Hello all, I would like to ask some broad open ended questions to illicit as much constructive conversation as possible.
- Why did you choose to become an EE?
- Did you graduate from an ABET accredited school?
- Do you hold a professional license (PE)?
- What type of work did you end up doing?
Thank you for your time in advance!
I was advised by a fellow technician and mentor early in my career to pursue an engineering degree. Both of us were well-paid technicians performing engineering work, but he said I would earn more respect and have better job opportunities later on if I had that "paper ticket" that said, "Golly! A few years ago I cudn't even spul eng-ga-neer, and now I are one!"
I finally graduated from the University of Dayton in 1978. It is an ABET accredited school, but none of my employers has ever brought that up in an interview.
Most EEs do not have a PE license, and most employment doesn't require one. It is probably worthwhile if you want to be an entrepreneur and hire out your services to the highest bidder, or desire the ability to "sign off" on engineering designs and accept full responsibility for the consequences if something slips through the cracks. I am thinking about applying and testing for one now that I am retired, just for the satisfaction of being able to hang out a shingle saying "Professional Engineer... Inquire Within."
I spent most of my career designing and building "one off" projects, first at the University of Dayton Research Institute (1967 to 1979) and later for a company heavily involved in the Intelligence and Reconnaissance Communities (1979 to 1991). Then I spent a few years as a "bag dragger" fixing OPCs (Other People's Computers) as a government contractor (1991 to 1994). The company I was working for lost their bid on the contract renewal, so there was a period where I washed dishes, performed manual day labor for an exhaust pipe manufacture, took paid training with the U.S.Postal Service as a keyboard data entry person, strung Ethernet cables for a former boss... whatever jobs I could get to pay the bills... until finally talking my way into my last full-time job as a particle accelerator engineer in 1996. I didn't know diddly about particle accelerators, but they were desperate and I am a quick learner. Retired in January 2015, with occasional paid visits to my former employer as a consultant. Was named along with my former boss as the co-inventor of a Photo-Conductive Solid-state Switch (PCSS) on a patent application. Still waiting to see if anything comes of that.
It's been an interesting career. If I had my druthers, I would druther have pursued a MBA and joined IEEE and perhaps applied as an "engineer in training" for a PE license as soon as I graduated college. Still not too late to do any or all of that, but why bother now? No need to be an engineer to appreciate waves rolling in from the Gulf on a bright sunny day. Hmmm. If Florida could improve the fetch and break with some creative dredging, perhaps I could learn to ride a surf board... two or three foot breakers would be about right.
Hop
