Clarification on US and Canadian Engineers 17

[etch]

I read all these forums and find the sharing of ideas extremely helpful and informative, I would like to know about being licienced in northern America.

Is it compulsory?
do you have to take insurance out on yourself to protect against tort of negligance or substandard work, who pick the tab up is it the work or yourself.

Does this accreditation allow you to work anywhere in US?

WHy have it? (advantages/Disadvantages)

Can you work without one?

I read alot about people saying if they discover unethical practices , its thier legal duty to report it or they face expulsion. DOes this happen?

Is there different bodies?

Just to give you a comparison, we dont really have anything of the same idea over here, we have professional bodies like Institute of Engineers, but alot of the time its more a badge than an actual living body enforcing policy.

 

[petertor]

Really, when you get right down to it, an engineering PE license, based on a simple two-day examination, and then renewed like a driver's license, isn't much "credential", certainly not the same as passing the legal bar, or your internship as a physician, or being a field construction engineer for five years.

The EIT's I have known, whew, most couldn't find the right end of a hammer, and making that credential all the more difficult and complex to obtain only ensures they'll ignore field experience, which, after all, for 150 years was what the term "engineer" meant. Someone who could work with their hands and with their head, a hardhat and tool belt.

Today, if you work in the public sector as a consultant, you must have a PE registration and you must have E&O insurance, although, again, who are you insuring? You're insuring the client, not yourself, and you're only paying for the attorney's fees. They'll skin you alive. So where is that $25,000+ a year coming out of? Your net income.

So, many engineers get into government, where E&O is not required, or work in industry, again, where experience is more valuable than a piece of paper on the wall. There are thousands of engineers without PE's, some who washed out and are pecking along as best they can, and some who can't be bothered with the *process*, the incredible bureaucracy that has built up around commercial engineering today.

You older guys know what I'm talking about. Engineering used to be a *profession*. If you were the engineer, you were a god! Today, you're a bookkeeper, a statistician, and a code butt-sniffer. It doesn't matter how much experience you have or how many projects you built that touched the sky, there's gonna be some hired-gun code expert who will rake you over the coals, permit review after permit review, fee after fee, continuing education, a new code book every four years, man, they got this thing dicked!

I built a skyscraper in '84 that cost $30M. Today, a simple justice center can cost $300M. Think that's the materials? I built a powerplant in '88 for $45M. Today, a powerplant can cost over $1B, easy. Think that's in higher salaries?

No wonder in industry they often just go out and do it. If you just can't stand the process anymore, and really want to get your hands dirty, go into industry, or go expatriate and work for Uncle Sam overseas. Permit? What permit? I don't need no stinking permit. And I don't need no stinking certificate on the wall.

In the field is the only place left you can still be free. Office engineering is the most miserable profession around, and I truly feel sorry for "PE's" who fall into that trap.