So many people online say just take whatever job you can, it doesn't matter. Yet, people say you can pigeon hole yourself in a certain industry or role just from your first job. If you got a job as a technician after college, it's hard to move into a design role. If you got a job in the oil industry, it's hard to shift over to aerospace.

 

So many people online say just take whatever job you can, it doesn't matter. Yet, people say you can pigeon hole yourself in a certain industry or role just from your first job. If you got a job as a technician after college, it's hard to move into a design role. If you got a job in the oil industry, it's hard to shift over to aerospace.

Yes and no.

Certainly as you gain experience in your first job, that experience makes you more employable in that industry (or niche within that industry) than others, but it also increased your employability in most other industry as well, just not by as much. So you can expect to move up faster by sticking in that same industry. But if you are willing to not step up as far, or even step back some, in order to switch industries. If the industries are disparate enough, you might need to consider entry-level positions even if you are a seasoned engineer, but you can expect to advance much more rapidly than your peers.

I would not expect having experience as a technician to be any kind of a barrier to getting a design role. I would expect the opposite to be the more common case, as finding engineers with a practical, hands-on, real-world background can be difficult.

I suspect that where this notion comes from is because many people are hesitant to change from the industry they started in, either because of being unwilling to slow their climb up the ladder or because they have become comfortable in the industry they were in and are uncomfortable with the thought of "starting over" in another industry.

 

I see it as the “Star Wars Syndrome”.
Although Carrie Fisher appeared in several movie roles, she was and will always be associated with Princess Leia.
OTOH, there is no denying that SW made Harrison Ford a Hollywood star, but he was versatile enough to have made many other different films. One can argue that some of those roles were even more career-significant.
Conclusion? It definitely depends on the individual ability to re-invent oneself.