I currently have 2 job offers: high-paying software engineer at a top tech company (return offer from internship) and a computational biology research associate 2-year pre-grad school position.
I want to pursue theoretical CS (mainly computational complexity, maybe approximation algorithms) so I don't know how much weight the comp. bio research job would carry. The research job also pays less than half of what I would be making at the software engineering company. I would much prefer the comp. bio job since it is at a very innovative non-profit company and the PI and I click super well. I am also really passionate about their mission and the work that they're doing and I'd love to be a part of it.
However, the pay is far worse and I would have to work there for at least 2 years as opposed to the software engineer job which I could quit after 1 year and apply to grad schools during that 1 year.
So I'm wondering, despite which job I would enjoy more, which is the more logical choice? Would either of these add to my PhD application at all?