March/April 2018

Four PE Myths That Sow Career Confusion

Students and young engineers should look closely at the advice they receive about the value of licensing.

BY DAVID SIEGEL

We all know Twinkies are edible for decades. Swallowed chewing gum takes seven years to wend its way through the digestive tract, and you should wait at least an hour after eating that tuna sandwich before jumping in the pool. Want to make a bull mad? Hold a red cape in front of him.

Misconceptions are all around us. Some gain a life of their own but are of little consequence, and a few lucky ones make it to Wikipedia. Others are harder to debunk and can lead to uninformed decisions and entrenched ways of thinking.

The engineering profession knows them well. Engineers hear that they are uncreative, nerdy introverts who love math. Et cetera, et cetera.

Misconceptions may come from within the ranks—things engineers say to other engineers—or from teachers, career counselors, parents, or friends offering advice.

Students and those new to the profession in particular need to be wary of the advice they receive or don’t receive. After all, only one wrong impression can knock a career off kilter.

Let’s take a look at some common myths.  

 MYTH #1: THE PE LICENSE MATTERS ONLY IN CIVIL ENGINEERING.

There’s no denying that the PE license is integral to the practice of civil engineering. For consulting engineers and private practitioners who work in civil engineering, licensure is a virtual necessity. Civil engineers often need to prepare, sign, seal, and submit engineering plans and drawings to public authorities for approval, or to seal engineering work for public and private clients. Only a licensed engineer can legally do so. In fact, licensure is a legal requirement for those who are in responsible charge of work, whether they are principals or employees.

The numbers prove the importance of the license in civil engineering. Between October 1, 2015 and September 30, 2016, according to the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying (NCEES), 24,723 people took the PE exam for the first time or as repeat takers. Of those, 62% took one of the five civil exams: construction, geotechnical, structural, transportation, and water resources and environmental. The other 38% took a PE exam in one of the 15 other disciplines.

Of the 13,923 people who passed the PE, 60% took one of the civil exams and 40% took one of the other disciplines.

During the same period, 20,245 people took the FE exam in civil or environmental and 23,403 took the FE in other disciplines.

But the fact that the PE license is integral to the practice of civil engineering sometimes becomes the exaggeration “The PE license matters only in civil engineering.” Or, in other words, “You don’t really need a PE license if you work in petroleum engineering…or nuclear…or control systems….”

There are plenty of reasons—more than 50—that this is a myth. Students and young engineers may not know that all states and territories have laws that define the “practice of engineering” and establish its regulation. All state definitions are a little different, but NCEES’s recommended definition is as follows: “Any service or creative work requiring engineering education, training, and experience in the application of engineering principles and the interpretation of engineering data to engineering activities that potentially impact the health, safety, and welfare of the public. The services may include, but not be limited to, providing planning, studies, designs, design coordination, drawings, specifications, and other technical submissions; teaching engineering design courses; performing surveying that is incidental to the practice of engineering; and reviewing construction or other design products for the purposes of monitoring compliance with drawings and specifications related to engineered work.”

If your work falls within a state’s legal definition of the practice of engineering, a PE license is needed, unless an exemption exists. (More on that later.) Plus, in most states you cannot hold yourself out as an “engineer” and offer—much less provide—“engineering services” as defined in the law directly to the public, whether individuals or companies, unless you are licensed.

In addition to the PE license, most states now require a “certificate of authority” for an individual or a firm to practice privately or provide consulting services. If you do not have one, you can be fined, and since you would not be practicing legally, a client could refuse to pay you, claiming you were practicing illegally.

 MYTH #2: NSPE IS ALL CIVIL ENGINEERS.

This myth is a close relative of the first one. Like the overall profession, NSPE indeed is made up of many civil engineers. More members work in civil engineering than any other discipline. A large percentage of these men and women are involved in the design, construction, operation, and maintenance of the built environment. Generally speaking, they work in facilities design and construction.

Today, about 47% of members who have identified a discipline are civil engineers or identify with a civil engineering subdiscipline that has its own civil PE exam.

The remaining 53% of NSPE members who have identified a discipline cover a broad range of expertise. Those at the top of the list include:

• Mechanical: 20%
• Electrical, electronics, or computer: 17%
• Chemical: 4%

The remaining slices in the discipline pie are architectural, biomedical, engineering management, fire protection, industrial, metallurgical and mining, naval architecture and marine engineering, nuclear, petroleum, software, systems engineering, technical writing, welding, and others.

Since its founding, NSPE has never been about your engineering discipline. In the January 1935 issue of The American Engineer, founder David Steinman, P.E., wrote, “The technical problems of civil, mechanical, electrical, mining, and chemical engineers are divergent; but the professional problems are alike. The technical societies, for the best fulfillment of their essential purpose, are divided on lines of differentiation of technical branches or specialties. This division into separate organizations, with diverse traditions and viewpoints, prevents effective united effort for the interests of the profession as a whole. A single national professional society, with solidarity of purpose and concentration of strength, is needed to provide effectively for the professional interests of the engineering profession.”

Engineers have many well-established discipline-specific organizations to choose from. NSPE, however, is not one of them. NSPE is the only membership organization dedicated solely to the nontechnical aspects of the profession.

 MYTH #3: I DON’T NEED A LICENSE BECAUSE I WORK IN INDUSTRY.

Students and young engineers: Beware the person who says you don’t need a PE license because of the industry you plan to work in or the engineering discipline you specialize in. Equally concerning is the person who offers career advice to you—an engineer!—and says nothing at all about the PE license.

It’s true that industrial exemptions to state laws—and similar government exemptions—allow engineers to legally perform engineering services without being licensed, even though their work could affect the public health, safety, and welfare. (Check out NSPE’s report “Exemptions to Engineering Licensure Laws.”) And granted, it’s quite possible that you may begin your career working in a job where the PE license is not legally required or necessarily encouraged. Many NSPE members work in such positions. But how many people possess the superpower of seeing their entire career path before it has even started?

The license is like career insurance. You may not need it right now, but you’ll be thankful to have it when you do.

PEs who work in industries or positions where the license isn’t always required tell an interesting story. In online comments, they tout the advantages of the license, such as career flexibility and a higher standing in the workplace, among others.

As they said, the PE license:

• Establishes credibility and workplace gravitas;
• Reminds me to take ethics seriously;
• May be required in the next job you’d like to apply for;
• Made getting my next job easier;
• Instilled greater self-confidence;
• Created opportunities for independent consulting;
• Contributed to my promotion; and
• Is “cool.”

Of course the PE license is cool and can help with your career prospects. These factors shouldn’t be discounted. But to many, the PE license comes with greater obligations that may not be apparent to all young engineers, which brings us to our next myth.

 MYTH #4: THE PE LICENSE IS JUST SOMETHING I NEED TO DO MY JOB.

You need a driver’s license to drive a car, a hunting license to hunt, and a business license to open a business. Some licenses are just means to an end without many requirements other than filling out a form, paying a fee, and complying with some basic rules.

In some ways the PE license is no different. It may be a job requirement or keep you from running afoul of the law.

Many students and young engineers, however, probably don’t fully realize that a PE license is much more than that. The license comes with greater obligations—the obligations of a professional—that become clearer with experience. It’s a commitment, not just a job.

NSPE members often talk about the “more.” There’s more to the PE license than graduating from an accredited program, gaining four years of experience, and passing two exams. These are the basic entry requirements, but what’s the “more”?

The NSPE Code of Ethics provides some clarity. It lists nine professional obligations, covering subjects such as acting with honesty and integrity, serving the public interest, avoiding deceptive practices, taking personal responsibility, and avoiding conflicts of interest. Each obligation has provisions that explain the obligation in greater detail.)

NCEES’s Model Rules also lists 23 rules of professional conduct it recommends to state licensing boards “as binding upon every licensee.” Virtually all of these rules have counterparts in the NSPE Code of Ethics.

Many NSPE members believe in the profession’s “higher calling” or something similar. They are dedicated to ethics and integrity in practice, and their professional obligations rise just a little higher in their consciousness.