Engineering w/o school 8

[sr20ser]

Here is the situation that I am in. I worked for the company I am at now about two years ago. I started at the bottom, material handler, and worked my way up to being a "Laser Technician". I was laid off, and called back about a year later. I am now the "Production Engineer" and do all the CAD work and all the programming for the lasers at our company. I have not had any schooling in this area, I went to a welding school.

What's the opinion on getting hired at another company for engineering. Is exerience worth anything without a degree?
-Tim

 

[Ron]

BobPE...thanks for clarifying my point way back there somewhere.

Melone....That was not a "holier than thou" diatribe on my part. BobPE explained it better than I. We see examples routinely of those who practice certain professions without a license. Interestingly enough, the licensing laws usually only address those who are licensed, though some statutes have enough teeth to bite the unlicensed. The difference is that if a licensed person screws up, he can be held criminally and civilly liable....if an unlicensed person designs something and screws it up, he can often only be chased in civil action. That threat alone usually gets you a better design from the licensed individual. As for ethics, I have not seen a code of ethics for the unlicensed engineers, but I have seen and have even read the two that apply to my practice. Interestingly enough, our code of ethics is woven into some of the licensing statutes such that if you violate the code of ethics, you violate the law.....sorry, but that is not equity with the "ethics" of unlicensed practice and I hope it never is.

Don't misunderstand me....I do not believe that a code of ethics guarantees ethical practice. I do believe that the combination of a clear code of ethics and statutory requirements serves to protect the public better than not having such.

 

[NickE]

I'm all with ewh on this one.. There are few metallurgical PE's. I definately see the value in the PE system and would consider it except that I will likely never work with or under one. I also agree that the 6.5years I spent busting my A** to get my ABET accredited BS and MS should be recognized by the title of Metallurgical Engineer. There are lots of people in industry who dont have ABET engineering degrees that get to be called engineers. (And I'm not reffering to the janitor, secretary, or Millwrights... its when engineer is used as a run of the mill title to refer to a Technician that bugs me.)

My degree required that I study a whole lot more than just metallurgy. I also had to take two controls classes, a DSP class, several me/em classes, 15different classes dealing with thermodynamics (ok those really do apply to metallurgy), econ, Lit/English, several seminars on public presentation, and four phys ed classes. I use the information from my education in any way possible to do my job.

Yes the over use of the title Engineer reduces its value. This in no way applies to those who get to put PE after their name, that is the next level above us lazy run of the mill educated but not licenced engineers.

Nick
I love materials science!