What Next!?!?
 

Just got my initial ME commercial and I'm not sure where to go from here. Guys at my school say MEI because of the recency of my experience but I won't be able to get a job at my school with that because I don't have the 450TT they require. Going that route I would have to do my single add-on commercial and cfi before I could get a job to start supplementing and further training (cfii). Or I get the com add-on and do the single cfi, get a job and have some additional income to pay for my other cfi ratings. If I got the MEI, are there places that would hire me with just that? Not sure what to do so any suggestions would be helpful; I just need hours and have a tight budget!

The school I went to had us doing our initial commercial SE, then ME. After that, we did CFI/II/MEI in that order. I would recommend getting your commercial SE and then start your CFI/II/MEI certs. The SE ticket can open some doors for you like pipeline patrol, skydivers, banner tow etc... outside of the CFI world.

That's sort of the way I was leaning, thanks for the input!

While the MEI will be easier to knock out while you're fresh from COMM ME, it will be safer (safe as in not dying) to do the MEI training immediately before you start working as an MEI. You will want to be on your game for that job.