I am a senior in mechanical engineering, graduating in May. I have been involved in robotics research for the majority of my undergrad, and I am currently on a robotics senior design project. I want to do robotics long-term, and as such I plan to get a master's degree. I am enrolled in my school's accelerated master's program, meaning I only need to stay for one more year to get my master's.

However, I have accumulated a bit of debt during my college years. I am also really burnt out and tired of my college and its location. I have been offered a job with a mining company for a 2-year Mechanical Engineering rotational program, and it pays really well. The position is focused on maintenance and reliability subsets of mechanical engineering.

This is definitely not the industry I want to be in long-term, nor is it my area of interest for my master's degree (which will ideally be mechatronics or robotics). But I would love to pay off my debts for two years before graduate school and get some extra spending money for the time during my master's (RA/TA compensation alone seems difficult to live off of).

If I was to enter a master's program after this two-year rotation (i.e. apply to grad school one year after I graduate), would my chances of getting an RA position at a lab be decreased since I will have gone a year without publications and robotics experience prior to my application? Or should I expect it to make little difference?

Essentially, I need full tuition coverage through RA and/or TA positions in order to complete graduate school. I am trying to figure out if two gap years i industry will hurt my chances of obtaining those positions.

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