Simon -

I'd say Craig's post of 10/30/00 was right on the mark when he mentioned personal satisfaction. My personal experience is 2-1/2 years in a test equipment environment, 12 years in flight control, navigation and guidance analysis plus hardware in the loop simulation, 9 years in locomotive and prime mover control. Each position had it's focus - hardware design, simulation and modeling, application software. I'm glad for the broad exposure since it now causes me to think not just about the problem at hand, but about how my solution will be integrated into the whole, how to implement test hooks, and how it will appear to an operator once it's finished.

There may be a line to be drawn in the description of CS vs. IT. I recently had the opportunity to interview some students interested in having an internship at the company for which I work. My experience was that on the average, CS students had a broader background and understanding of physical science and mathematical analysis than IT students. IT students knew networking and various PC application software intimately (Word, Excel, ...). I'd choose the CS student.

For me, understanding the physics of the item to be controlled, the hardware on which the control algorithm will reside and the software implementing the algorithm is what gives me personal satisfaction - the money will follow if you can, and are willing, to play in all those areas.