Should I take a low-code offer I don’t want, or focus on applying elsewhere? /u/allhailzero CSCQ protests reddit

I just received an offer for a position that honestly I don’t want to take. The position seems to be very low-code and more similar to an IT role than a software engineering/development role. The systems they work in are proprietary, so I wouldn’t be gaining any experience that would further my career goals (SWE). In addition, it’s over 40 hours a week in-person and has a very low rating on sites like Glassdoor. The compensation is also much lower than many of my classmates with similar experience levels, which wouldn’t be as much of a problem if I was gaining experience or if the company environment seemed better.

For context, I got this offer after ~50 applications, and 3 interview processes. I’m a 2024 grad who has been working part time in a non-technical role at a tech company up until a few weeks ago, with some internship and research experience. I have enough savings to safely cover 6 months of expenses.

Should I:

A.) Accept the offer, but start applying other places since day 0, or

B.) Reject the offer, and send out a lot more applications to SWE/dev roles

My main concern with accepting is that my hours would make it much tougher to get out more than a couple applications a week, and make interviewing much tougher. Also, most interviewers seemed to ask about current job status in the first interview, where saying I’m in the first few months at a new position would harm my chances. If I reject, I would have much more energy to get out a higher number of applications and hopefully interviews. The only problem is there might not be another offer in the next 6 months, and I might need to compete with 2025 grads if the process takes much longer.

Any advice, or things I haven’t considered?

I just received an offer for a position that honestly I don’t want to take. The position seems to be very low-code and more similar to an IT role than a software engineering/development role. The systems they work in are proprietary, so I wouldn’t be gaining any experience that would further my career goals (SWE). In addition, it’s over 40 hours a week in-person and has a very low rating on sites like Glassdoor. The compensation is also much lower than many of my classmates with similar experience levels, which wouldn’t be as much of a problem if I was gaining experience or if the company environment seemed better.

For context, I got this offer after ~50 applications, and 3 interview processes. I’m a 2024 grad who has been working part time in a non-technical role at a tech company up until a few weeks ago, with some internship and research experience. I have enough savings to safely cover 6 months of expenses.

Should I:

A.) Accept the offer, but start applying other places since day 0, or

B.) Reject the offer, and send out a lot more applications to SWE/dev roles

My main concern with accepting is that my hours would make it much tougher to get out more than a couple applications a week, and make interviewing much tougher. Also, most interviewers seemed to ask about current job status in the first interview, where saying I’m in the first few months at a new position would harm my chances. If I reject, I would have much more energy to get out a higher number of applications and hopefully interviews. The only problem is there might not be another offer in the next 6 months, and I might need to compete with 2025 grads if the process takes much longer.

Any advice, or things I haven’t considered?