You, reader, may be an E689, an Inspector, Tester and Grader. Or you might be an F797, a Production Tester, or an A056, an Industrial Engineer. These are the identification numbers the government has assigned to the work you do, the better to track the trends of your profession.

The first Quality magazine State of the Profession Survey also looks to track the nuts and bolts trends of the profession--salary and education, current work hours and future responsibilities. But the survey allows us to do a little more, to look into the heads of our readers, in a sense, and to shine a spotlight on some of their thoughts and concerns.