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Ask Slashdot: Is Professional Engineering Certification Necessary?
resilient asks: "I have one year before I graduate with a degree in Electrical Engineering. I have the opportunity to take a preperation class for the first test in order to get my Professional Engineering Certificate (P.E.). My question is to all the experienced Electrical Engineers or Computer Engineers: Do I need a P.E. to succeed in today's industry? Will it be a limiting factor? In what situations would you reccomend taking it? I am open for any advice you may have." Another certification issue, but when it comes to engineering, I think the certifications become VERY important. What do you all say?
When I was still in school a few years ago I had this same idea presented to me in a senior design project meeting/lecture. If you're getting your EE/CE/CSE I really wouldn't worry to much about the certification. I suppose it won't hurt, but in the end, it's just one more piece of paper that only proves that you know how to take a test. I've only been in the real world for 3 1/2 years now and each company that I've interviewed with, they've been looking for the following:
1) experience (that includes what you did for projects in school)
2) knowledge (most interviews will have one interviewer ask you technical questions, at least that's been my experience)
3) and the final (and sometimes most important issue) is how well everyone on the team thinks you will fit in with the group. If your personality doesn't fit with everyone else's it may lead to clashes. Now, that isn't the overriding factor but I've seen it taken with a fair amount of weight when all of the interviewers talk after the interview process.
In the end, if you want to get the certification then take the test. It can't hurt but I don't know if right now in this economy it will matter all that much.
Just my $0.02.
A friend of mine got his undergraduate degree from MIT in electrical engineering. He later innocently took out a consulting ad in a business directory. Turns out, that to advertise as an engineer in California, the professional certification is required.
He spent a year cramming for the test and got his certification, but he said it would have been a lot easier just after he graduated (15 years earlier.) So if you have any thought of being in business for yourself, I'd have to recommend taking the test now.
Many of the comments I have read indicate that some people are confusing a Professional Engineering license with some other sort of "professional" certification like a MSCE or CNE. The two are very different sorts of animal. Once you fulfill the requirements to become a professional engineer and actually get the license, your state (assuming you're in the USA) recognizes that you are an engineer and you are allowed to do a number of things that non-engineers aren't allowed to do. The PE exam is for engineers very much like the bar exam is for lawyers
So, should you become a professional engineer? Maybe. You should take the EIT (engineer in training) exam while you can still remember all your courses---especially the ones in the fields that aren't your speciality. It doesn't really cost you anything and can make your life easier down the road.
Once you get the practical experience (you need to have worked under for a PE for a while in order to be eligible to take the PE exam) then you can consider whether or not it would be worthwhile for you to take the PE exam. It might be worthwhile for an electrical engineer to become a PE if he wanted to become a consulting engineer and especially if he wanted to design equipment that was to be itself certified by some agency like UL.