Absolutely agreed. One of those "good gig if you can get it" deals.
We have had a couple-dozen people that I know personally retire early an go to greener pastures.
Lately they tend to field offers between 350 and 550.
These are people with degrees and 15 - 25 years experience though. Most of them are HR types with safety, labor, or training/dev experience.
I suspect theyr'e being systematically head-hunted because it's always one of three (mostly) companies that lure them away.
I don't begrudge them their good fortune though. That's the way it works. I'd be gone too, were I in their positon.
Maybe the point is that the current job market is the anomaly... there is no large number of cookie cutter, asembly line jobs any more. Individualist workers are needed who have the self-initiative to see what needs to be done and do it. They need neither a management boss, nor a union boss, to hold their hand and baby-sit them, and negotiate their wages and benefits in some contract that defines static work rules.
The UAW-Delphi and UAW-GM and Machinist-Airline jobs that have those static work-rules are obsolete and can only be kept on life support for a little while longer.
Lately they tend to field offers between 350 and 550.
How can I get a piece of that????????? :-0
Cheers!