Network Security/Network Engineering.
Would I recommend it? For the right person, absolutely. It's not something everyone is fit for, there is definitely a 'type' that matches the career. But our world is increasingly connected and someone has to make those connections and make them secure. It's 1000% certain that the way we do things will morph over the years, but it likely won't go away any time soon. The pay is really good, the stress is manageable if again you're the right type. Often remote work is available and there is an advancement path on up to executive levels or reasonably quick FIRE if you're into that. ;)
ETA:
I quoted the wrong post! Haha, oops. This question is actually for roadrunner53!
I have some questions for you if you are open to them.
I am an engineer and work with technicians that I would describe as very similar to your job. There is frequently friction (not outright friction, maybe more frustration) from the hourly technicians. Like you, if they had a 4 year degree they could move up easily (some have, and the company pays for it!). But most don't. However I think two things are very frustrating for them:.
1. New college grads engineers come in making the same or slightly more money as them. I think our technicians are well paid (~70k in a LCOL area) considering they have no degree. But I get the feeling it grates, which I can understand.
2. Because they are hourly they have to badge in and out and get permission for stuff like overtime, can't flex their schedules usually, stuff like that. So I can take my kid to an appointment, then work at home at night, and they can't. We used to allow them to act more like salaried employees and flex more but HR said legally we shouldn't be doing it or it muddies the non-exempt classification.
I'm curious if you experienced these issues or others?
Yes, I was a well paid lab technician and was very empowered to do things without asking my boss every little thing. Many of us liked being paid hourly because we would get paid to travel and double time on Sunday to sit on a plane and fly across the country. We had all the benefits of the salaried people including 401k, health/dental insurance. Some technicians were offered salaried jobs and turned them down knowing they would make more money being hourly. I don't recall much disgruntlement between salaried and non salaried people. I also don't think back when I was a technician they offered any college education opportunities. They encouraged us to go to scientific seminars and gladly paid for travel, accomodations, food. There was no per diem so we could spend as we liked within reason. We stayed at some of the best hotels. Those of us who traveled were given the corporate American Express card.
My biggest gripe was some uppity engineers who seemed to think they were too good to go out to the pilot lab to get their hands dirty. Granted, they were not there to be technicians but sometimes an extra hand was needed or problems existed that required an engineer to oversee what was going on and come up with a solution. The best engineers I ever worked with wanted to see what was going on and sometimes even crawl under the equipment with a wrench and tighten something. I totally respected those people and thought of them as role models. We all thought the world of those engineers. One summer we had this engineering intern. This kid thought he was better than the technicians and was a super slug. He wouldn't do anything. The worst thing was he was working for one the the best young, enthusiastic engineers who was always out on the floor observing and helping. I told the intern several times to be like a vacuum cleaner and learn everything he could from his mentor. NOPE. He was 'bored' and lazy.
You should observe your 'college grad engineers' to see if they are in the trenches with the technicians. That would be a great start if they are not. My experience is that the technicians always got along with enthusiastic, helpful engineers. Then there were the desk jockey engineers who didn't want to get their hands dirty. There was much less enthusiasm to work with desk jockey's. Technicians understood that the engineers couldn't be on the pilot lab floor all day long but when needed, they expected engineering help.
We had a few problem technicians too. Some didn't take their work seriously and made stupid mistakes. No one wanted to work with them either.
The pilot plant was pretty strict with hours and there was no flex time. Overall, technicians were treated very well.
It would be great if the technicians you work with were encouraged to take on line college classes. Maybe your company could match a technician with an engineer as a mentor while taking courses.
Badging in and out is annoying. Maybe your company can come up with a solution for that. As I recall, we used to put our hours into the computer and sent it to our supervisor for approval. No timeclock.
