How to choose your opportunities?

[KHRZ]

So I am in my 4th year of taking a computer science Master's degree. I heard before that the opportunities are great once you are nearing the end of your education, and while this is a very 1st world complaint, I am now struggling with what paths I should really pursue, so I hope for some input from some experienced developers here. I've been interested in Dolphin for some years obviously, though I have only done a language translation yet. There is an obvious split in doing high level/low level programming, and since I've been doing mostly high level stuff (My degree is in artificial intelligence where I've mostly used Java/javascript), I'm also trying to do some C++ stuff closer to hardware (I am now on a project doing a plasma physics simulation, hoping to utilize openCL and potentially a super computer from the university). However, my master thesis will be some theoretical AI stuff (text mining is the current plan) since I can't just drop my scientist ambitions so easily. One of my options is to take a phd and try to do some serious AI stuff. (I would obviously like to see general artificial intelligence being developed).

Back to the physics, (I studied it my 1st year) most of my programming experience so far is the game Lost Ball, where I wrote a 2D physics engine and won the Norwegian Game Awards last year. This was a huge opportunity, as the judge suggested I should work on a commercial release, as he was very impressed with the gameplay design despite the graphics being shit. However, one graphics guy that was interested in working on the game after the awards, kinda disappeared as he already had a deal with a previous winner that ended up making them rich. So I kinda suspended the commercial plans and just released it on newgrounds. This year however I was with a team that had a concept document for an online coop RTS, that won the "concept of the year" prize. I have been a bit skeptical, as I didn't know the scope of the project when I first joined it, however once again the judge said the potential is great. I consider myself not fully committed yet (development hasn't even started), the project will take a long time, however the boss of the team is an economy student who is getting actual investors etc. and is pretty serious about it.

Now after coming home after winning this award, it's obviously a huge opportunity, I see I got this email from some people I talked to that is making a component monitor that monitors wires for faults, for use with important equipment such as medical machines etc. they need a programmer and said I sounded interesting and wanted a talk. I don't really know much about the business market for such a component, but they are getting support from the university just like our game team, so I can only assume this component monitor must be important.

Also I am working on an educational app to teach solving of math equations, as I see educational software as a very huge untapped opportunity. (See for example this project that drastically increased learning efficiency for math).

So what I usually would do, is just talk to these component developers and see if I can get into even more action. But I am worried if I could be making a mistake, like with Lost Ball, it was a huge opportunity I kinda neglected as I added newer ones. I can't really decide what is the best option. My master thesis professor asked me if I wanted an integrated master/phd (obviously she would want more researchers), but I am really worried I might not become a scientist now, with so much more immediate stuff being tempting, and requiring my full attention potentially. I know this isn't exactly a sob story but I am asking for some emphatic advice;_;

[Link_to_the_past]

No one knows you better than yourself so you should know the answer to all that. The only thing others can tell you is what they would have done in your place, something which by no means is what you should do imo. Personally if i had choices i would follow the road that i like the most because when it comes to jobs it is a luxury to do just that, a lot of people don't necessarily do something they like for work. Nevertheless i do know that making very few money from a job you like might make you dislike the job in the process and the opposite, making a huge amount of money from a job you don't like might make it bearable in the process.

[cyrax33]

I agree as well, you have to look at what you would like to do because eventually that decision you take would define you for the rest of your life and either make you happy or frustrated in the end. You have a pretty good background there and seem to know what you are doing, so you should be smart enough to decide on what you want to do. The way I see it, I am in my 1st year of my Masters degree, the degree is Behavior Analysis. My ultimate goal is to be a Neuroscientist or Neuropsychologist because that will make me happy in the end, so look at the future and see yourself in that position and ask yourself is that what you want. Should give you some thoughts =)
Good luck though.

[NaturalViolence]

Don't go for the PhD unless you really want it. These days they're rarely worth it unless you're doing something very specialized. But I would talk to your professor regarding what potential career doors it could open for you before making that decision.

If I were in your position I would contact those two companies that you mentioned and see what they offer you. And then go with whichever one pays better and has a better "community". I find that any type of work becomes infinitely more bearable when you have good coworkers that you get along well with. Pay on the other hand doesn't really make the work feel any less/more tedious. Do you know anybody at either of these companies well?

[KHRZ]

OK so I've thought some more about things.

On this game project most are students, which are nice, I worked on one of them on a project earlier in a class. The biggest issue is the game is so ambitious, it will take very long and probably we will have issues creating it as good as the potential (this sort of game would have millions in a budget from a professional company, and we may just get some hundred thousands if we got the best support available, so we would be poor for a long time and make a huge risk.) so I am thinking the final product would be scaled down and much closer to indie-level than what a typical successful RTS is.
In the phd, many of the scientists are from abroad, there are few from my country good enough to even enter, seems like some of the professors are doing some advanced stuff from the papers they've made. But seems it will take long just to finish the phd and the contribute something useful. So I am thinking maybe for now after my master's degree I will get a job and just do well in business, and then maybe try research later if I have time.
I did reply about the component monitor and will meet to discuss it, but I am thinking I will decline it. It sounds kinda like an easy job but seems they want a long time member for their work, I would prefer rather to finish it and move on quickly.
I will ask some teaching organization I heard of what they think of the math software I made, I am thinking they may want some web version rather than Android though. It could be nice to make, it's just if the scope gets bigger, then suddenly you need more people, and will have to be employed a bit more committed. I am a bit impatient, so I want to be careful to not get dragged into a slow project, which many school things are. Though the boss in the game team is also the leader in creating some teacher portal web page, so maybe we could co operate about this kind of stuff also. (Public school organizations aren't really famous for doing high quality stuff, that's why I am worried ending in a deal of working together with them. I am thinking educational math software can really reach a way superior level to old ways, but it's also a bit ambitious to try to accomplish it alone.)