Bruce Raymond wrote:
Jason,

Congratulations on your choice of career direction. I wish you well.
I'm not sure whether or not homebrewing makes you a good
engineer, or if being a good engineer triggers something that makes
you homebrew. Bob Pease (I think) once said something to the
effect that the really good engineers he'd hired were the ones who
continued to do engineering things even when they weren't at work.
(My apologies to Bob if I've misstated his intent.) The idea is that
doing technical things is a passion for some of us. We'd do these
things even if we don't get paid. Homebrewing is a passion.

A general observation - many young engineers (and far too many
older engineers) have little or no hands-on experience. They can
model something and run great simulations, but are stopped cold
when it comes to actually troubleshooting hardware. Knowing
how real hardware works will give you an edge. Homebrewing
is a great education.

My father, one of the great mechanical design engineers, used to
tell the know-it-all recent graduates that an engineer was just
a technician with no practical experience. It holds true in most
fields. He was very strong on getting his EITs and co-op students
into the machine shop to make things and to work with the people
who had to use them.

He turned out some awfully good engineers by using those methods.

--
"I think when people get on the Internet their common sense may be
weakened if not suspended."
- Charles Harwood, regional director of the Federal
Trade Commission's Seattle office.