Consider a medium sized store: a deciding factor in moving up to the assistant manager's job, today, might be the simple ability to keep the Ee part of the business working: the fax orders getting received, the email getting answered, the glitches with billing, accounting and payroll software being attended to without a whimper, whine or call to "tech support". The Ee person excels at assistant manager, but rarely makes it to manager for lack of but three letters: MBA.

Many Ee persons don't have a degree in computer science; maybe half of the degree but not the whole enchilada. We're self-taught, old-fashioned "Mr. Fixer-upper" and "Girl Friday" types. I like to think We are The Unsung Heroes of the Electronic Age. Applied Electronic sciences hasn't made a really major technological breakthrough in over 30 years, generally just presenting us with better widgets, based on the previous widget.

Politicians are warring over whether foreign IT professionals should be brought into the United States, to get rid of the backlog in e-commerce deployment. Ee people smile a little inward smile, knowing that every new high-tech development gives them more job security, not less. Phone and cable companies are warring about who will control the "last mile" to the user; the Ee worker is flying right under their radar. We control the last ten feet.