http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/Engineer-Status/Sign! Get everyone in your office to sign, too. Everyone should sign, dammit! Everyone in the world! It's a long time since anyone mistook me for a car mechanic, but that's probably just because I look too sickly.
 | Professional status, hmmm.
I was always under the impression that professional status meant that the occupation was self-regulating (e.g. the Law Society is made up of lawyers). Are engineers self-regulating? |
 | Just out of interest, are you chartered? I'm not, and the IET (formally IEE) made the rules about chartership more demanding a wee while back - boo! |
 | The Royal Society of Chemistry can confer the status of Chartered Chemist upon its members. The problem is that there's no real market from employers for it - you tend to go on qualifications or experience rather than a somewhat artificial professional status. The RSC is desperate to make it mean something in the same was as Chartered Accountant, but I don't know how they can do it.
I wonder if it's the same for engineers, but made complicated by the wide variety of engineering disciplines.
Hazel CChem MRSC |
 | I'm not British, but good luck. |
 | What's next, a tax on professions? Hmmm. |
 | This is in effect in certain places in the U.S. Back in the day I took a job as a "Field Service Engineer" but we subsequently had to change our titles to "Field Service Technician" for this very reason. In my opinion the Engineer/Technician tag didn't make anyone smarter (or dumber, for that matter). I'd be inclinded to go on qualifications and experience. |
 | Originally an engineer was someone who tended an engine. I'd suggest you come up with a name that means what it says. Elitist nonsense. |
 | At one point, I was considering describing myself as "Data Engineer", since that described what I did best of all, but that looked too much like what I was adept at was cooking the books. |
 | donethat wrote on Jan 17, edited on Jan 17 I think the engineers in this country have a rather elitist view of themselfves. As students they are in the most difficult majors around the country, (except for quantum physics perhaps) they were in demand until a couple years ago. But certification exams are highly recommended for the high paying jobs. My son did not take the exam but he defines his skills as engineering on his resume. He got lots of work in 3-D Art related to mech eng. and if I may brag a bit, he's pretty darned good at what he does. |
 | If it's the EIT you're referring to, He should've taken the exam. It wasn't _that_ bad. My school recommended that everyone take it and we had 2 weeks of formal review and prep sessions for it. However, I've found none that have asked me whether I'd actually completed it.
We are elitist a bit because we are internalist, comparitive, and competitive. We like to know things, and know that we know things. We also tend to underplay the importance of social skills.
I find that even if you are an engineer's engineer, that the term is pretty flexible anyway. My automotive engineering job mostly revolves around meetings, issues, design and test oversight, and project management. I do everything from organizing vehicle builds to strategizing on how to save money on parts design to chasing financial account numbers around these days.
I'd consider the designers / CAD jockey's etc. more closely related to what I thought engineering would be like. We have design engineers, test engineers, validation engineers, software engineers, calibration engineers, noise/vibration/harshness engineers, manufacturing engineers, packaging engineers, chemical engineers, etc. and that's all under the automotive biz market.
Engineers are still somewhat in demand, but the fields are so grotesquely specialized that transfer becomes more difficult. |
| anyone out there know what goes on with architectural engineers? my no. 3 son is leaning in the direction of architecture. I'm afraid there are mostly out- of-work architects, or HVAC seems to be the only area of need. |
 | Engineers and doctors are the most prized professionals in India. If you're an engineer or a doctor, then you get huge dowry. Some prefer engineers to doctors. Don't know why. |
| If you pick the right religion you can even have a handful of wives. |
| halfsure wrote on Jan 18, edited on Jan 18 Everywhere you go in the world, from Africa to the United States, including all countries and continents between, your doctor will be from India. Don't know why. |
| donethat wrote on Jan 18, edited on Jan 18 Except in the military medical system. I have mostly American men. In the hospital I had women from Haiti, an intern and nurses checking up on me.
thanks for that halfsure sounds incredibly boring... |
| NP. Be advised that everywhere, lawyers are having fun. |
| Indian doctors are a product of their good education system. |
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Matt's Site
Just out of interest, are you chartered? 