The first two posts on this blog were musings into why someone would want to become a licensed professional engineer. Why go through the cost and effort? Is it worth it?
For someone in a field where the P.Eng. license is practically a pre-requisite to success (e.g. ones where top positions require an engineering seal), the answers are obvious.
One of our readers, Hank, gave a more philosophical answer:
One reason for me that you didn’t list as motivation is that it’s a culmination of one’s education in a profession.
I have a brother who is an accountant, a CA and he shamed me into obtaining a PEng. He said to me “I don’t know much about engineering but if someone doesn’t bother with the designation, why did they bother with the rest of it?”
Up to that point, I had been taking it easy with respect to professionalism. I’ve found that taking the steps to obtain the PEng has helped me to grow up a bit.I’m always curious as to why someone who otherwise qualifies for their PEng has not bothered obtaining it. I do ask when I interview people and they better have a good answer
For others in fields such as software and computers, the license is much less pervasive and generally perceived in the industry as “nice-to-have”.
For me, it’s been almost 4 years since I asked the question of “why” and 2 years since I obtained my license. To be honest, it’s still difficult for me to say what direct impacts the P.Eng. license has had on my career. Surely, being able to put those 4 letters after my name (and on my LinkedIn profile) have made a good impression on some people. However, in the type of work as I do (which spans from software development to entrepreneurship), I still have yet been asked about my license or had a need to use my seal. That said, it’s been only 2 years and my career is still relatively young, so the jury is out.
Career Webinars with P.Eng. and HR Experts
If you have questions about your engineering career, not just limited to licensing, Gavin from PracticePPEExams.ca is hosting a series of free webinars where he brings in a special guest HR expert to answer your career-related questions in a Ask-Me-Anything (AMA) format. You can view one of the past webinars below:
So if you have questions about your engineering career that you’d like to have answered by an expert, sign up for the next webinar and ask away!