PE experience reqs.

[AhmetUnal]

Hi,

I am planning to take PE exam in Alabama (April 09), and I need information about experience record from those of you who have taken the exam recently.

I am a little bit confused about the requirements, I need to have 6 years of experience (since my college is not ABET accredited), and do all of these 6 years have to be under the supervision of 3 PEs, like 2 years each? Or do I need to have 6 years of experience in total, and 5 references (3 of which are PEs) who are familiar with my work?

Could someone please clarify this a bit? I have already contacted state board, but I assume they get a lot of emails and questions, and sometimes it takes quite a bit of time to get an answer from them.

 

[MiketheEngineer]

Probably a total of six years under one or more PE's. Three years times 2 PE's does not equal six years of experience. My guess is that you must have graduted in 2002 or earlier.

Call your local board first. Most of them are quite helpful. They are going to make the decision after you spend about 20 hours filling out forms and getting your recommendations.

 

[COEngineeer]

Ahmet, it is better to be under a PE, however the board will understand if it is not. When I sent mine I only had 1 from a PE (1 year), there rest were from a professional geologist and a non registered geologist. I only had 1 yr of design experience. They let me take it. I say, dont worry about it, just send them. Try to get as many PEs as possible. They rather see references from all of your old jobs (even if they are not PEs) than 3 PEs all from the same job in the past 2 years.



Never, but never question engineer's judgement

 

[UcfSE]

You're better off calling the board and asking them what they want or will accept.

 

[JStephen]

It's not unreasonable that all of your experience would be in just one job under one PE. You'll need additional references. Read the board rules and also read the reference sheets they ask you to send out. Some states seem to want personal references to your good character, others seem to want professional opinions of your abilities, and you can choose references accordingly. Don't be afraid to call up your references and ask them about it beforehand, either.

Your screen name sounds foreign, and you mention a non-ABET accredited college. If you got an engineering degree at a foreign university, you might also check into having the degree evaluated. I say this because some states may accept the additional experience without the ABET degree, and others may not. If you ever anticipate getting registered in another state, you'd be ahead to get it confirmed by NCEES or whoever that your degree was the equivalent of an ABET degree, rather than depending on the additional experience.

 

[HgTX]

The references (apparently your state requires 3) and the people who attest to your work can be two completely separate sets of PEs. It's highly recommended that those who can attest to your work be among your references (otherwise the board will wonder why you didn't use your supervisor as a reference), but not strictly required.

Hg

Eng-Tips policies: faq731-376

 

[AhmetUnal]

Thank you for your responses...

COEngineeer, I am in a similar situation, I have 6+ years of experience but I have only worked for one PE, since there are no more PEs at my workplace. But I will go ahead and try to get all paperwork together, give it a shot...

Thanks...

 

[JStephen]

Note that the additional PE's can be customers you deal with etc., need not be in your own company.

 

[JamesBarlow]

I think this really depends on your state. One of my references was a Civil Engineer who was friends with my Father in Law. This is acceptable in PA since the form the references fill out simply ask how long have you know the person and do you feel they would be a competent PE. I met with him one day to talk about the work I do and my career and other experiences and he was happy to sign off.

It's important to always remember that the board that is reviewing your application is made up of Engineers who had to go thru this process before so they seem very understanding. For many industries, like Civil, you can't sharpen a pencil without a license, but they will let pretty much anyone be a machine designer so finding a PE for a reference took a long time, and some creative thinking. I think had I been a Civil Engineer they would have never accepted the references I provided but being a machine designer I think they understood the difficulty in finding PE's in an exempt industry. The process is not a simple mathematical formula so there is no answer that will be right for everyone.

I know this will be something of a copout for your question but you will know when you have the right experience. I asked the same questions you are when I was putting my application together and eventually I stopped asking. I sat down, put everything on paper and asked myself if I was on the board, what would I want, or expect, to see. I completed the application and was sent a letter that my application was accepted and I could sit for the exam.

Now passing the exam was a different story.

 

[mshimko]

(1) You need to reaserch the requirements for your state. From personal experience, there are "minor details" that differ from state to state, except they aren't minor if they mean you may not be eligible to take the exam.

(2) If you "just miss" the requirements, consider writing a letter and requesting a waiver from that "one detail". I did this about 25 years ago; simply filled out my application and attached a letter/addendum to my application, and the next I heard was confirmation of my exam date/time/place.

 

[frayedknot]

I was recently approved to sit for the Oct 08 PE exam in Alabama.

You are required to have a PE verify your work experience. In my case, this was a combination of 3 different PE's that were familiar with my work history, but it is acceptable to have 1 PE.

Separately from the work verification, you must have 5 references. Of these, 3 must be PEs. There are exceptions to every rule and therefore additional paperwork if you don't know 3 PEs.

If after reading the info on the website you still have questions, call the office in Montgomery. They are very nice and helpful.