a good school, had a strong gpa, and will score well on the gre. The tricky thing is that I am likely about to be offered another job. The job is part of a consultancy and I would be given the title data engineer. Based on the client list, I am expecting that my work would mostly be migration to the cloud and dashboard building. That is not exactly where I want my career to go, but it would be really nice to make money and work for a real company. I’m trying to weigh taking this role against continuing to self-learn while applying to jobs and grad school.Factors I’m considering about the job:
- The company appears to be just starting its US operation. There are 900+ employees in UK.
- There isn’t a very clear guarantee of where I will be staffed. It says New York or tristate area…
- The training program is 4 months in another country while getting paid (great!) but if you leave sooner than 2 years you have to pay back a large percentage of the salary you received during training (very odd to me). 
- The training will likely be somewhat repetitive for me and I could/am learning that stuff online for free already. 
- The pay is standard entry level consultant pay.Factors I’m considering about grad school:
- I haven’t actually gotten into one yet and I dont have strong research
- I can only start next year at this point which would mean a year long gap on my resume unless I can get an internship or I take an unrelated job
- I worry that I will exit my masters as unattractive to employers as I currently seem to beI’m really struggling with this and would appreciate any guidance from more experienced people. My main concern is that I end up stuck in this job I don’t like that leads me away from the career I want and ultimately ends up with me going to masters anyway. Alternatively I’m worried that if I don’t take this and then fail to get into a masters program I am really done for. I came very close in an interview for a company I really want to work for and the recruiter said to try again in 6 months because I was so close and they all want me there, but just need a bit stronger technical skills. She said to focus on personal projects and take more classes if I can. Taking this other job sortve feels like closing the door on those kinds of opportunities for at least a few years to me.