Starting to feel like I'm feeding a troll here. I know we're not supposed to do that, but what the hell. As the hackneyed old saying on Slashdot goes, I've got Karma to burn, so why not?
I can assure you that there's a point where you'll take any job, rungs be damned. That's usually the point where you start taking things outside your chosen profession. When that happens, EE in this case has 1 less potential employee.
Here's the problem, to get to the level of good capable EE's, someone somewhere has to teach and train them. That generally happens as a novice.
OK, so you need to make up your mind. Do you want someone to explain to you how one enters the workforce after completing a degree, or are you looking for the super, secret, magic, insider trick that instantaneously propels one from "recent graduate" to "uber professional" with an "EE type job" (whatever it is you mean by that). You're switching arguments mid-stream, and as a result, missing the point.
Working as a maintenance tech is not an EE job. It also generally won't lead to an EE type job, much as emptying trashcans in a headquarters office won't generally lead to the CEO position. What your experience might lead to is managing other techs, or even that division, but that's about all. If it were otherwise, there would be little use for college degrees.
Oh where to start? First of all, you could not be more wrong, but before we get to that, let's illustrate how erratic your thinking is. You're saying "maintenance tech" as if that's the same thing as a well trained and educated engineer working on sophisticated electrical equipment like Static Switches or UPS Systems. To further illustrate your lack of understanding, in the next sentence, you use an analogy with a janitor as if it's a corollary. There is a big, big difference between a guy who changes light bulbs or empties trash cans and a skilled, specialized engineer/technician who's capable of working on complex equipment.
You then go on to say that the experience might lead to managing other techs or a division, but "that's about it", which by extraction I'm getting that for you this would not be an "EE Type Job". So, I guess I'm left wondering what it is that you think a person who gets an Electrical Engineering Degree might do professionally. Maybe you think that someone in this position gets a big office somewhere, and a big paycheck, and they just get to sit around and draw up designs on some CAD program, then send it out to other people to "do the work" and that's about it. I'm thinking this (combined with your attitude) are the reasons you're dissatisfied with your results so far.
Most Engineers I know don't have (and never had) any illusions about needing to pay their dues early in their careers, and realized that it was inevitable that they were eventually going to have to get their hands dirty a bit. For crying out loud, you're studying Electrical Engineering, it's not a crazy idea that your job might entail being involved with (and working directly on) ELECTRICAL EQUIPMENT. If you're going to take issue with opportunities that might involve you working with the gear, well then you probably picked the wrong degree program for you. What you wanted to pick was the "money for nothing" degree. Good luck with that.
And back to your original point about not being able to get anywhere by being a maintenance tech, I am living proof that you're full of shit. Not only did I start my employment career as a lowly maintenance tech, I never even finished my degree. I now and a Regional Director of Data Centers for a major Fortune 100 company, overseeing all site operations, and am very deeply involved with all of the Electrical Projects we have going on in all of my Data Centers. Prior to this, I've managed Data Centers for other major Fortune 500 and 100 companies, all names you'd recognize. I am in my early 40's, I make more money than the vast majority of folks in the US, and I am contacted constantly by recruiters approaching me for excellent positions. Suffice to say, this formerly lowly maintenance tech is doing just fine, and has a very bright future.
I am not some special genius, I do not come from money, and my family has no "inside connections". All I did was take the jobs I could get at the time, and then I worked my goddamn ass off to make sure I was better than everybody else, and that I never, ever stopped learning on the job. People are way too quick to dismiss jobs because on some level they think that the jobs are beneath them. I can't say it any better than Thomas Edison: "Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work".