[Adam Y.]

Originally Posted by ICanCountTo19

But you must also consider that while you enjoy dressing up in a lion suit it is still viewed as informal and unprofessional.

I don't know about you but unless things really changed in five years you can count 95% of the people who participate in first as "informal and unprofessional".

Originally Posted by Andrew Schreiber

I fail to see why everyone being like rookies is a good thing. Eric I noticed you are a teacher, I will assume you have a decade of experience teaching (could be more or less either way). If I were to apply the same idea to your pay as you are applying to the veteran teams you would be paid the same as a new teacher, is that fair? These teams started somewhere didn't they? They had to start as rookies too. This groaning about successful teams has to stop. I could care less if Dave Lavery, Dean Kamen, and Woodie Flowers all approve of it. If we are not rewarded for doing great, if everyone gets the exact same, why would anyone ever push the envelope?

Uhhhhhh.... It's happened to two of my professors who have their PHDs in electrical engineering. They've both admitted that they have been positions where they were complete novices in some regard. My one professor had to figure out how to keep embryos alive. My other had to teach himself about system modeling after he discovered that an image tracking system affects the dynamics of a robot he was working. Consider this a harsh facet of engineering. There is a good chance that the same scenario that happened to these teams will happen to you.