[speekinout]

Well, those of us with real engineering degrees are losing our jobs. I'm lucky. I've been out of the workforce for 7 years

What kind of engineering do you mean? And no matter what kind you do mean, 7 years is a very long time ago.
Someone who was trained 20 years ago would have to have taken refresher courses many times over the years. Unfortunately, many do not.

[luckystarmom]

Well, my old co-workers didn't quit, one of them being my husband.

They have degrees in electrical engineering and computer science degrees.

You don't need to take refresher courses, but you do need to stay up on technology.

Most good engineers can read a book and learn. The design methodologies don't change, and that's what makes a good engineer.

The engineers I worked with stayed up with technology. We all use to work for a defense company, and many of the hardware engineers went to wireless companies. The software engineers went to commercial software companies.

It's a very scary time in Silicon Valley.