Shorting myself in EIT experience?

[blaxabbath]

I work for a heavy-civil construction company and at my office there is only one PE. He is a technically a geotech guy (works for our aggregate plants) but has experience on the construction side of the house. Most of our 'engineers' are construction management grads or civils who never pursued even an EIT because the company claimed to see no value in it.

I have made it clear with my boss that I am going to be pursuing my PE. So far, they seem supportive of it and understand the need to have PE's on staff if you want to be more competitive on large design/build projects (my area of interest). He has agreed to let me work under the supervision of the PE we have -- which basically means, I still work on my projects for my non-PE Project Manager -- who is an excellent mentor as far as project management goes, but still not a PE -- but I do keep in touch with the PE regarding what I am doing and asking for his guidance. Additionally, they are looking to get me in touch with another PE in the company who works in construction operations to sort of be an out-of-state mentor for me (I tried to explain that I already had access to EB ).

My question is, what kind of interaction and guidance did you get from your PE? I am still doing some continuing technical education (looking at a masters program or certificate options now) but I am obviously not having the same experience as my classmates who went on to design firms and fiddle with CAD all day. Apart from the all the job market concerns right now (I'm looking hard for an opportunity in Seattle that would allow me to work under a PE up there), I enjoy my job as a Project Engineer. The pay is good, I do a lot of project management, and each day offers new challenges. As a young engineer, I feel like I am learning a lot of important things (such as project management) faster than my classmates that had gone to firms who are still spending all their time doing monotonous work. However, I don't want to miss out on the important lessons that EIT's are to learn. I never run real engineering calculations. I review numbers and constructability concerns. I work on proposals and run the financials for my project.

I'd hate to get my PE just to find out that I don't know enough of the 'right stuff' to back it up.

 

[Riceman]

I'm an EIT at a structural consulting firm. The principal and associates don't run any calcs, they don't even detail drawings, and they make the bigger bucks. You're ahead of the learning curve, and most of the "design" in my firm is done by softwares and spread sheets, the only hand calc I do is to determnie loads.

 

[txtech]

I work for a heavy-civil construction company and at my office there is only one PE. He is a technically a geotech guy (works for our aggregate plants) but has experience on the construction side of the house. Most of our 'engineers' are construction management grads or civils who never pursued even an EIT because the company claimed to see no value in it.
I have made it clear with my boss that I am going to be pursuing my PE. So far, they seem supportive of it and understand the need to have PE's on staff if you want to be more competitive on large design/build projects (my area of interest). He has agreed to let me work under the supervision of the PE we have -- which basically means, I still work on my projects for my non-PE Project Manager -- who is an excellent mentor as far as project management goes, but still not a PE -- but I do keep in touch with the PE regarding what I am doing and asking for his guidance. Additionally, they are looking to get me in touch with another PE in the company who works in construction operations to sort of be an out-of-state mentor for me (I tried to explain that I already had access to EB ).

My question is, what kind of interaction and guidance did you get from your PE? I am still doing some continuing technical education (looking at a masters program or certificate options now) but I am obviously not having the same experience as my classmates who went on to design firms and fiddle with CAD all day. Apart from the all the job market concerns right now (I'm looking hard for an opportunity in Seattle that would allow me to work under a PE up there), I enjoy my job as a Project Engineer. The pay is good, I do a lot of project management, and each day offers new challenges. As a young engineer, I feel like I am learning a lot of important things (such as project management) faster than my classmates that had gone to firms who are still spending all their time doing monotonous work. However, I don't want to miss out on the important lessons that EIT's are to learn. I never run real engineering calculations. I review numbers and constructability concerns. I work on proposals and run the financials for my project.

I'd hate to get my PE just to find out that I don't know enough of the 'right stuff' to back it up.

I am in the same boat as your are. I work for a construction company as a "Project Engineer" doing the same things you've listed. I want to get a Structural PE but am worried that my experiences won't count and that I will have to go for the Construction PE instead. Anyone have advice for us? Thanks

 

[Andrew Siegrist]

blaxabbath, this is essentially what I stated in this thread Engineering experience in construction. I am also curious as to what you end up doing or have done. Nice to see I'm not the only one is this position.