Totally, it is a mix. You might get a great project, but a bad client, you might get a lame project but with a great client you love working with… or a great project with a crap engineering team… there are a lot of parameters. In the end, your work determines what kind of of projects you do. I did some crap projects out of school, but I gave them everything I had and knocked them out of the park which let me go after bigger projects. With each projects my network grew and I was able to get better work… you need to build it one block at a time. If I had a kid working for me right out of school and he refused a project because he thought it was beneath him I’d fire him on the spot. You need to earn that. So beep it all in balance. Of course you have the right not to do something, and your employer has the right to not employee you anymore. I’ve been on both sides of that. Instead of turning down a project or being a general pebble in the shoe complaining all the time, I’ve just left jobs to move on.
Getting back to my original advice, focus on doing good work and being a person people like working with… the rest follows that. If you don’t have those two things the odds stack up against you.