Don't listen to bob, sounds like he was an under performer and was not treated well.
There is certainly opportunity in this industry to be involved with FPGA designs but you must carefully choose your employer based on what aspect you wish to be involved in.
Aerospace is very careful and slow to evolve (not in a bad way, due to well-placed caution) and you will find that working with FPGA's in many aerospace companies will involve more minor changes than actual ground-up design. At some companies, companies which may confirm they work with FPGA's, their true involvement is simply integrating an existing FPGA design into new/different platforms with little or no changes, and much of the involvement is top level validation testing without any actual FPGA design at all.
Honestly, if you really want to be involved heavily in FPGA design, a better choice might be the consumer electronics industry. This would allow you to be involved with the latest FPGA technology, and move very quickly to new projects.
Make sure to select an employer with good mentoring available (that is, avoid startups full of young people, they are like chaotic lemmings and you won't learn much from them).