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Professional Engineering

23 July 2004:  Applying for comity licensing: The saga.

8 February 2004:  Did I pass?  Click here, or read on...

Why would any sane Mechanical Engineering graduate engineer submit themselves to the torture of studying for two months, then sitting for eight hours, finally waiting for fifteen weeks, all in order to sign their name Jane S. Schmoe, P.E.? 

I don't know.

I may know in a few months.  Then the official signature will change, I will have letters after my name before Jennifer, and hopefully this will increase the job prospects for our departure from Lubbock.  Let it never be said that I was not doing my part to achieve our goal of being D. I. N. K.'s (Dual Income No Kids) for a while.

The Professional Engineering exam was arguably the hardest test I've ever taken.  Not however because of the material tested.  More because of the time and life pressures that lead up to and depart from it.  I studied intensely for a month prior, and not so intensely for the month before that.  This shot my personal life right in the noggin for that time period.  Under other circumstances, this would have been a greater sacrifice.  At the time, Jenn was working on her dissertation, grading, and/or job applications, so we neatly dovetailed during this period, while assisting local coffee shops to maintain cash flow. There just wasn't much time for a lot of social mongering anyway. 

I ignored a great deal of my common chores in order to keep up some level of physical fitness while studying.  I melted my brain using the Lindeburg MechE Reference Manual, and did nasty things to my back/neck while hunched over my study aids.  My chiropractor had some things to say to me about backsliding.  Finally, I actually sat for the exam in Arlington, TX with thirty other mechanical hopefuls (and two metallurgicals) and achieved testing psychosis by totally blocking out the shuffling pages and scratching pencils surrounding me.

Now we wait to find out if I passed.  Unfortunately, I don't have a strong feeling either way.  Without violating my signed statement of confidentiality, I can say that the morning forty questions romped on my butt because they ignored beams and structures and machine-design things almost entirely.  Fluids, thermo, heat-x did the honors and I was blasted by noon.  I took the Machine Design depth section in the afternoon, and that went much more to my liking.

Why Did I Subject Myself To This?

Alas, I've been sucked to the darkside and I am working as a Traffic Engineer (CivE!) for the Texas Department of Transportation.  Moreover, I've decided that this is a good gig, and I plan to continue in this vein after we move.  I'll be looking for jobs in construction and/or design areas wherever we go, so if you need one of those P.E. type people for that, hire me!

What Would Have Made This Easier?

Nothing would have made this easier.  The only things that would have made it more likely for me to pass would have made the test preparation harder.  The best advice I, as a veteran of this exam, can give is:  Work lots of problems.  Work even more problems.  Work yet more problems.  There's no need to bone up on weird aspects of the field (whatever field) if you're still fuzzy on basics.  Work these problems on hole-punched sheets in neat fashion so that you can take them to the exam with you.

Secondary advice:  (For mechanical engineer examinees)

• Journal bearings have appeared in the last two exams and the Lindeburg text seems to gloss over them.  Find a better source to learn about journal bearings.
• If I hadn't brought the Machinery's handbook I would have not been able to answer one of the questions in the afternoon (machine design) section.  Every study guide says don't bring books that you didn't use to study.  Well, this is the counter example.  You never know when you might need to look up some esoteric fact.
• Don't get upset when your proctor is an idiot.  Mine was.
• If you are testing in Arlington, the parking lot is to the left as you're making a right off of UTA blvd onto Yates to head to Nedderman Hall.

Update (8 Feb 2004)

I passed the exam!  Now I never have to take it again.  Glorious, glorious news.  You can now refer to me as William M. Ruhsam, Jr., P.E.  The Texas board tried to send me a certificate and card with William M. Ruhsam (no Jr.) but I figured my dad did not want to be a P.E. in Texas.

Now I get to do the application process all over again by submitting for an NCEES Record!  Yee ha!

For future test-takers info: I received notification from the Texas board on the 18th of December, 2003, which places turn around time at just under two months.

Georgia PE license (23 July 2004)

Now I'm an employed Professional Engineer in Georgia. Or am I? Applying for license the first time was a blast and a half. The Texas PE Application was a byzantine nightmare, and I don't know a single person who sent it in without any "mistakes." I quotate mistakes because I read and re-read and re-re-read the application instructions, the rules, and the Texas Laws, and I still got a teensy little thing wrong, because the board interpreted a section of the law in a way I thought was inane. Suffice to say, I'm glad I don't have to apply for license in Texas again.

Now I'm in Georgia, and not legally entitled to be a Professional Engineer in this state yet. The GA application is not as bad as the Texas one, but it still has its quirks.

Note: When you pass the FE (a.k.a. EIT) and/or the PE, write down when and where you took it, plus any registration numbers that go along with it. That seems, and is, obvious for the PE, but not necessarily for the EIT.