How can I get a PE license?

[spongebob007]

How does one go about getting a PE license in a manufacturing environment? I reside in CT and have worked as a degreed engineer for 14 years. I currently do some part-time consulting and at some point in the future I would like to go at it full time and I feel that having a PE license can possibly open up more opportunities for me. The only problem is that I don't think I have "qualifying experience" and I also don't have any sponsors. I have never in my career worked either directly or indirectly under a PE.

Also as an aside, what is an industrial exemption? I have heard this term used before in reference to manufacturing companies. From what I understand in the Civil world, it is legal to do "engineering" work without a PE as long as you work under a PE (or at least have a PE on staff) and the final signoff on drawings and reports must be by a PE. But in industry I have never worked anywhere that a PE signed off on drawings or engineering reports.

 

[swertel]

Contact your local board of technical registration. Their websites are usually full of information if you don't want to make a formal call just yet.

Review

http://www.ncees.org

and

http://www.nspe.org

for general information, and will usually find links to your local board.

If you have done some part-time consulting and don't have a PE, you are probably already in violation of your rules and could face penalties.

Most boards recognize the unavailability of working directly under a PE in some industries and therefore do allow for exemptions to the rule, but you will have to better define your "qualifying experience" to show its validity.

Industry exempt is hard to quantify. In short, if you design/engineer for a company a product that the company uses internally, that's industry exempt. If the company sells the product publicly, that is a grey area because the liability rests with the product, not the design. If you consult for a company, you have to be a PE because you don't use the product that will be manufactured internally even if you were industry exempt and designed the same exact thing when working for the company. But then it is even grayer because you may be able to W2 or 1099 for the company, thus changing your status with the company, and may not be a "consultant" per se and thus gain industry exemption.

--Scott

http://wertel.eng.pro

 

[spongebob007]

So then what you are saying is that in a legal sense the term "engineering" is defined by the end product delivered to the public and not the act itself.

So if I am a full time employee of a company, I can legally "engineer" anything even if I am not qualifed to do so because the company is selling products and not engineering services, but as an individual I can not perform the same job for a company because the end product I am selling is engineering services and not the final product.

 

[jistre]

Ain't the law surrounding the word "engineer" fun?

 

[Senselessticker]

Its all in the jargon concerning your part time work.... I think you can "consult" all you want so long as you are not performing "engineering services" without a license.

A lawyer familiar with engr. practice should be able to clarify things for you regarding the legality of your consulting work.

 

[swertel]

spongebob, in a word, YES.

But then you get into Civil and HVAC.

If you work for a design build company, and you do HVAC design/engineering, the end product of the company is the building, which gets used by the public, so a PE has to stamp the HVAC drawings even though the end product is the building. Why product design (those wonderful laptops that overheat and cause fires, for example) don't require the same scrutiny as buildings or bridges since they are used "by the public" still evades me.

Thus, the only right answer is to contact your technical board and get their "written" definition of the requirements and do that for each state you want to engineer something in. Anyone want to lobby for a national registry of engineers in the US?

--Scott

http://wertel.eng.pro

 

[jpankask]

Spongebob, you essentially have it right on the industrial exemption.

I earned my PE while working in an exempt manufacturing company. There was only one other PE in the whole company that I know of and he was at the corporate office in R&D, I never worked under him. Your state should have another form that you have to fill out explaining why your experience was not under a PE. You would explain that you work in an exempt industry and there are not other PE's for you to work under. Your supervisors would have to sign off on your experience then. If possible, try to dig up any PE's that you know for character references instead of experience references. That will help your case too. Contact your state board and they can explain the entire process to you for your state but with 14 years experience, it shouldn't be a problem.

Swertel, you will never see a national registry of engineers because it would take an amendment to the Constitution. That's why you don't see a national bar for lawyers or national medical board for doctors. Any powers not expressly given to the federal government are reserved for the states.

 

[swertel]

I am running for president in 2012. Change is on the horizon!

--Scott

http://wertel.eng.pro

 

[msquared48]

The Mayans predicted a short presidency for you - very short.

Mike McCann
McCann Engineering