Relevant Work Experience for P.E.?

[slushin]

Has anyeone come from a manufacturing background and been able to use their time spent in manufacturing towards the 2 years of experience required for your P.E.? I'm an EE and I spent 2 years as a electrical process engineer doing mostly programming, very little design, some design review, and lots of working with vendors to resolve equipment issues and I'm afraid that it won't help me qualify to become a P.E. ... do you have any advice?

 

[dpc]

All you can do is submit an honest description of your work experience and see if they accept it. I think your experience would qualify, but it isn't up to me, that's for sure.

So where are you located? I thought the requirement was 4 years experience?

David Castor

http://www.cvoes.com

 

[electricpete]

Also recognize that without sacrificing honesty there are probably many ways to present/describe the wide variety of tasks that you do. You surely should highlight those aspects that involve use of engineering principles to solve problems.

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(2B)+(2B)' ?

 

[slushin]

Thanks guys.

dpc -- I'm in California. The requirement is 4 years of school and 2 years of work experience in this state. They also charge $275 to apply for the P.E. and only refund half if you do not qualify, which is why I figured I would see if anyone had any advice before donating my $137.50.

 

[dpc]

Ah, yes - California - I thought they had finally tightened that up.

The first check is the hardest one to write - you'll be writing many more to the state after you get your PE. And they do need the money

Maybe your employer will reimburse you?

You could also call the State Board and just ask them.



David Castor

http://www.cvoes.com

 

[MAGTiger]

It's been about 20 years since I got my license which is in Wisconsin. But I always thought the experience question was more about establishing "some" track record of practice not that it necessarily be "P.E" track. In the end, the state board will expect you to practice ONLY in your specific area of expertise and so if your experience is in that area it shouldn't be a problem. This is a small chink in the P.E. licensing question that practice areas are not detailed in the license. But then a key part of being a P.E. is ethics anyway.

Neil

 

[electricpete]

According to this reference:

http://www.careertoolkits.com/engineering/pe-exam-experience.html

There are several criteria that must be met for a specific position to count as acceptable engineering experience for the PE exam. Firstly, the work experience must be in a major recognized branch of engineering and it must also be in the specific branch of engineering the individual is claiming as his or her specialty. The experience must also have been conducted under the supervision of a more qualified engineer (i.e. not a new engineer).

Of course the PE board literature is the source document you should be looking at. I think the PE license application has some guidance that helps you understand the requirements.

For future reference, if it is simply a question of board requirements, then I think this discussion should be in some other forum
forum731

On the other hand, I guess your question was specifically related to people with similar experience and how their experience was evaluated in PE application so I understand why you posted here.

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(2B)+(2B)' ?

 

[AusLee]

As applicable, say you worked on Profibus or LonTalk or whatever stuff you have and that you configured the SCADA system, watched alarm reports, elaborated maintenance procedures, performed regular maintenance, recommended purchase of equipment, projected end of service life, did market research to find material, launched a request for tender and reviewed the proposals, etc.

Then talk about those one of two times where you had almost a near miss of a total breakdown and how someone, not necessarily you, saved the day and what was your role in the salvage plan.

dig in you will find plenty.