Denied NYS PE application, help needed!! 1

[MoMa120]

My application for NY Mechanical PE exam has been denied twice and I am drawing blanks as far as what I can change in my application. I attached my application, I know it's a bit long but any helpful hints would be greatly appreciated.

 

[SlideRuleEra]

IMHO, the application reads like a list or technical outline... that was never "fleshed out". On each project I suggest combining as many of the outline points as possible and briefly explaining there relevance. This will demonstrate that you understand the importance of each. For example: "A data driven (inverse) energy modeling approach was selected for the energy assessment." Why is that a better choice than (unlisted) alternatives?

Try to say as much in as few words as possible - that is the litmus test proving that you really do know what you are taking about.

Also, not once did you give any idea of the results of your work. For example, did a project report indicate potential savings of approximately, say, 10%. Or was it more like 0.1%?

http://www.SlideRuleEra.net

http://www.VacuumTubeEra.net

 

[hokie66]

Did the Board give you any reasons for denying you the chance to take the exam? The experience listed seems to indicate that you have already been performing engineering work in responsible charge. Who has been supervising your work? Are they PE's? What educational qualification do you have?

 

[MoMa120]

The board said that my experience is lacking intensive application of engineering principles, knowledge of engineering mathematics, and breadth of scope. Everything except for the two years of engineering experience using US codes.
My experience was under a PE and I do have a bachelor of Engineering in ME

 

[metengr]

I have a PE license from NY, one of the tougher states to obtain a license because of work history requirements. On first go around, my PE application was listed as incomplete because I had to go back and itemize each project I was directly involved with to show project engineering principles, knowledge of engineering mathematics, and breadth of scope.

What I did was select four (4) projects and detailed from start to finish my involvement. Cut down on the list you have and re-focus on what the Board requires.

 

[structSU10]

Do you have a period of time associated with each project? If I remember the application correctly, you had to break down the amount of the 4 year experience is attributed to each project. If you cannot attribute that much time to the listed projects, you will need to add more. I think I had 10-12 projects listed with a descriptions that was laid out like:

project size, structural system, my engineering work on the project. At the longest they were a half page descriptions. I had no issue.

 

[MoMa120]

I did break down the experience by time. Each project is about a year

 

[SandCounter]

I don't know how much direction is provided in your jurisdiction, but I might suggest looking at applications in other states and use that as a template. Here is a link to the Louisiana application. Page 6 gives the format and list of minimum information required for each engagement. I immediately note that your sheet lacks dates and references (preferably licensed engineers).

A different state of course, but I geared my application toward showing 1. continual application of engineering principles, 2. working under the responsible charge of a professional engineer, and 3. increasing responsibility in the field of engineering proper (not project management). I might suggest turning your words toward "technical point of contact," "communicated technical requirements to field crew and project team," "applied engineering principles of [insert field here] in resolving conflicts with specifications and proposing solutions to engineer in responsible charge," "applied engineering principles of [insert field here] in approving materials," "Technical liaison for engineer in responsible charge." Things that show that you have become trustworthy steward of engineering information, you have the capacity to "make the call," and up to this point, you have been a faithful asset who can be trusted to design and make decisions without oversight if given the opportunity. Keep the codes and node analysis. Change "specifications" to "engineering drawings" if applicable. I would stay away from the over- and miss-used terms "field engineer," "quality control," and "review" unless they are part of your title.

Hope this primes the pump, best of luck!

I used to count sand. Now I don't count at all.

 

[chris3eb]

I recently successfully applied for (and passed) my civil PE in California. In California, our reference forms have three sections to demonstrate experience: description of engineering tasks and duties, level of responsibility, and description of engineering decisions made. I labored over what exactly to put in these spaces until I stumbled across an example on the official website (which for the life of me I can't find) which showed very general, brief answers. My answers ended up being:
[ul]
[li]Description of engineering tasks and duties: Structural design, structural analysis[/li]
[/ul]
[ul]
[li]Level of responsibility: Junior engineer[/li]
[/ul]
[ul]
[li]Description of engineering decisions made: I determine the appropriate analysis, choose member sizes, perform detailing, respond to RFI's.[/li]
[/ul]
After looking at all of the available information, it seemed like they were mostly looking to make sure that everything that you wrote counted as "engineering work". So unlike a resume where I might try to demonstrate the breadth of my abilities, I kept this application very focused on things that were definitely "engineering" so they wouldn't find something that didn't count.

 

[JStephen]

It might be worth a call in to the board to discuss the issue.
In Texas long ago, I had to re-work my application to satisfy them.
In my case, I had a little detail on a lot of projects, and needed to make it a lot of detail on a few projects.
I believe that maybe the wording on the requirements also wanted a progression of experience, not just jumping in and doing the same thing for 4 years. Even if that's basically what you did, it can be reworded to show that your responsibility increased in that time.

An unwritten principle: Work that is complicated enough to require a PE ought to be complicated enough to qualify as PE experience.

 

[RocEngineer]

Moma, I’m licensed in NY and agree that state ed. is a bit picky about what counts as engineering experience. We have some young engineers in our other offices who have run into the same problem as you.

I’d use specifics and avoid generalities. The details need to be about what you personally did and your personal contributions. They want to see a progression of experience, increasing in complexity and responsibility. (Not all work that you do will qualify as engineering experience either.) I’d avoid the general term “review” and use evaluate or ascertain instead. It also helps to be specific about what you’re evaluating something for, e.g., conformance with a particular standard like ASTM ??? or ANSI ???, specific design codes or regulatory standards, etc. Project management experience typically doesn’t count since a non-engineer can usually do this kind of stuff.

Just taking a look at your write-up, I don’t see any dates. State ed. likes to see precise dates of projects. Also, many of the items in here seem like they could be performed by non-engineers. I’d eliminate them or provide more specifics to better illustrate how they involve the use of engineering principles and judgement. When you talk about engineering calculations, I’d be more specific as to what kind. And honestly, some of the items don't quite make sense like "Reviewed contractor shop drawings to achieve contract drawings" which means precisely what?

Anyway, I hope this helps and best of luck with your application. It sounds like you already have some good experience. You may want to ask your boss about being assigned to some different projects to help broaden your experience.