Exploring Engineering Licensure
I'm back!
Where have I been?
I took a break from writing the past few months in order to prepare for the Principles and Practice of Engineering Exam. The exam is sort of like the bar exam for lawyers, except for engineers. Studying for it while working at a consulting firm feels a lot like this:
The exam lasts 8 hours, and consists of 80 questions that cover an extremely wide umbrella of possible testable concepts. The first 40 questions make up a “Breadth” portion, meant to test you on concepts that you either know or don’t know. The reference materials and equations are unlikely to illuminate much in this section. The subjects in the Breadth section are:
Project Planning
Construction Means and Methods
Soil Mechanics
Structural Mechanics
Hydraulics and Hydrology
Geometrics
Materials
Site Development
Analysis and Design
The next 40 questions make up the “Depth” section of the exam. These questions take a lot longer to work out in general, and give you more opportunity to make mistakes. Since graduation, I’ve been working in water infrastructure, so I chose to take the Water Resources Engineering section for my depth study. It consists of the following sections:
Closed Conduit Hydraulics
Open Channel Hydraulics
Hydrology
Groundwater and Wells
Wastewater Collection and Treatment
Water Quality
Drinking Water Distribution and Treatment
Engineering Economics and Analysis
In my time away, I often found myself explaining to friends and loved ones why I had to study, despite having graduated from university in 2021. The key to understanding why the P.E. is difficult is that every test is shuffled, and the scope of concepts that the test could include is much wider than the set of concepts they could possibly fit into an 80 question exam. Therefore, you need to study and be prepared to be tested on a really large body of knowledge in order to minimize your variance on test-day.
I’m happy to report that I recently received notice that I successfully passed, which is a key step in becoming a licensed Civil Engineer! I’ll likely apply for my license in Texas, which means I could be fully licensed by as soon as I fulfill their requirement for work experience. I made a handy map to show which states require what from P.E. applicants.
You’ll notice that almost all of them are uniform, with the exceptions of California and Alaska, which require additional Seismic and Cold Weather knowledge for licensure respectively.
States also issue licenses to engineers from other states, sometimes by reciprocity, but usually by comity. Reciprocity means you can use your original license to get a new one from the second state. Comity means that you must fulfill the requirements of the state you are now applying to be licensed in. Since most states have the same requirements, applicants usually* only need perform a state ethics test or update their references.
* Note that California requires two fewer years of work experience, which means new CA P.E.s can have a hard time getting a license through comity from other states
But what about the rest of the world? How do they determine who is qualified to practice engineering? There are a number of bodies attempting to solve this coordination issue, such as the International Engineering Alliance (I.E.A.). The IEA is responsible for international agreements like the Washington Accord, in which countries try to determine a standard of teaching for engineering degree programs. These countries have signed the accord, easing the cross-border licensing process between them.
There are other certifications that act as parallels to the P.E. around the world. In Europe, you can earn a EUR ING, which is granted after you apply to your countries board of Engineers Europe. Engineers Europe, similar to the U.S. NCEES, is an attempt at self-regulation of the engineering profession by engineers, and is not itself a governmental body. Because of this, nations with pre-existing laws governing the use of the title “engineer” often dispute the EUR ING title. It is however, still considered a strong signal of competency.
In the U.K. the title of engineer is not regulated, but private engineering councils hold registers of qualified people. Being on the register of your field’s council is often a prerequisite for engineering roles. Titles like IEng for Incorporated Engineers and CEng for Chartered engineers are protected from unauthorized use. CEng’s can register to receive their EUR ING certification.
In Canada, licenses are regulated by provincial boards, but students are not tested on technical knowledge outside of their academic degree like U.S. engineers are in the P.E. Using the title of engineer is okay if you work on stationary machinery or on power infrastructure, but otherwise you need to be licensed.
Why do countries regulate the use of the title “engineer” at all? Are they protecting the value of a powerful signal? Have they been swayed by labor lobbies? Is it a legal, insurance, or safety issue? Yes!
On the one hand, it seems silly to protect a title like “engineer” when so many people outside the domain of “formal” engineering practice engineering skills like problem solving, critical thinking, and analysis everyday. However, the protections that exist show that the public values having a hard line to separate the profession from the practice. Why would they find this valuable?
Licensing and regulation allow for a high degree of confidence in the quality of engineering services.
Licensure allows for responsibility to be easily attributed when a failure occurs. If a bridge collapses due to a bad design, the P.E. who designed it is liable.
Having an industry-run regulatory body allows for regulation by qualified persons. Bodies like NCEES are made up of technocrats, not bureaucrats. This allows for more relevant information to reach decision-makers.
They may not find it valuable at all and their representatives have simply been swayed by the BIG ENG lobby
Either way, I’m happy to be over the hump and on my way to calling myself a “Professional Engineer”!
See you all in the new year!
-Connor, Of All Trades
Nice going Connor! Shortly after I started my first job I asked the company president about licensure, and he said "In some businesses it's important to have a license. In this business it's not." And that sentence saved me several months of hard studying and a ton of stress. On the other hand my degree is in mechanical engineering and now I work in nuclear, so studying for the PE in nuclear might have been a good way to fill in some gaps in my knowledge.
I imagine water infrastructure is one of those businesses where the extra effort is worth your while. And it's always nice to have a few extra letters after your name :)
Canada does require technical evaluations but wiaves them for graduates of accredited programs. So in practice most e fingerings g graduates in Canada do not need technical exams (their programs cover the technical requirements) but often people who studied abroad do need to do exams.