ha, more like 10 years when you count the engineering degree and apprenticeships. Also, unless you really enjoy the work, it can be a very hard grind (as it was for me). The hours were not 9 to 5 (I was on call 24/7), and when I was a drilling foreman, I would sometimes be up nearly 3 days at a time trying to manage a team of not so friendly people who didn't necessarily care about the project at hand. Also, I just got lucky. There was really nothing extraordinary about what I did. I was never proud of what I was doing.