Did you attend college?

As a Professional Engineer with a BS in Civil Engineering from the University of Illinois, I have to disagree with that... The bump in salary from my stamp has paid for my education and then some.

 

Well in the world of automation, only 75% of the ME acutally have a degree. The salary sucks in this field anyways. I started at ~$14/hr.

 

I started at $14/hr too, but I was willing to take just about anything to get my foot in the door in a job here in CO. I got a sizable raise pretty quickly though. I'm in consulting, so the stamp has increased my billable rate by about 15%, which I've been rewarded for with in some pretty nice bonuses from my employer... Unfortunately, the bonuses might take a hit this year due to the economy, but we've been somewhat fortunate in that we've been able to land some municipal contracts.

 

ha, no just a crappy company. I've since moved on and make over twice as much now. but my technical title is project engineer (so an ME and project manager)

 

that was the same thing for me. When I graudated from madison I packed up and moved out to Boulder without a job, I did landscaping and worked at a hockey rink for 6 months. Got my foot in the door and moved up from there.

where do you work TacoCo?

 

I work in the Vail area. I did something similar... moved out here without a job, and waited tables for about a month. Saw a couple of ads for civil engineers in the paper, sent out my resume, and landed one of them.

 

BS in Mech. Eng. in 2004
FE in 2004
MS in Mech. Eng. in 2007
Due for the PE now, but it won't get me anywhere in my field.

Sick of school, but who knows if I'll go back...

 

2003 August - 2004 Jan~ University of Maryland Baltimore County Earned 3 Credits GPA 1.67

Aug 2004 - Dec 2004 ~ Harrisburg Area Community College Earned 6-8 Credits.. cant remember

Currently Attending Campbell University (Pope AFB Campus)/ CCAF I have 42/64 Credits Towards my CCAF Associates

20Credits Towards my Bachlors Degree from Campbell

 

I'm still not sure that I understand the PE thing for mechanical engineers... It would certainly enable you to setup a consulting practice, and if you can specialize in green technologies and renewable energy, I would think it would open all kinds of doors for you. Our county's new development guidelines pretty much require developers to use renewable energy sources wherever possible, otherwise they pay ridiculous building permit fees, which far exceed the cost to implement something like a solar collection system.

 

I did an internship while in school at a local HVAC firm. Those ME's needed their PE. Outside of that, there isn't much need for me to have one. I worked for the Army for a while and didn't need it. Working in the automotive field now, I don't need it either.

I plan on taking the test if I can ever set aside time to study since I'd like to have more options than less. But you're right...not needed for most ME's. Just another way to waste a Saturday and a couple hundred dollars.

 

I still think it's gotta be worth doing, but I've encountered the same attitude about it from a lot of my civil engineer colleagues. I studied about 3 months for my PE exam, but looking back on it, I definitely over-studied. The test was much easier than I anticipated.

I didn't get my PE license as soon as I had the experience requirement covered, and I kinda regret it. I'd have been making a lot more money had I done it as soon as possible. Even if you don't need it in your current endeavors, I think it would be nice to have on your resume when/if your situation changes down the road.

 

I have never attended college. But my money goes to college. I'm sending my second child to the University of North Florida and my third to Florida Community College of Jacksonville. Hopefully I can send more money to Florida State when my 5th goes there in 4 more years.

 

I should say that I support going to college, if not for the education, for the contacts you make in college. Things come much easier for me since I got a degree.

More bullets you can put on the resume the more money you'll make. If you want a PE, get one! I don't plan on staying a ME for long. But I plan on working for those type of companies as a manager, not a engineer. So I wanted a degree, but a PE is not where I see my career heading

 

I was just graduated in April from The Uiversity of Pittsburgh at Johnstown with my MET and a minor in physics. I am salaried here with full benefits, 401(k) and all that shtuff.

Actually you can take the Fundamentals of Engineering to be an Engineer-in-Training with no engineering degree. I imagine this would be pretty tough. I did not pass mine the first time around but did not even study nor think about it prior. I was too caught up on senior design projects and finals.

My current job wants me to take my FE again, pass it and then expects me to test for PE immediately after that (I am replacing our one-and-only ME PE as chief engineer on pilot plants next year. My director keeps forgetting about the 5 years of practice.) I am currently an "associate engineer." This is a lot of responsibility and I'm not even sure if I want the PE for all the liability that comes with it. They will also send me back to graduate school. I will most likely do this to pursue my MBA. This is a much faster track through my company as we hardly do any in-house engineering. Everyone tells me I would make a kickass VP, CEO, Director et cetera.

 

It was a truly aweful test. I also didn't study, but I took it during the second semester of my senior year so some stuff was still fresh. After the general section in the AM, I was flying high. I started the ME section after lunch and all confidence was lost...switched to the general section again and finished off the test. I was so convinced I failed, I stopped halfway through and left most of them blank. No idea how I passed that section. I guess I should have actually tried harder...then again, I passed and that is all that matters

 

Yeah, that was about the extent of my studying for it... Flipped through the equation book, made sure that I knew how to apply the equations and that was about it. I can't remember the exact numbers, but there were something like 3 out of 900 that didn't pass the EIT exam (what it was called back then) at my school when I took it... Must have sucked to be them.

 

Currently, enlisted in NG. and was attending WOU/CCC 2005-2008 here in Oregon. After 2 1/2 years left college and joined the military, I will finish when I get out. I was studying for a BA in business entrepaneurship, minor in integrated media.