Civil Transportation wanting to take SE exam in Iowa

As the topic indicates, I'm a civil transpo PE in Iowa and I want to take the SE exam. I just took the PE exam in April do this year and passed the first time. Woo hoo! My experience is doing project management and strucural design for a design/build firm for 5 years. Much of this work was steel design and foundation engineering, I have also worked for a civil consultant doing environmental work and transportation engineering. I'm now with a design/build firm that engineers new structures and remodels mainly in the food processing industry. Much of this work is either steel or precast structures. As is the case in many industries, the clients always think it's so easy to add another load here or there or move a precast wall here or there or remove a column here or there, etc... I think I'm going to pursue the SE for a couple reasons. 1.) is to benefit the firm. I'm one of two PE's in the firm and in a couple years I may be the only one. 2.) is because I actually enjoy studying and love the challenge. What do you guys think about a civil transpo PE pursuing SE licensure? I appreciate your comments.

If you think you can make it, go for it. The SE is a real feather in your cap and will help you down the road. However, I will caution you that the SE exam is quite difficult if it's not your main area of expertise and to not take it lightly. Many on this board and elsewhere had to attempt it multiple times before passing. I recently passed it on the first try, but, I also have been doing nothing but structures since graduating 6 years ago and I have dealt with all types of structures in many different locations.

The reason I'm saying this is that the breadth of topics is enormous and my experience really helped. I have done small wood structures/additions on a house in Georgia (pretty vanilla), to a steel framed hotel in Buffalo (enormous snow loads) to a concrete building in Charleston, SC (very high seismic region) and even dealt with expansive soils in TX, and non-standard structures (art installations). You will see all of this and more on the SE due to it including bridges and other sort of obscure code references. It will also test your ability to think on your feet and produce an acceptable solution that may not be found as a direct equation in the code. That really shows up in the afternoon essay type response portion.

I don't mean to scare you or come off as bragging so please don't take it that way. Just keep in mind it's a difficult test for people practicing structural not to mention those that aren't, and that's twice as long as the others and has 3 times the reference material and you will use most of it if not all. It's also not a test you want to keep taking as that gets expensive quick.

I apologize for the typos. Fat fingers and iPad... Phecke, I appreciate your help. First of all, I'm not making light of the difficulty of the exam and I know it's serious business. I have always pushed myself and I'm willing to put the time in. Quite honestly, when I was in college, I never thought I had what it takes to pass the PE exam, but I did. I have many of the recommended references already, of which many I'm familiar with. I appreciate your help and welcome any further comments. Thank you.

What phecke said.

However, I say go for it, even if you don't pass or you give up you'll learn A LOT in the process. I've got 6 years into a firm that does work very similar to phecke's firm, where I've done a little bit of every kind of structure except high-seismic. Even with that background I did not pass on my first try. Consequently, I've put a lot into studying and feel I've learned just as much in the past year studying as I did for my entire 4 years in college. It will definitely make you a better engineer and is certainly a good feather in your cap.

So, I'd pick up the structural engineering reference manual (SERM) and pick up a SE practice exam or better yet the SE practice problems by PPI (same guys who publish the SERM). That should give you a good feel for what's on the exam. Plan on at least 150 hours of studying per exam day you plan to take. If you can only find time for 150 hours in a four month period then plan on this being a long and drawn out task of doing one day at a time. It's better to do both days at once though so if at all possible get those 300 hours of studying in. This will effectively ruin any social life for a 6 month period but it will be worth it.