At a tough spot career-wise... not sure what to do

I finished my B.S. in Aerospace engineering in 2002. I never went into the industry, but that was a personal choice. Economically things were pretty different, but even then most of the engineers that I knew that started working right after graduation started working for companies they had done internships for. A lot of it really does depend on who you know, especially for that first job. It's more important than GPA, that's for sure. The average engineering GPA at UCLA when I was there was a 2.7. No kidding. Like the professors didn't know what a curve was. In fact most of my friends that got jobs right away didn't have great GPA's, the people with great GPA's went to grad school.

The other thing about Engineering is that it's geographic. Mechanical less so than Aerospace, but it's still relevant. In Aerospace you'd better have wanted to live in Seattle, San Jose, Los Angeles or Pasedena, or San Diego. Following that Houston or Cape Canaveral. Yeah sure, it sounds cliche to name off NASA launch sites but guess what, that's where the businesses are. And not just NASA, but all the contractors they use surround sites like that. LA was big because of Edwards AFB. It even depends what your specialty is. If you're into commercial aviation you're looking at Boeing and Seattle, or some of their smaller operations in Los Angeles. Rockets? Well they launch from Edwards, so there's companies in LA. Otherwise Florida. Military aviation? Lockheed has a presence in San Jose, Boeing had people in LA, etc. Without going crazy you see what I'm saying right? The large engineering companies hire the most people, they're the one's that hire the most entry level folks. So, if you aren't living where there are large engineering companies, you're going to have a rough time. It's one of the reasons I didn't go into the industry in Aerospace. An entry level Aerospace Engineer's wages don't actually get you that far in Pasedena, or San Jose, San Diego, or even Seattle. Rent takes half your paycheck right off the bat. My favorite professor was a PHD working for Boeing, teaching a class or two at UCLA on the side, working 60+ hours a week, going to work on Sunday to meet deadlines and he was sharing an apartment, he had a roommate still! Anyway. Mechanical is a bigger world, but look at the big companies in your area of expertise. Where they're at is probably where you should be if you want an entry level job.

Grad school is a good opportunity if you want to stay in engineering. Yes, there's some risk that you'll be overqualified for some jobs. But the thing is that in the engineering field it's hard to have too much education. It's harder at the entry level to distinguish yourself from other folks. As you move up there's less competition, because lets face it studying engineering is NOT easy. And the more qualifications you bring to the table, ie, a master's degree, the less some of that other things matter. If you've got a bachelor's in engineering getting a master's in engineering while you're working in industry is not something everyone does. You have to go back to school, most people are not doing that on the side. What I'm saying is that engineer's with master's degrees don't necessarily have a ton of work experience, so your disadvantage might not be as much as in other fields where people can advance their education while still in the industry. If you do go back, make sure you make connections. Work that internship. Make connections with some of the professors. Not necessarily the tenured guys either, the specialty guys they bring in to teach the build class. The one's that actually are working in the field and teaching a class on the side. UCLA had a few of them, they were the best professors I had. Even the professors that are tenured though may have decent connections. So, if you go back it's not just about checking the box saying you have your Master's. Use the resources at that school to make connections to industry. And pick a school that has connections to the field you want to work in. UCLA is great for space stuff, for example. Edwards AFB is in the back yard, and because of that so is JPL, etc. Because they launch stuff out of Edwards. So, when you apply for grad school, look for places that have ties to what you want to do so you can make connections in the field you want to be in.

And the engineering jobs didn't leave. They never did. Some of the manufacturing jobs did, sure. Blame that on the CEO's padding their pockets. But the big engineering companies are still pulling specialty folks in on H1B visa's because there aren't enough of them here.