CE,

I suggest you seriously consider whether a 60 hour work week will ever be good for you. I don't think so. So, I suggest you look for a way to reinvent yourself using your skills in a way that does not require the intensity you are used to in your past.

I used to do work in many of the Silicon Valley companies. The best employers had many different ways to give employees breaks so they could get intense efforts. Apple Computer looked like an adult version of Chuck e Cheese.

Whatever engineering direction you pursue, there are ways to moderate your work stress. My niece's husband with a robotic engineering degree from Cal Poly just got his teaching credential because the intensity of his industry was more than he wanted. He teaches engineering in high school at a pace that leaves him available to his family.

As the son of a rocket engineer, I observed how my father learned to moderate the intensity of the Top Secret satellite surveillance projects he worked on. My brother, on the other hand, was unable to moderate his job stress as a systems engineer and has struggled ever since.

So, when you see friends taking on intense jobs in engineering or otherwise, try to recognize the price they pay for those jobs.

Your future family will want you when you get home, not a remnant after the pound of flesh taken by your employer. Whether one has some limits due to PCS or not, the stress that comes home is often the same.

My best to you.