some years ago the flight engineer step was a good idea today not so much considering there are very few flight engineer jobs out there, fewer everyday. When looking for FEs airlines want a PFE who will not upgrade and with around 2000 hours working the panel on type. So please do your research before going out there and spending a couple thousands of your hard earned money on a flight engineer rating. I myself spent years as an FE waiting to upgrade neither myself or most of the other FEs at that airline got an upgrade, had to look elsewhere for an FO job. Again do your reasearch before investing time and money.