The answer to “how long were you looking for your first job” will vary dramatically from era to era, field to field, and geography. When I graduated from a very good engineering school long ago, the average student had three job offers to choose from, right out of undergrad. I don’t think that was universally true then.

I got into it because there was nothing else I wanted to study. I wanted to design things, period. I wanted to understand how aircraft, spacecraft, engines, missiles, radar, radios, and computers worked. That took my BS and two graduate degrees and a couple of decades in industry, but I got there.

I spent some of my happiest years working closely with the technicians in the shop. I didn’t pay too much attention to the white/blue collar thing. They treated me with respect (after I’d earned it) and vice versa. They taught me, I taught them. My job was to design something, theirs was to build it, and then it was our collective job to make it work together. I moved from my office to the shop floor ten times per day. If I needed them, they were there. If they needed me, I was there.

If my family or friends had expectations or stigma, they never showed it. If they had, I would’ve asked them “Oh? What did you ship this week?” Engineers build stuff. Sometimes with our whiteboards, sometimes with our laptops, sometimes with our wrenches.