Ex mechanical.... No such thing! Once a mechanical always a mechanical! I will give you "former mechanical".
This is anecdotal and I hope things have changed for the better at Boeing. Time frame, mid 90's. I was getting out of the military with aviation experience as well as a degree in aeronautics. The two largest corporate recruiters who were allowed first crack at us were Boeing and Sun Microsystems. Boeing = aviation, makes sense, no idea why Sun Microsystems. Having had gone clubbing the night/morning before my LSAT, my first and last career option became Boeing. I am a little fuzzy on the exact details, but I talked to some Boeing managers who made some very hefty offers but before I could matriculate into Boring(edit: Freudian slip I think) Boeing culture and sign a contract, there was a mandatory, prospective Boeing employee orientation I had to attend. In this orientation, it was impressed on us, that we were only going to be a cog in a much larger system. The part of the orientation that was most determinative in my decision not to join Boeing was the presenter saying, " You will be issued a Boeing Employee Identification Number, You will remember this number, It will become your identity and you will be known by it throughout your entire career at Boeing" and I thought "Yeah, this isn't for me". Take from this what you want but this is how my opinion is colored whenever I read about issues with Boeing.
