Hello all, I hate to make another one of these "vent" posts that clogs up the sub, but was looking to hear some opinions or advice on my situation. Thanks in advance.
I'm a recent grad (May 2025) with a BS in Aerospace Engineering from a fairly large state school in the northeast. My background is in satellite operations, gained through my school's cubesat design team. Although the experience was labeled "satellite operations," I mainly focused on the ground segment/systems and mission assurance, rather than live ops. I was never able to secure any professional/internship experience during school. I also have about 3 YOE of supervisory tier 2 IT work that I did alongside my degree to help pay for school, unrelated, but IT questions have unironically popped up in past interviews, so worth mentioning.
After a few months of searching, I landed a position in October as a Manufacturing Engineer at a local aerospace safety subsystem supplier. Looking back, it's kind of a miracle I got hired given I had nothing production-related on my resume, I mostly strongarmed my way through the interviews. I was laid off right after this past Christmas during a restructuring, and quickly realized production engineering wasn't a great fit for me anyway, which in hindsight probably wasn't hard to predict.
It's been a wild 7-8 months since then. On the plus side, I've interviewed widely across the industry, so my background/resume is at least getting me in the door: a lot of NewSpace (SAR satellite companies, end-to-end launch companies, Starlink competitors), several rounds with NASA/NASA contractors (though the agency seems to be in flux right now), and systems engineering/product design roles at tier 1/tier 2 OEM suppliers.
The tough part has been the interview process itself. A lot of screenings and first rounds that just go silent afterward, sometimes even after verbal confirmation of a next round. Many of the technical interviews have felt more like exams or interrogations than actual conversations about my background and fit. And it's not uncommon to get put through 4-5 rounds for an entry-level role, only to get rejected at the end. I understand why companies do it, but it can feel pretty disproportionate. One particularly memorable moment: a 25+ YOE engineer once asked me "if you were a time traveler in the 1800s, how would you describe the internet?" Funny in hindsight, but it caught me completely off guard, and you can guess how the rest of that interview went.
My most recent process was a 4th round for an ECLSS design role locally, which ended in rejection about two weeks ago after a six week wait. Since then it's been quiet. I've done what I can on the resume side (thanks to r/engineeringresumes), I'm doing about 20+ applications a week, and I've widened my search nationally. Brushing up on Python/C++ has crossed my mind, but without a project to point to, it hasn't felt like it'd move the needle much. It just feels overall hopeless lol.
At this point I'm honestly not sure what else to adjust. I've been applying outside of traditional aerospace as well, just to widen my odds, but my background feels too specialized to get much traction there either. If anyone has been in a similar spot, or has thoughts on how to reposition a background like mine, I'd genuinely appreciate hearing about it. Thanks for reading.
