I beg to differ with CWB1 who stated this view [that licensure is distasteful] is common among engineers here stateside. His/her statement cites no sources hence I tend to question if it is based on fact.
I just accepted a job offer after trying my hand at an unsuccessful bid at independent consulting and a six-month job hunt. I have to tell you that I now feel like a completely violated piece of meat. Those of you that have NOT had reason to job hunt in the last ten years or so need to know that it no longer matters how well qualified you are. The hiring process is so strife with faulty belief systems and "conclusion jumping" in HR departments, hiring managers, and recruiters, that they are routinely leaving fine candidates in the dust. These people are also marching to the beat of their corporate bean counters who are telling them to get people as cheaply as possible. Furthermore, for months I have been barraged with emails and phone calls from recruiters whose only qualifications to do that job are the ability to find key words on resumes, dial a phone, send boilerplate emails, and convert food, air, and water into CO2, urine, and fecal matter. Many of these recruiters, in fact, are not even in North America (I'm in the USA). The common denominator among these recruiters is that they offer jobs with really crappy pay. Also, when you are dropped from consideration (for oh so many reasons), 95% of recruiters will NOT do the courtesy of informing you. For contract roles there were none offering a rate as high as I would work pre-2008. Contracting no longer provides sufficient compensation to make up for the total lack of benefits, holiday, and vacation time. Recruiters clog my inbox and voicemail with jobs in Seattle, Boston, Portland, OR, Southern CA, San Francisco, NYC, etc. offering rates of less than $40/hr where any job in those high-cost cities require 1/3 higher pay to make up for the astronomical COL. As for me, it is insulting for someone to offer a role for anything less than I could earn as a direct employee with equal qualifications and I can tell you that $40/hr is light years away from commensurate compensation for me. Yes, the STEM glut means that there MUST be people accepting these jobs since these jobs would otherwise not be on the market. I must conclude that there are engineers taking these low-paying jobs in the USA because they are either non-citizens hoping to become citizens, fresh graduates unable to find jobs, or simply experienced candidates lacking robust professional networks who found themselves out of work and forced to turn to the job boards. Do engineers in the USA need professional organization? I say definitely so! This is, as I said, to police our own, provide the force of numbers in wage negotiations, and to give the discipline the professional texture it sorely needs. In short, YES, I believe all engineers need to be licensed in order to gain the title of "engineer" and the licensing function needs to double as an advocacy group. Other professions are already successfully at doing this. It needs to happen pronto as the engineering "profession" is now circling the bowl...It looks like engineers in Canada are even further down that helical path than those in the USA.
ElectroMechanical Product Development
(Electronics Packaging)
UMD 1984
UCF 1993
