OT: Any Engineers Out There?

[GoHAM]

EDIT* Results came in early and I Passed!!!

I took the PE exam today, Civil transportation, and man am I fried! But not the right kind of fried for 4-20!! Hah Hah!! Wouldn't have been so bad if I didn' t have to drive another 3 hrs to get home after the exam, but hey that's the price I pay to live and work in Wyoming.

Anyway, my feelings right now are an even 50-50 on the pass/fail aspect. It all depends on whether I'm listening to my angel or my devil.

I'm just curious if anyone else on the Orangemane knows what I'm talking about and could commiserate or share their experience.

The worst part of the whole process? Waiting 3 F***ing months to get the results! :gus:

[Cito Pelon]

What's a PE? Congrat's, I guess you had to work hard to accomplish that.

[Rascal]

Yeah taking the PE sucks, and it leaves you fried. I took it because I wanted it (my job doesn't require it), but for those were it actually is required it is a bit nerve racking. What state did you take yours in?

[Tredici]

Where's Garcia when someone actually needs him?

:blowhorn:

[JDB7821]

I was gonna go to college for Engineering, but chose Accounting instead.

[PRBronco]

I'll be graduating with my degree in Mechanical in june :)

[watermock]

I'm going into boxing at 47.

[ton80]

I took the PE exam today, Civil transportation, and man am I fried! But not the right kind of fried for 4-20!! Hah Hah!! Wouldn't have been so bad if I didn' t have to drive another 3 hrs to get home after the exam, but hey that's the price I pay to live and work in Wyoming.

Anyway, my feelings right now are an even 50-50 on the pass/fail aspect. It all depends on whether I'm listening to my angel or my devil.

I'm just curious if anyone else on the Orangemane knows what I'm talking about and could commiserate or share their experience.

The worst part of the whole process? Waiting 3 ****ing months to get the results! :gus:

I'm a P.E. I took the same exam during the fall of 03. I know exactly what you're talking about. After the morning exam, I felt real confident that if I could hold serve for the afternoon exam, I would pass. After finishing up the afternoon exam, I sorta felt that I got my butt whipped a little. I gave myself the same 50:50 odds that I would pass after leaving the exam. Anyway, I ended up passing with a 72. I'm guessing that you passed. I know many engineers that took the same transpo exam that gave themselves the same 50:50 odds after leaving the exam.

What kind of work do you do?

I work in the private sector for a consulting firm that gets variety of public and private work. We do all types of civil design including site development, utility design, residential development, roads, etc. Living in Alaska, we do a lot of work on the north slope (oil fields) designing ice roads, the alignment to ANWR, all kinds of cool stuff.

Anyway, congratulations on sitting for that exam. Its a hell of a big deal and you should be proud.

[ton80]

What's a PE? Congrat's, I guess you had to work hard to accomplish that.

He took the Professional Engineering Exam to become a Professional Engineer.

[Anaximines]

Yeah, I should be taking the F.E. today (Civil Engineering) but am going to take it in the fall instead.

[Hogan11]

I took the ET & SET exams back in January (that's the Engineering Tech & Senior Engineering Tech exams) which I needed to pass to hold onto my provisional appointment. Needless to say, since I have no background in engineering and am poor in math, I got my ass kicked on both of them...as I result, I'm back to driving 80 miles round trip a day. The funny thing is, the job I took the provisional appointment in had absolutely nothing to do with anything that was on the civil service exam that was needed to secure it. Such things is why I would love to see the Civil Service system blown up someday...with it's totally unrelated exams, awarding scoring points for various unrelated things (gender, race, military service, etc.) and scoring curves, it's all just grossly unfair.

[Rock Chalk]

Glad to see some American's still working to be engineer's. One less job we have to import.

[Uncle Bill]

I took the PE exam today, Civil transportation, and man am I fried! But not the right kind of fried for 4-20!! Hah Hah!! Wouldn't have been so bad if I didn' t have to drive another 3 hrs to get home after the exam, but hey that's the price I pay to live and work in Wyoming.

Anyway, my feelings right now are an even 50-50 on the pass/fail aspect. It all depends on whether I'm listening to my angel or my devil.

I'm just curious if anyone else on the Orangemane knows what I'm talking about and could commiserate or share their experience.

The worst part of the whole process? Waiting 3 ****ing months to get the results! :gus:

I've taken and passed the PE and SE exams, and I understand what you're going through--they are some pretty intense tests. Good Luck...

[Moon§hiner]

Having worked in construction most of my life, I and many others in my field have always felt that engineers and architects should have to work for 2 years in out on the job before they get a degree, just so they really have an idea if the crap they draw up on paper is really feasable....heh

[LonghornBronco]

Let me know how it goes. I'll be taking it in Oct. By the way do you have any recomendations for study materials?

[ton80]

Having worked in construction most of my life, I and many others in my field have always felt that engineers and architects should have to work for 2 years in out on the job before they get a degree, just so they really have an idea if the crap they draw up on paper is really feasable....heh

I would agree with you in part and so would most civil engineers. Many engineers including myself never worked a day of construction in their lives. Its taken me many years to become a decent designer just becasue I've never built anything in my life. My boss calls engineers right out of college "know nothing engineers" for a reason. As a rule though, engineers can be trained on how to build things a shouldn't necessarily be required to work construction before becoming an engineer. Some people have physical limitations and could not tolerate the physical labor associated with construction. But civil engineers with construction experience are better designers than civil engineers that just go to college and collect a degree. Where I work, engineers right of of college end up as inspectors on job sites to learn about how jobs are constructed.

[Bronco_Beerslug]

Having worked in construction most of my life, I and many others in my field have always felt that engineers and architects should have to work for 2 years in out on the job before they get a degree, just so they really have an idea if the crap they draw up on paper is really feasable....heh
Having worked industrial construction my most of my entire life I know exactly where you're coming from. :)

I've been handed drawings on more than one job where you just file them. Have worked with some engineers right out of school who where pretty sharp though. B&W, Foster Wheeler, AB&B and few others use to pride themselves on not having any in the company with more than a few years of actual job experience.

I took the PE exam today, Civil transportation, and man am I fried! But not the right kind of fried for 4-20!! Hah Hah!! Wouldn't have been so bad if I didn' t have to drive another 3 hrs to get home after the exam, but hey that's the price I pay to live and work in Wyoming.So when do you find out?

Ah, I see it now, 3 months.

[GoHAM]

Having worked in construction most of my life, I and many others in my field have always felt that engineers and architects should have to work for 2 years in out on the job before they get a degree, just so they really have an idea if the crap they draw up on paper is really feasable....heh

I totally agree with you. I work as project engineer for WYDOT and my primary duties are construction inspection and acceptance. Let me tell you I have seen some really stupid designs come out of consultants and designers. I have great respect for those people in the construction industry. Some of the foremen I work with on a day to day basis who have been in the industry for 20 -30 years really know their stuff and could probably come up witha better design for many things than the engineers who have never gotten their boots dirty.

[GoHAM]

I would agree with you in part and so would most civil engineers. Many engineers including myself never worked a day of construction in their lives. Its taken me many years to become a decent designer just becasue I've never built anything in my life. My boss calls engineers right out of college "know nothing engineers" for a reason. As a rule though, engineers can be trained on how to build things a shouldn't necessarily be required to work construction before becoming an engineer. Some people have physical limitations and could not tolerate the physical labor associated with construction. But civil engineers with construction experience are better designers than civil engineers that just go to college and collect a degree. Where I work, engineers right of of college end up as inspectors on job sites to learn about how jobs are constructed.

Constructibility should be one of the primary goals of any design. Seeing designs get fleshed out in the real world is invaluable when designing in the office.

[drail 24 48]

Yeah im a computer engineering. Going for my masters in cmop eng right now. its def hard

[GoHAM]

Let me know how it goes. I'll be taking it in Oct. By the way do you have any recomendations for study materials?

I mainly used the "Civil Engineering Reference Manual for the PE Exam" by Michael R. Lindeburg, PE. It has most everything you need for the morning session. I also took along all of my introductory college texts for each discipline. Environmental, Hydraulics, Transportation, Structures, and Geotech. Then for the afternoon session make sure you bring along the most recent design standards and specs for your discipline. For example I took the Transportation discipline and brought with me the AASHTO "Green Book" 2004, Roadside Design Manual, MUTCD and the Highway Capacity Manual 2000 and I had to use each of them for at least one or two questions out on pure lookup questions.

Also taking some type of specific review course for the PE is a really great idea as it will re-expose you to many inane problem types that you haven't seen in four or five years.

[Moon§hiner]

I've been handed drawings on more than one job where you just file them. Have worked with some engineers right out of school who where pretty sharp though.

I've dealt with some book smart cubs out of college that were made asst. supervisors on construction sites as their internship. I got one guys boss fired for incompetance and he was promoted to manager and then he got his real education in the construction field. (Rule number one to survive in construction- EVERYONE has a boss, all the way down to the investor) The real world out there is a lot different when you have to look at budget, interest rates and what they expect for a finished product.

[Los Broncos]

Im going to be taking my A+ hardware exam soon. The software is the harder one, gl to all that take any test.

[ton80]

I mainly used the "Civil Engineering Reference Manual for the PE Exam" by Michael R. Lindeburg, PE. It has most everything you need for the morning session. I also took along all of my introductory college texts for each discipline. Environmental, Hydraulics, Transportation, Structures, and Geotech. Then for the afternoon session make sure you bring along the most recent design standards and specs for your discipline. For example I took the Transportation discipline and brought with me the AASHTO "Green Book" 2004, Roadside Design Manual, MUTCD and the Highway Capacity Manual 2000 and I had to use each of them for at least one or two questions out on pure lookup questions.

Also taking some type of specific review course for the PE is a really great idea as it will re-expose you to many inane problem types that you haven't seen in four or five years.

Take as many references as you're allowed and can find. You can answer some real easy questions if you brought the right book to the exam.

[Atwater His Ass]

I'll be taking my electrical engineering PE exam next year.

[Donk]

I am from the old redneck school of construction.
Injun-ears drove trains and wore red bandanas and left building to those who knew how.

(PWI)

[ton80]

There's little love for the design world in this thread.

[GoHAM]

It's a big relief to not have to worry about the PE exam anymore! It is such a good feeling to accomplish a real milestone in your career.

Plus it always rocks when you get excellent news earlier than expected!!

[Billy Clyde Puckett]

Congrats.

I'm not an engineer, but I have a couple of certifications and I am happy as hell that I am far enough into my career, that I doubt I ever have to take another exam like that.

[TailgateNut]

My degree is in Aeronautical engineering but after I left military aviation I ended up doing industrial, chemical and commercial construction management. 24 years of that and I can tell you I have run into some dinghy PE's who were placed on my projects by the design firms as their field reps.. I should charge the design firms for the "internships" and for the "aggravation" of dealing with these assclowns. They arrive with a know-it-all-attitude, but realize after they meet yours truly (the old grouch) that they don't know JACK! The do however know how to read..:rofl:
So I tend to aggree with the on site/ field experience comment. Just like doctors, they should be required to serve some field time (internship) before being allowed to access AutoCad and the typical "cut and paste" design which is so often used by design firms.
Don't get me wrong. There are a quite a few great Engineers and design consultants I deal with, but those have "been around the block a few times. The young ones tend to piss me off!

[TailgateNut]

There's little love for the design world in this thread.

You're looking for love in all the wrong places!LOL

Design, constructability and function are like three different continents separated by vast oceans of reality!

[drail 24 48]

Congrats man, i know how tough engineering can be! Keep up the great accomplishments :)

[Garcia Bronco]

EDIT* Results came in early and I Passed!!!

I took the PE exam today, Civil transportation, and man am I fried! But not the right kind of fried for 4-20!! Hah Hah!! Wouldn't have been so bad if I didn' t have to drive another 3 hrs to get home after the exam, but hey that's the price I pay to live and work in Wyoming.

Anyway, my feelings right now are an even 50-50 on the pass/fail aspect. It all depends on whether I'm listening to my angel or my devil.

I'm just curious if anyone else on the Orangemane knows what I'm talking about and could commiserate or share their experience.

The worst part of the whole process? Waiting 3 ****ing months to get the results! :gus:



NICE..the PE is difficult and a big deal...props

[GoHAM]

Thank you all for the congrats, I really do appreciate your comments and well wishes. I am well into my celebratory cups at the moment and I would have to say I am more relieved than I am happy to have passed on my first attempt!!