Take low-pay job offer?
I graduated in May 2025 and have been looking for a job for roughly a year now. I have been doing Leetcode, reaching out to recruiters, going to Carrer fairs for my university, etc. I have tried mass applying also tried slowing down and including a cv in my applications too. I tailor my resume for the job.
I have tried getting my resume looked over by professionals, have tried networking for a reference. However, for a year I have not received a whole lot of replies/interviews. I have had 3 internships, 1 unpaid at a startup for 9 months, 1 FAANG company for 3 months, 1 at a large known health insurance company for 12 months.
After almost a year of applying I finally got a job offer as an Embedded Systems Software Engineer with a small engineering company with 1 other Software engineer there. however, due to tariffs and war they had to rescind the offer due to higher costs. After some discussion with the owner, he said he would let me join the company at 9 dollars an hour and train me as well.
The pay is low, but thankfully I live with my mom and brother, so rent is not a major issue for me. I am planning on doing Georgia Techs OMSCS program part time as well for my master's degree started spring 2027. The idea would be, with a job and experience it should be easier to get an actual good paying job in the future. Thankfully the stack they use isn't something proprietary and can be converted well. they use C, C++, C#, RTOS, Ether CAT, etc, and are trying to port their application to Linux.
would this be good for experience then pivot somewhere else asap? since I'm not super strained financially atm. Would a company think this is a red flag if I try to look for a job soon after getting hired?