Overall, the career is very rewarding (financially and personnaly). It does require an extensive amount of knowledge (gained through On the job training), and it does require a large time investment of doing other jobs before you are trained to be an engineer. For the right type of personality the career is great (like working long hours, like working at strange hours, away from an office, self starter, etc.) Don't know if I would have ever guessed that I would end up in this career, much less know if I would do it again (kidding the job is horrible, but the people I work with make it worth while). The pay is really good for the amount of work that engineers actually do.
In the 18th and 19th century, hatmakers used poisionous chemicals including mercury in their work. As result, many developed pathological symptons -- an estimated 10% went insane. Hence the term "mad as a hatter" and Lewis Carroll's character, the Mad Hatter.
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