I don't charge extra for cleaning up someone else's mess. My rate is my rate, no matter what the task, but if the existing mess is poorly documented, or not at all documented, I include the charge for that. Engineering has to be documented. Engineering is precise specification, not random ad-hoc hacking.

It's true, most of the individuals who purport themselves to be competent embedded hardware/firmware designers aren't. That, however, is no different from any other discipline. Whether they're musicians or politicians, lawyers or physicians, mechanics or administrators, the majority of them are incapable of getting from one end of a task to the other.

It's for that reason that I think major effort is warranted in this forum not to help the lazy incompetents fake their way ahead.

Though training is essential to equipping a competent engineer, engineering is not a skill that can be learned simply by attending classes. It's a personality type, a world view.

Let's not further pollute the supply stream with incompetent "new-grad's" who've faked their way through the classes, yet will never, no matter how long they fake their way along, become an engineer.

RE