As someone who graduated into the Dotcom Bust, your expectations need to be pulled back a bit from what you saw your somewhat older friends get right away. Not

As someone who graduated into the Dotcom Bust, your expectations need to be pulled back a bit from what you saw your somewhat older friends get right away. Not only the amount of your starting salary (it was about a 30-50% decrease for those of us in Class of 2002 vs our friends in Class of 2000), but also the coolness of the job (Them: web startups. Us: government contracting.) I also watched some of those slightly older friends struggle with car and/or condo payments taken on the presumption of salary and stock options going nowhere but up. Ouch. If you get a job offer you can stand in a place you wouldn’t mind living even if the job went away, you should probably take it. As others have said, it’s a lot easier to get a job if you have one. You’re a lot less likely to become desperate and have to accept something awful if you’re already in an ok job. As for pay expectations, look at what similarly-educated mechanical engineers in your region make.