I just graduated in December with an Electrical Engineering degree from the University of Texas-Arlington. I've begun the hunt to start my career and I've really been focusing on finding gigs at small product design/development firms in Dallas. Before my engineering degree, my background was in art/design. That's all I did in high school, and I went to art school in Chicago for a little while after high school.
My electrical engineering senior design project was the first time my background in art/design and fabrication became a valuable asset to an engineering project, and I really enjoyed it.
From what research I've done this past month while starting my job hunt, I'm starting to think that product design could be a good path for someone like me. I'm trying to focus on smaller companies right now because I would think a smaller company with a smaller team has team members working on all aspect's of the project, not just the parts they went to school to do. Is this a fair assumption?
And for the people that work on the engineering side or do hiring would you be more inclined to work with/hire someone who could be useful in all aspect of the development cycle or someone with an exact requirements match that could do an exceptional job but nothing else?
I am aware that it is not always going to be white or black like that, but I'm just trying to get a baseline understanding if I'm on the right track or if I'm wasting my time. Because the truth of the matter is, and it bums me out to think about it, but there are way more qualified engineers looking for work right now than me. I did good in school, I ended up with a 2.8 GPA, not quite the illustrious 3.0 that entry level job postings love to put in their requirements but its pretty close. I didn't do any research and I regretfully didn't get an internship and I had to keep a part time job to keep gas in my car so I wasn't too involved in extra circulars. I have taken and passed the Fundamentals of Engineering exam. So hope is not completely lost.
So I'm trying to play up on everything else in addition to the engineering, but the engineering is what will get me in the door. I'm concerned the kids with a resume worthy GPA and internship/research experience are getting asked for the interviews while someone like me who might be a more useful hire are getting overlooked.
Should I stick with it, or just take whatever job and do some edx.org or similar classes to fill in the gaps in my resume and try again in a year?
Dang, this got long. Sorry!! Thanks for taking the time to read this and thanks in advance for any advice you might have!