While I admit I am purposefully trying to present the down side of Engineering careers for the benefit of the original poster who needs to be aware of that. As a real ChemE with 16+ years of experience in several fields and with at least eight different companys, I do not think that Mr. Dandy's opinionated views truly represent the experiences of actual Engineers and caution those who need to know, against accepting Mr. Dandy's word versus those actual experiences that are being offered. I suspect that Mr. Dandy feels threatened because he is investing time and money to become an Engineer and these negative stories threaten his vision (however warped) of his future. I suspect the knowledge base he's quoting from comes from Engineering trade journals and a few real engineers he's talked too. Don't worry. Engineering is OK, but it's probably not as rosey as Mr. Dandy says and that's something you should be aware of.
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Actually Mr. Dandy works pretty closely with real engineers (i.e., NOT you) on a daily basis (mostly BSMEs, EE, a few environmental/civil, and an occasional chemical). The industry in which I work, electric utility, has been steadily hiring engineers since, well, FOREVER. The last ten years or so has seen an emphasis on environmental engineering (you see, there's this little Federal agency called the "EPA" that makes utility and oil & gas companies really uptight, have you heard of them?).
Locally, several companies, such as Kerr-McGee, have been recruiting AND hiring chemical and petroleum engineers from regional engineering schools (a LOT have been coming from University of Missouri Rolla). The Air Force and several local defense contractors have also been steadily hiring these new engineers at around $60K starting out. So yeah, based on what I KNOW FOR A FACT, I'm calling BULLSHIT on your ILL-INFORMED STORY.
I'm sorry if you're too ignorant to keep your white power attitude to yourself during a job interview and I'm sorry if you can't put together a decent resume. However, nothing in either of your posts reflects what the actual job market for an engineer is.