Engineers weren't supposed to be this fearful of the future but the growing wave of panic in once-stellar sectors like financing and investment banking, real estate and retail is reminding even the best minds in the world of communication, electronics, information technology and manufacturing that they, too, are mere mortals.

The 2008 Annual EE Times Salary Survey revealed engineers have become as jittery as their counterparts in other economic segments as they brushed aside their still relatively high compensation packages to worry about turmoil on the global equity markets and the potentially negative impact on their retirement planning, career goals and even the future of any of their children who might desire to follow their professional footsteps.

The EE Times survey confirmed engineers all over the world regardless of location or national origin share many of these concerns. It also revealed engineers are no longer certain about many of the positive things that initially drew them to the profession and which they thought were more or less guaranteed by their career choice.

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