[2001ragtop]

Your situation sounds typical. I have a bachelor of science in mechanical engineering. I have worked for a variety of companies.

1) This might sound out of the box, but if for any reason, you do not have any skills using Autocad or something like that, you could possibly learn this at a community college, then get your foot in the door in a big company doing drafting. Once you have more knowledge on what they are doing, they probably will slide you side-ways and put you in an area more suited to your studies, but at LEAST you could get in the door to prove yourself.

2) If you understand ladder-logic and programming in C++, almost ANY company who builds stand alone industrial machines, needs a software guy to debug the machine, dump in a new program, replace parts. This again, would be a way to get-in-the-door, learn about the products, then get promoted to a higher position in management.

3) Try to keep your resume on just one single page. don't ever use more than one page. That's crazy.

4) I have noticed that the more "engineering looking" my resume has looked (like having it very straightforward, no fancy talk, like you mean business and can tackle anything), this will help. Just keep things to the point and make it look organized.

5) I used to know a computer engineer. he worked for northern telecom in richardson tx, before northern telecom had huge layoffs. I have no idea what he did though. I think the dallas and/or Texas area does likely have jobs available in your field.

6) Regarding job hunting, like others said, you might have to have the door slammed in your face 100 times or more, but that's just the process. You will get better at job interviews. You will learn from mistakes. Usually, when people do hiring, I am pretty sure they are just looking for someone who will "fit" with their personality more than just skills. If I were you I would not act "entitled" when you do interviews. That is suicide (like saying I have to have my own office, or I have to have this-or-that). I would just be humble and say you are ready to work.

7) If you go to interviews and you sneeze, or touch your face, or put your finger in your ear, or touch any part of your face, you likely just blew your chance to get hired. If you blow your nose into a handkercheif, you just kissed your job goodbye. And do not smell like any kind of strange foods or smell like B.O. This is basic advice, but unfortunately most people even though they are super intelligent, cannot do these simple things. Don't place a finger into any orifice on your body. It's pretty simple. I have had many engineers approach me and they are picking their nose at the same time or pulling on their nose hairs. I don't know what professional really means anymore. I guess it's okay now to be disgusting. Also, if you aren't wearing a suit/jacket/tie/slacks looking as professionally as you possibly can, you just completely screwed up.

8) Absolutely you need a headhunter. That is how I found just about every job I ever had.

9) Be advised, many people who have "technical" degrees, might end up totally in a different field. You might not have a choice. I recall meeting many a chemical engineer, who was doing electrical/or mechanical type engineering duties.

10) You could consider applying for electrical engineering jobs. They likely will just train you on what they do/how they do it. You could try this option. such as designing small automated systems. even a very small company might hire you and you could just gain some kind of experience. its usually grunt type of work and you likely would look at electrical drawings drawn in autocad.

11) If after 2 years you still can't find work, you definitely will need to look at re-inventing yourself. Think about what interests you have. Perhaps something in alternative fuels/energy. You could join the alternative-teaching program which trains any college graduate in one year to be able to teach in high school. Dallas has it. I know that sounds bad, but this is just an extreme worst-case scenario. At least you will get paid.

12) you could go back to school and become a BSEE.

13) you could work in sales and sell engineering products. any company would hire you and train you to write up bids for projects. you might earn commisions. (sales guys have all kinds of backgrounds).

14) I dearly hope you are not being racially profiled. You did not say your race, but it likely is not impossible that this kind of thing happens.

Good luck.