I Weep For The Future....

When I was in my 20's and 30's, I had not yet been fully exposed to the folly of human nature...certainly time changed that. Given enough time and exposure, I suspect you will too. As far as being ****** off by everything..well, the only thing that truly pisses me off is when I see someone jeopardizing their safety or the safety of others.

I've been an electrical engineer (PE) most of my life, unfortunately I've seen multiple deaths due to bad practices and lack of respect or understanding of the danger by the folks performing a job. I also (over time) became the responsible engineer for projects that could cause death and injury to the public if something went wrong....so I tended to be a little paranoid over the capacity of the human race to do stupid things. All it takes is one person or one accident to completely ruin a career. I could not afford to adopt any other mindset.

I'm nowhere near as credentialed or experienced as yourself but I understand where you are coming from.
I'm a non-PE, non-degreed Controls Engineer; not sure if you would recognize someone without a degree as a "real" Engineer, but I do design machine control systems for a living.
I am well initiated in idiot-proofing. It is a real challenge to design something that a moron can't use to hurt or kill himself with, but is still usable and diverse.
Fortunately I have not seen anyone seriously hurt or killed.
 
The way things are going in this country were losing as a producing nation. We only have college idiots who lose all common sense after graduation . I don't see very many small businesses that make it very long. Not everything can be done by a computer , at least not yet. I too raised my daughter's right we taught them the things our parents taught us. We took them to church and they learned respect for God and his laws for living , we tried to give the best of family values along with respect for elders and others. Teachers in the schools have there hands tied in some of what's aloud. I taught them very early about guns and SAFTEY , my oldest daughter even went hunting with me in our deer clubs drives. Plus she shot TRAP till school took all her time. Now she's a mental health therapist , graduated magna kumloady , ( spelling don't count ) . They all went to some college and made master degree. So Strantor your doing great , raise your children to do right and they will follow your path.
 
I'm nowhere near as credentialed or experienced as yourself but I understand where you are coming from.
I'm a non-PE, non-degreed Controls Engineer; not sure if you would recognize someone without a degree as a "real" Engineer
Titles are for the law...I always recognized folks that had knowledge over folks that simply had paper.
 
Titles are for the law...I always recognized folks that had knowledge over folks that simply had paper.
I've known a few PE license mechanical engineers that were my bosses over the years. And many times I've had to bail them out and fix their screwups are countless! I do respect those that had great wisdom and I have learned from. I kick myself for not getting my sheep skin when I had the chance to when I was much younger. Can't complain, I've done great in the things I do best and I continue to do so when I can.
 
I don't know about how this works in other states, but one company (machine shop) I worked for decided to try and develop our own line of oil tools. We hired, and eventually made him vp and then part owner, a vp of mfg from SII. He held a BSME. SO someone decided we chould change our company name to XXX Engineering, Inc. In Texas, you can't use the term "Engineering" in your company name unless you have a P.E. on board. It took a couple of years, but we got a nastygram from the Texas Secretary of State informing us we had 90 days to change it to exclude that term or any reference to engineering. I read the letter and at first thought it was some scam to get us to pay a fee or something, but a couple of phone calls later, found out that it was legit. We changed it back to what it was. Never did get that product line we wanted. I think the timing was off anyway, oilfield is too up and down. Funny thing, I am developing a coil tubing tool now, but I don't use "that word" in my company name...lol!

Sometime I regret not going on to get my paper too, but I have been in the thick of it without it, and surrounded by educated idiots. Those times I'm glad I didn't get it. No fingers pointed at me! I believe it's that last required class that does it for most of them....the one where they take all your common sense away. THEN you get your paper.
 
In Texas, you can't use the term "Engineering" in your company name unless you have a P.E. on board.

That is how it is in all the states that I know of and was the only reason I went and took the PE exam. In fact, a person cannot legally call himself an engineer (for hire) without having the PE for that state. Since I'm retired, I have not bothered keeping mine up....my stamp is a good paper weight now.
 
Craig, I may be wrong, but I think that applies mostly to certain specific fields like structural or civic projects where the finished project is a "public work", or a building of some sort. This is one area that separates P.E.s from Engineers. I found this interesting. It shows that there may be changes coming that will increase the ranks of P.E.s. It's getting to be a little bit of a gray area. The broadest interpretation seems to be what is most often used, I suppose because it is the safest. It doesn't make sense to me to require every possible engineering field to meet the stringent requirements of being a licensed P.E., but they didn't ask me. :)

From
©2016 National Society of Professional Engineers | 1420 King St., Alexandria, VA 22314 | 888-285-NSPE (6773)


  • Only a licensed engineer may prepare, sign and seal, and submit engineering plans and drawings to a public authority for approval, or seal engineering work for public and private clients.
  • PEs shoulder the responsibility for not only their work, but also for the lives affected by that work and must hold themselves to high ethical standards of practice.
  • Licensure for a consulting engineer or a private practitioner is not something that is merely desirable; it is a legal requirement for those who are in responsible charge of work, be they principals or employees.
  • Licensure for engineers in government has become increasingly significant. In many federal, state, and municipal agencies, certain governmental engineering positions, particularly those considered higher level and responsible positions, must be filled by licensed professional engineers.
  • Many states require that individuals teaching engineering must also be licensed. Exemptions to state laws are under attack, and in the future, those in education, as well as industry and government, may need to be licensed to practice. Also, licensure helps educators prepare students for their future in engineering.
 
Tony,
We did mostly electrical engineering that might have buildings that required civil engineering as well. The bullet points you supplied are basically what I remember in the 2000 to 2010 timeframe that I was actively involved in engineering services.

Just about every project we bid required PE oversight with sign and seal requirements. We employed multiple disciplines to handle mechanical, civil, and electrical PE requirements. We also had, like myself supervision with PE's. Many of our PE's had multiple state licenses to be compliant with State law.
 
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