Entry-level Technician. Salary: $40,000 or less 

Staring wide-eyed at the graphing equipment, you begin a rapid-fire apology stutter. You're trying to explain how you could have gotten the data so wrong. As the lead engineer wipes the oil off of his face, he walks over to you and calmly turns the calculator right side up.

Novice Fuel Cell Engineer. Salary: $60,000 

Your idea for a new type of efficient cell shape gets you a lot of praise at work. That is, until the team realizes you stole the entire idea from an episode of Bill Nye the Science Guy. Now it gets a lot of laughs.

Experienced Fuel Cell Engineer. Salary: $80,000 

Laying the blueprint in front of the team, you explain where the leak is and how it seems to have started. You then give the crew twenty-two minutes to come up with a solution. You're a very precise person these days.

Project Lead. Salary: $100,000 

Walking the investors through the laboratory, you show them what their money is financing. As you see two engineers start frantically hammering at a vibrating generator, you decide very quickly to walk the VIPs in another direction. This is why you make the big bucks.

R&D Manager. Salary $120,000+ 

You show up on Friday for your weekly meeting with the staff, eager to learn the status of the current fuel cell in beta testing. The team tells you the project is farther behind schedule than you'd like, so you make the decision to add a couple more contracted engineers to the mix. You're hoping to have something to present to investors later in the month. You're no longer super hands-on, but you're completely in control.