[M.D. Holloway]

Agree - decent engineers are getting tough to find. As for work hours, engineers are professionals which typically means 40+ a week. That '+' can be a 1/2 hour on a week end or 75 hours a week.

It was pretty typical for an hourly technicain to make more then me when I was an engineer at GE in fact it was expected that I put in some serious hours without compensation. So is it fair? Well, I had the ablity and did move up the ladder. That sort of labor commitment is short term. Once you play the hard hour game for a few years, the world opens up and life gets very easy. You would be hard pressed to find a more stable profession provided you don't take advantage of it.