<p>It all depends on the person and the situation. My brother got his ChemE degree from an Ivy League and couldn't get a job until 4 months after he graduated. He had been searching for jobs beginning in the Fall semester of his senior year. He had 5-10 interviews after his internship company rejected him. I, on the other hand, will graduate in May with a MechE degree from a much lower ranked school and have already accepted a job offer after interviewing with 5 companies. And the salary is higher than my brother's salary, even though the average salary for ChemEs is higher than MechEs. The salary is also a full $10,000 more than the salary from the company that rejected me. That recruiter told another candidate about the salary info. </p>
<p>From an academic POV, my brother's GPA was not very high in comparison to his peers and that hurt him when companies went to his campus to recruit. In my case, my GPA was among the highest in my class and my resume was good. That got me interviews with every company that came to my campus to recruit engineers. Another thing that gave me an advantage is that many of the top students didn't bother to give their resumes to career services and never got interviews with the companies. And some of these same students don't want to relocate and that erases a bunch of opportunities right there (most students are commuters).</p>