If you came here, you must be really really bored. Turn back now while you still can!
A. A fictional organization that hosts this domain.
A. Now, probably. But back in 1994, the domain name space wasn't quite the free for all that it is now. There was real concern that an obviously personal name would be rejected by the Internic. Besides, edwards.com isn't nearly as cool as exile.org
Q. Why exile.org instead of exile.com? Was exile.com already taken?
A. Exile.com wasn't taken until a year later. I chose .org because .com really does mean company. Engineers in Exile is not and never will be a profit making entity.
Q. Does Engineers in Exile mean anything at all?
A. Sort of. It refers to people with the training, skill, and desire to be engineers yet must make their living by other means
Q. That sounds weird. I thought the Engineering job market was hot?
A. It is but it is also highly unforgiving of delays and career detours. Most people who graduate with Engineering degrees and fail to secure an engineering job straight out of college never get another chance.
Q. Why is that?
A. Most companies only hire fresh grads for entry level positions. They won't hire someone without current experience for anything but entry level. Hence, people who have been out of school for a while but don't have current experience will not get hired at all.
Q. Personal experience?
A. Yes. I graduated straight into the recession of 1990. Like most of my class, I did not get an engineering job. When the economy finally picked up in 1995, no one would talk to me. I took extension classes. I Put together a design studio. I designed and constructed my interface card and still it took me two years to land my first engineering job.
Q. That's 7 years! What did you do during that time?
A. Unix system administration, email.
Q. What wrong with being a sysadmin?
A. Nothing if that's all you want to do. But I find that is much easier to make my living designing chips and do Unix on the side than it is to do the reverse. If I were to make my living doing Unix, I would be doing little hardware (more likely none at all). I won't do that.
Q. Are you sure you don't want to be a sysadmin? I can make it worth your while.
A. There are things more important than money. Go away.