<p>nutritious. potatoes. pick one.
nom nom nom carbs</p>
<p>My first job right out of college was actually with a software company at the cutting-edge of its field as well. But since my degree is in Mechanical Engineering, I’ve decided to take the risk and switch over to company that does something more related to MechE.</p>
<p>Yea, employers always want to keep people who are thinkers or are potentially able to do so. The thing about getting a degree in MechE is that it’s so versatile, so that I can also land a job with software while seeking to do more hardware-related stuff.</p>
<p>About that GPA thing. Companies such as Boeing and the like always set a cut-off GPA. But if you don’t make that cutoff, don’t ever be discouraged! You’re from Cal! Just keep looking and shooting those resumes and hopefully you’ll meet a company that understands that GPA isn’t an absolute measurement of your performance!</p>
<p>@excelblue, so true, I see some “engineers” at my company and they minimally scrape by – definitely a perfect fit for them. All they do is technical support, and how is that engineering? What I see is a sharp contrast between the state schools and a top-tier engineering school like Cal. For someone from Cal to land such a job, it’s like I should never settle for anything else.</p>
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<p>Cal is a state school. Not that being a state school should necessarily mean that a school is bad.</p>
<p>If you work in Silicon Valley, you’ll likely work with a lot of Berkeley graduates, but also a lot of graduates from less selective UCs like Santa Cruz, and CSUs like San Jose State.</p>
<p>Also, technical support can involve considerable engineering or CS expertise, depending on the nature of the product and the customer. Obviously, front line support for cheap desktop computer buyers who broke the computer’s cup holder does not require such expertise, but if your product’s customer base is a technical audience, you will need the technical expertise to answer their questions.</p>
<p>Last I’ve heard, there’s plenty of less prestigious jobs in the bay area that pays $50-$60k. Compared to the types of jobs most top notch humanities majors get out of college, it’s great. Mediocre engineers can easily land one of those “no-name” jobs.</p>
<p>It’s just like the case with colleges: you look at the top-ranked ones, and it seems like they’re the only ones that exist. Apparently, you need >4.0, SAT scores >1800, plus some APs/ECs to have a reasonable chance of getting into any of them.</p>
<p>So, what happens to that plain person who has a 3.8 GPA, no APs, no ECs/hooks, and a 1500 SAT? That represents a much larger portion of the student population, and the truth is, they also go to college. They’re just not very prestigious ones.</p>