Before you embark into the journey of being a LAE, you should be asking yourself a few questions:
1) What are the attributes that are expected of an engineer that differs from that of a banker, salesman or real estate agent?
2) Are you willing to jeopardise safety in exchange for your convenience and costs savings?
3) What are your prospects after 20-30 yrs of service in your company? Are you going to be replaced easily by a green horn that just graduated? Does this company appreciate old engineers and keeps upgrading them or do they actually replace old timers with cheaper fresh grads and foreigners?
4) Are you willing to sacrifice your weekends working, at times through the middle of the night to get the aircraft serviceable? Are you able to work under extreme stress and time limit?
5) Are you able to lead a group of technicians with vast experience, and yet gain their respect and support?
6) Are you willing to get your hands dirty and say 'Yes, I'll help you to remove this item myself'?
7) Are you willing to start from the lowest rank and have the discipline to follow all the strict rules as an apprentice?

If the answer to the above casts doubts to you, you might want to reconsider.