At least i can still engineer to my heart's content at work. I am currently working on an industrial controller for an air and water based cooling system. Simple stuff at first sight; yet it becomes a bit more complex when you think about it. For a start, the system has an automatic mode and a manual (service) mode.

Theres the fans which are just on and off (with a relay). But in automatic mode they need to have their speed monitored to ensure they work correctly.
The circulation pump needs to be protected against overload. The water pressure must be monitored. The water temperature must be controlled and monitored.

All these protections have different rules: some are only active in manual mode, some have a delay..

And then the program needs to be written at a high quality of course because someone else will undoubtedly have to modify it.

And i haven't even started on the actual hardware itself which needs to comply with NEN-EN-IEC 60204-1 and the machinery directive