Anything else is a waste. It's small wonder, since the engineers on the starship Enterprise are portrayed as heroes, occasionally even having sex with aliens. This is much more glamorous than the real life of an engineer, which consists of hiding from the universe and having sex without the participation of other life forms. Dating is never easy for engineers. A normal person will employ various indirect and duplicitous methods to create a false impression of attractiveness.
Engineers are incapable of placing appearance above function.
Fortunately, engineers have an ace in the hole. While it's true that most normal people would prefer not to date an engineer, many normal people harbor an intense desire to mate with them, thus producing engineerlike children who will have high-paying jobs long before losing their virginity. Male engineers reach their peak of sexual attractiveness later than normal men, becoming irresistible erotic dynamos in their mid thirties to late forties. Female engineers become irresistible at the age of consent and remain that way until about thirty minutes after their clinical death. Longer if it's a warm day.