I enjoy it a lot. It's all I've ever wanted to do.
My first job was in a production shop make a few thousand of this before a few thousand of that, followed by a few thousand of the other. It was a mind-numbing experience for me, but some people like that type of thing. My next job was in a model shop, where I made one of this and two of those before one more of the other thing. A shop like that needs a long list of good customers to keep the work flow profitable. My third job was working for a service provider, making small runs (ten to one hundred) parts when I wasn't building prototypes of future parts for the engineering group. I left that job because the young engineer I was hired to coach became an Engineering Project Manager, and our conversations devolved into contests where he needed to win every conversation.
My current job is really cool. I run a small machine shop, staffed by me and one other person. We make satellite parts, parts to hold satellite parts, and all kinds of other stuff. We are surrounded by really smart people who don't have big egos to match their IQs.
As far as changes to my specific job, all I can say is if something needs to change I take care of it. One of the benefits of being the guy in charge.
Industry-wide, I would like to see a return to apprenticeships or other types of educational programs. Too many companies don't want to invest in their employees as far as skills are concerned, and that is very short-sighted. If nobody is willing to invest in making their employees smarter, then the supply of educated employees will eventually dwindle into extinction.
