NY PE licensing question

[lamentol]

Greetings,

I have been working toward earning my PE license since I graduated college, and recently decided I should start preparing for my application since I believe I have enough experience. However, when doing my research, I found that some sources said I need 3 PE reference, which is different from what I remember. When I read the requirement on NCEES, it doesn't say anywhere that I need a reference from a PE at all, I just need to have someone to vouch for me and verify my experience. This person doesn't necessarily need to be a PE or even my direct supervisor. So, from what I got on the instruction, I don't think I need a PE reference. However, I want to see if anyone in New York got through the application process without a PE reference. After all, I am still worried about my application being rejected, in case the board doesn't consider my experience to be 'legit' if I do not a PE to support my claim. Any advice or experience you share is greatly appreciated. Thank you.

 

[tstructural]

A co-worker of mine uses NCEES to hold all of her paperwork - state licenses, college transcript, referral, etc. and NCEES totally missed the mark as far as NY. NY makes their decisions based on a personal resume of design experience - in other words you have to have a detailed description of your projects and what type of design you provided. It was extremely time consuming and difficult to provide exactly what they require.

My advice - ignore NCEES and contact the state directly. I'm sure a licensed PE from NY will comment here and give you more advice. Good Luck!

 

[Rich86]

lamentol,

It has been a number of years, but I am licensed by examination in NY, and the process was exactly as you describe. Three PE references (not necessarily from NY) and as 'tstructural' states, the experience required for verification was fairly stringent. Something to consider: if you move forward and are licensed, the continuing education requirements are a bit more restrictive in New York than most states (actually any state that I have seen). This isn't a big deal, but it is slightly more expensive to obtain PDH's that satisfy New York's criteria, and things like CAD, project management, etc. will not qualify.

I do suggest you review the NYS PE board website to obtain the most recent requirements:

http://www.op.nysed.gov/prof/pels/

Good luck, and if this is something you want - do it. It isn't that daunting once you have gotten started!

 

[lamentol]

tstructural,Rich81,

Thank you for your advice. My experience is a mixed of project management and design from different companies, so getting references from the places I left is already quite difficult. It would be a nightmare for me if the NYS board is asking for a very specific details of my experience.

I look at the application form from NYSED, it is the same and does not say that PE reference is required. I think this makes sense. If the state board does not ask for PE reference or even your supervisor's comment, they probably would have a very high/complicated standard in evaluating the experience. It's got to be difficult in some way to keep down the number of PEs a bit.

I think it might be easier to just take the PE test in other states, and transfer it back to NY by endorsement if necessary.

 

[IRstuff]

?? The experience form is here:

http://www.op.nysed.gov/prof/pels/pe4a.pdf

There are two pages for you to fill out with your experience and responsibilities that must be attested to by you and someone willing to sign for and endorse you.

TTFN
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[structSU10]

For my NY PE application I ended up with about 6 pages to detail my project experience. I broke down projects to a one month interval as required to add up to 4 years experience. I have been with one firm, so it was easy to get the (3) supervisors for all my projects to be references. You need to show that you have experience on projects pertinent to your field, and under the direct supervision of a licensed PE. It took maybe a 4-5 hours to fill out the application if I were to guess. Definitely a chore, but if you do it parts at a time its not too bad.

 

[Rich86]

Again, it was years ago, but my application experience was basically identical to what
structSU10 described. Being an aerospace engineer, finding 3 active PEs who knew me was not easy, since few AEs are licensed. Also, I believe (at that time) that New York had a slightly higher passing grade requirement than some states - but I have no idea if this is still true.

None of this is a non-starter, in my view. If you want move forward. I would do the very best you can on the application and leave it to the board to decide on the applicability of your experience. Good luck.