Alasdair, 

interesting comparison there.  Maybe that's why i see things as I do.  When I left school,  I made the (for me) massive mistake of becoming and articled clerk to a Chartered Accountant,  the route to become a Chartered Accountant (it's the Institute of Chartered Accountants by the way).  I soon discovered that not only did I hate accountancy,  but that it was both incredibly restrictive and highly snobbish.  Furthermore,  the contract covering articled clerkship was very close indeed to modern day slavery. It till me 18 months to escape because of the penalties of simply deciding it wasn't for me!. It's also why i never pursued a degree.


On the plus side,  I did actually lean a great deal in that time,  which has stood me in good stead last in life when I have been in positions where I did have p&l responsibility - I usually understood far more about finance than most of my peers who put themselves forward as having strong finance understanding.  What hadn't changed was that I still hated it!


But it does bear out your comparison.  For interest,  at that time, at least,  the other Institute was the Institute of Certified Accountants.  It's entirely possible it may have been rebsdged to Incorporate,  I've really not been interested enough to find out. 

So yes,  I've seen this elitism in earnest and it has undoubtedly fuelled my desire to overcome it in the engineering profession. 

Alasdair, 

interesting comparison there.  Maybe that's why i see things as I do.  When I left school,  I made the (for me) massive mistake of becoming and articled clerk to a Chartered Accountant,  the route to become a Chartered Accountant (it's the Institute of Chartered Accountants by the way).  I soon discovered that not only did I hate accountancy,  but that it was both incredibly restrictive and highly snobbish.  Furthermore,  the contract covering articled clerkship was very close indeed to modern day slavery. It till me 18 months to escape because of the penalties of simply deciding it wasn't for me!. It's also why i never pursued a degree.


On the plus side,  I did actually lean a great deal in that time,  which has stood me in good stead last in life when I have been in positions where I did have p&l responsibility - I usually understood far more about finance than most of my peers who put themselves forward as having strong finance understanding.  What hadn't changed was that I still hated it!


But it does bear out your comparison.  For interest,  at that time, at least,  the other Institute was the Institute of Certified Accountants.  It's entirely possible it may have been rebsdged to Incorporate,  I've really not been interested enough to find out. 

So yes,  I've seen this elitism in earnest and it has undoubtedly fuelled my desire to overcome it in the engineering profession.