🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <2306@laidbak.UUCP>, jeq@laidbak.UUCP (Jonathan E. Quist) writes:
> In article <6937@ecsvax.UUCP> cjl@ecsvax.UUCP (Charles J. Lord) writes:
> >
> >The rules in North Carolina are obviously tougher than in California.
> >Here you have to have worked four years after graduation, two under
> >the direction (or at least observation) of a PE.  If you work for
> >Northern Telecom and have no PE in the department, you need to go
> >moonlight with a sympathetic PE or else forget licensing...
> 
> What is the point of going through the EIT/PE exams? ... I do not presume
> to belittle the achievement of passing the exams, I just
> don't understand the point of it all.  ...
> So I ask again, what's the point?  Why should I bother?

For many engineers, there is no reason.  The PE certification is, for them, a
neat trophy to hang on the wall.  For other engineers it is a necessity.

For engineers working all their lives for a corporation (as I do for AT&T Bell
Laboratories), the PE certification is not really necessary.  In our case, the
Company is responsible to the public at large for the work we do.  For work that
REQUIRES the seal of a Professional Engineer (such as building construction
plans), the Company will often retain an outside firm to do the work and seal
the plans.

In the case of any engineer who is working for the public on his/her own, the
laws of most states require that they be registered for much the same reasons
that doctors of medicine must be registered -- to protect the public from
unskilled charlatins.  This goal may not always be attained, but an approach to
this goal is made.

As a point of information, I took and passed the EIT exam in Michigan back in
1968.  I joined Bell Telephone Laboratories (as it was called then) as an
Electrical Engineer in that year.  I subsequently earned a PhD in CS.  I have
felt no need to go back to take the PE exam.  Indeed, I probably could not pass
it since my work has had no relation to the topics covered by that exam that
are of great importance to Consulting Engineers or other Engineers in private
practice.

I have no desire to take the PE exam myself, but I respect and applaude anyone
who does have that desire and who successfully completes the exam.

Note well that nowhere in the above posting have I used a smiley.

				Rich Strebendt
				...!att!ihlpj!res