"Engineers are now often nothing more than glorified temps. "
Well, yeah. If you find a life-long engineering project, you're likely working for the government, or a huge company. (or you're a really bad engineer)tic. Very few places need engineers beyond the scope of the project dejour.
"a job that I knew would be there for me years down the road. "
How could you "know" that? It is a HUGE mistake to think any particular job is something you have secured a right to. Even if you have a contract, there will be some 'out' for the one paying the bill . . .something like. . . uhmm, I don't know; maybe a sham "random" drug test.
