Would being an RF Drive Tester give experience in becoming an RF engineer?

Would being an RF Drive Tester give me some potential in becoming an RF engineer in the future? I got two job offers and I am unsure of picking the correct one. First, I got a job offer as an Electrical Mechanic at Oxford Airport Technical Services, which I have heard is a very tough job and would be working overtime every week; salary is 50k-60k a year and has benefits as is a full time position. The other job offer is a Drive Tester with Sublime Wireless, which I thought would give me some experience in something related to the RF field, which I believe could lead my career to becoming an RF engineer? This postion will only provide me with only $100/day plus it is only part time and temporary (contract for 6 months), but could lead to full time position if I am good at what I do. Would the Drive Tester be more worth my time, or get the job that pays more and is more stable and can later apply to more RF engineering jobs? I just need to know if picking the RF drive tester job will give me what could be nessesary to become an RF engineer? I have a B.S. in EE

no. drive testing means you just drive a van around town...hitting every street...while a computer automatically logs all the test results. A trained monkey could do it.

Take the airport job....especially if they will fund some of your classes for the degree at night!
One benefit of working an actual electronics job...you get to see what you really enjoy working on...and can direct your college studies in that specific area later on. At that airport job, if there is any way to grab some aircraft electronics certifications along the way...do so...those are worth a lot later on.

I'm with biff44 in that a Drive Tester is simply a field strength surveyor, driving around town with equipment set up by an RF engineer doing all the work.

But the airport job is also not likely to give you RF engineering creds either. These you get only with advanced electromagnetic studies. With the airport job, it sounds like that they will give you the opportunity to go back to school to obtain those creds on a part time basis. However, the overtime may severely impact your ability to achieve your goals.

I really want to get into doing RF/microwave design engineering. Would there be any way I can volunteer for something that could get me the experience and would likely want me to get hired in that field? It has been my desire to get a job in this field for about 5 years now. People have told me, ''maybe get into an amateur radio club?" would this give me enough experience to get into this field maybe? Its too bad that my GPA is a 2.72 for my B.S degree in electrical engineering and I had very little experience in the RF field as an intern. What would you suggest to accomplish this goal, when I have nothing else than to pick between these two jobs that only require a high school degree?

I use to hire RF engineers. If all they came in with was "I was in an amateur radio club" they wouldn't have gotten in the door. Nowadays, you almost have to have an advanced degree (MSEE) to even be considered.

>>It has been my desire to get a job in this field for about 5 years now
I don't want to sound dismissive, but what have you done in those years to accomplish this goal ?
The advice to join an amateur radio club is going at it in the wong direction. For many of my generation the way in to RF was via amature radio; i.e they had an interest, got a licence as soon as they could, learned as much as possible by buiilding and getting things working and planned a career by getting the necessary qualifications that would open doors for them. That is how I didi it and a number of my current and past coleagues who have had sucessful careers.
Like everything in life if you want to make a sucess out of it you have to be passionate and dedicated; at least you've made a start by asking, but I can't help feeling that there have been 5 wasted years.

A uWave engineer in his mid 20's here. I have BS and MS in EE. My advice would be learn the equipment being used in RF/uWave, that would be good start. Learn about connectors, cable loss, VNA, SA. This job is a combination of software and hardware(like theory and practice). Understanding the physical phenomenon is a good starting point.