At 20, I took a job at Marine Electric Company. Field Service Engineer. Responsible for all the electronics on 180 tuna boats, 14 base stations and the occasional work boat, Navy sub and large ship. I had to be a member of IBEW Local 569 to do work in the ship yards (NASSCO). It was a nice mix of physical work in the field and bench tech electronics repair. The pay wasn't great. $9.30/hour in 1977. Lots of great "hands on" experience with the full range of marine electronics. It was a bit dangerous. Climbing bilge to crow's nest on the tuna boats, climbing a 40 ft tower on top of a 5 story building, riding a basket to the top of a 150 ft telephone pole to change a cubical quad antenna at the Daley Corporation.
I finally left Marine Electric for Pacific Telephone in 1980. Nice "office jobs" since that time. I'm approaching time to retire now. 40 years of software engineering (and some electrical engineering) has made the college effort worth doing. You don't always land the ideal position early in your work life. You should look for opportunities to interesting new things that improve your income going forward.
yep my sister was a manager for PacBell and did quite nicely. She worked like a dog though.