George looked down and sighed. “So you are telling me 
  there are no guarantees, and oh by the way, you want me 
  to mentor these new guys on the business requirements?”

  “Yep, that sums it up,” I responded, not half as 
  convinced as I sounded.

  “Well, that sucks.”

It sounds like this engineer didn't learn anything. What he should've done was quit on the spot and started updating his skillset. He should've taken his experience and applied it to new technology, and then bring it to a completely new company with new problems to tackle and hopefully an even higher salary.