No, I’m not licensed. I thought about it some years ago, but for the kind of work I was doing (tool and fixture design) it was pretty worthless. One of my coworkers is licensed, but it makes no difference here. GS-12 is GS-12, licensed or not.
We did get a study guide and practice exams. That’s when I realized how worthless it would be for me to bother with it. I’d been out of school so long, the questions stirred faint memories of things I’d known once upon a time.
bernse, I’m not aware of a US law regarding who can consult as an engineer, but many (if not all) states regulate it. I believe in Florida, you must be licensed to market yourself as an engineer. In fact, I think licenses are only issued by individual states. I don’t think there’s a Federal engineering license. Here’s some info about licensing.
Go to www.theworkcircuit.com message boards if you wanna feel the pain of the EE job market. It is nothing but people who are either laid off or are people who graduated a year ago and still havent found jobs.
That’s a good question. When I was looking for a job 2 years ago, I asked around. It seems that a PE certification isn’t a requirement in the semiconductor field, and is a good sign only in that it can reflect a certain level of experience (and really, they’d prefer to judge that experience more directly). Also, the employers I talked with (both the ones I was interviewing with, and others that I talked to just for information) consistently were only interested in certification within their state - another state’s license wasn’t treated differently from not having one (since either way, if you want to really be licensed, you’re going to have to get it in the new state).
Does that match other EE’s experience in the electronics industry? It wouldn’t surprise me at all to find that it’s significantly different in the power industry.
PS. Manda Jo, I dropped you an e-mail, but no, I’ve never been to Allen, Tx.
Oooh… GS-12. I only made it to GS-11 before I fled… er, moved on.
Yep. You have to get it quick, or else you’re in trouble. There was a lot of stuff on there when I took it that I didn’t recognize.
The best thing to do is find a good review course. The professional organizations in your field usually sponsor them. They teach what you’re likely to find on the test, so it makes all those years outt of school less intimidating.
Laws regarding engineering licensing vary by state, and are not regulated by the Feds. Likewise, there is no such thing as a Federal Engineering license. It’s not needed because state licensing boards recognize that, since it’s the same exam everyone takes, you’ve obviously passed their state requirements. If I were to move to Nevada, I would be able to get registered by only paying a fee.
OTOH, If a state has more restrictive requirements (i.e., California), it’s not that simple. Some states, due to their peculiarities, have additional exams that must be passed as well. California has both a seismic and a surveying exam that must also be passed, so if I was registered in Nevada and wanted to practrice in California, I would have to pass these two exams first. I believe Florida and some New England states have additional requirements as well.
In California, you can’t advertise yourself as a Consulting Engineer unless you’re registered as an engineer in one of the various fields. I would imagine other states have similar laws.
Actually, I was aware of that. When I was at an APEGGA meeting last week, the president mentioned something about in the US engineers had to be licensed to consult, which I didn’t know.
I just found this on the ASAE (American Society of Agricultural Eng) website :
I am assuming that those conditions are the same regardless of discipline. I realize that is a big assumption, but it does back up what I heard last week.
