Trust me, being an Engineer isn't much better in terms of respect, and in many cases pays worse than being a technician.
Admittedly we don't have to get wet and get our hands dirty so much, but frankly I often think that's one of the appeals of the technician job.
A boy once ran away to the circus, his father followed him to the next town, where he found him shovelling elephant dung. The father walked up to him and kindly said "son, come home", the boy looked at him in puzzlement and said "what, and miss out on all this showbusiness". Welcome to the aircraft industry.
G
[This message has been edited by Genghis the Engineer (edited 21 June 2000).]