Ask HN: what's a young Mechanical Engineer to do?

Last May I graduated with my BS in Mechanical Engineering. Although I had hoped to join a startup, I ended up taking a job at a large international company, working on product design (student loan need to be paid back. While I enjoy the work, I've grown tired of the corporate environment and politics. Budgets are getting cut all across our division (and I assume the rest of the company) and almost all of our new product development projects have been canceled for the sake of corporate "efficiency". Culture focuses on how many hours you put in and who comes up with certain ideas--it doesn't really feel like a team at all and it doesn't feel like it's possible for me to make an impact. So I've started looking for a new job. The problem is that any startup I can find advertising a job for MechE's is looking for 5 or 8 or 10 years of experience. I can't afford to start my own company until I pay off my loans, and even then I don't know how I'd finance getting started, considering my background is mechanical product design. Do I suck it up and keep working for "the man"? I'm sure there's a better option. I live in Boston, for what it's worth.