my dad was an aerospace engineer. He was a smart guy, a critical thinker. He graduated from cooper union in the 1950s with high honors and worked on aircraft guidances systems he even worked for nasa for a while. He used to say that engineers styled themselves as independant professionals but in reality most of them were dependent on these huge companies with giant gov / military contracts for their livelihoods. I wanted to be a research scientist, I have a biochem background. I ended up as an ophthalmologist, most docs nowadays are employees of large companies / medical systems. They are not independent, they follow protocols and procedures that have been developed by others. They are completely dependent on medicare. and other gov boondoggles . I 've managed to stay independent but thhis last 3 years has been heartbreaking