If the State or the Court finds that the work performed was in fact engineering covered by licensure regulations, it will mean even MORE trouble and possible liability for 1) a registered engineer that had responsible charge of the work yet failed to sign and seal the plans or 2) an unregistered engineer or technician that performed functions that should have been under the direction and supervision of an engineer in responsible charge. Check the firm's E&O insurance coverage limitations relative to engineering work performed by unlicensed individuals.When you say professional engineering, do you mean that the engineer has passed the PE test in your state?
I know at one time, Texas would only allow those with a PE to label themselves as "engineer". This went over real well (sarcasm) when a Texas company bought my company based in New Hampshire. The NH company had a roster of pioneers in the industry but up here in the northeast, if you're not opening an engineering consulting business, there is zero reason to get a PE for EEs.
My son's a civil engineer working as a structural engineer. He's talked about getting the PE but has found in his 4 years working that it can bring disadvantages. He's in a small structural company and the owner, who is a PE is super hesitant to ever put a stamp on anything. The stamp brings liability and there are customers who do require it. Not having the PE makes is an easy way to reject legal responsibility. Of course he's in Rhode Island where the RI DOT has decided that their solution to the Washington Bridge shutdown, demo and rebuild is to sue every engineering firm who ever had anything to do with the bridge. Nope.
If by "professional engineer", you simply mean an engineer who has worked many years in a specialty and is coming into your company to do that specialty, I'd say that unless the company has a huge toxic culture, you're going to see some great success every time. I've unfortunately worked for a couple companies with very toxic cultures and they saw engineers leave in a month.
Yet another topic here was that engineers are "known" for not having good writing and communication skills. This "can" be true and because of it, those with demonstrated skills can go in different directions. I'd put myself in that category. In college, during one of my graduation required projects where I taught computer programming in a high school, my advisor told me that I've done all the work required to complete the project so now, he'd be picking on my spelling and grammar. That helped me a ton. After 8 years of pure design engineering, I went to work at a chip company, first writing application notes and then going into the field, working directly with customer engineers. An IEEE paper I wrote on a patented invention of mine got the attention of the hiring company. I worked for them for 8 years and my salary, as they told me would stay the same but the bonuses would be at least another 25%. Staying in that job as "Field Applications Engineer" for a couple decades, I did find that companies had the hardest time finding qualified engineers who could write well and could communicate well with engineers. I would never say that having these skills makes me a better engineer. My son is an extremely introverted engineer but I've seen his college major project (over 200 pages) and his daily work and he is an engineer's engineer, more than I ever was.
An individual with an engineering degree that is four years into a job at an engineering firm and that does not already have their PE or is not diligently pursuing the same sends up huge red flags. Yes, the PE exam is hard. Passing the PE exam is what separates engineers from technicians. This is not a slam on technicians. Techs are important support to the engineering profession, but their earning capacity is limited as is their ability to be in responsible charge of regulated engineering projects.
I'm specifically writing about engineering that fall under the definitions of Civil Engineering.
Statistics: Posted by Jeepergeo — Wed Sep 04, 2024 4:38 pm — Replies 33 — Views 4794