Question for you and kleinbl00, how transferable are those skills to something that isn't engineering? Being a CTO or something along those lines would be great, but it seems way too early in a career to be anywhere near that. I'm trying to think of near term exit strategies and ways to become marketable across industries, which is a big fear right now, that my staying in manufacturing would pigeon-hole me into that industry for life.
So what you'll realize is that the further you get from graduation, the more "a degree" matters and the less "this specific degree" matters. Honestly? Put in a couple years, get some business skillz, pay down your student loan debt, and keep a close eye on your managers all the way to the top. Consider them from a "if I were her, I would do X instead of Y" perspective and start thinking like a boss, rather than an employee. Then apply to high-end MBA programs, take 2 years off and get a much better job doing whatever appeals to you four years from now. Don't think of your current gig as a "career." Think of it as a cash-flow positive internship while you learn the ropes of, you know, working for a living.
We have engineers that have moved to roles like customer reps and project management. They're roles where the engineering background can be helpful, but the only math they do is adding up their golf scores. For being transferable, not all customer reps or project managers are engineers. They came from other industries or other backgrounds. I think the direction some of my colleagues have gone gives them a lot of flexibility to move to other industries entirely different from the engineering they did right out of school.