I am a second generation Aircraft Engineer - FAA and EASA licenced - my father started in aviation in the late 1930s.It used to be a wonderful career and it was fun until the accountants and penpushers took over and tried to regulate the business and reduce everything to the lowest common denominator.The current theory being if you can read the book you can maintain aircraft.More emphasis is placed on the paperwork being filled in than the work being accomplished well.
I have two sons and did nothing to encourage them to follow me into aviation as it no longer gives me or a large percentage of my colleagues the satisfaction that it used to.
Companies are trying to de-skill the job so they dont have to have a large training budget and can pay lower salaries - they dont realise how much a well trained and enthusiastic engineer can save them in minimising ground time.