construciton PE Experience Description Help

I took the Civil-Construction PE exam early and passed last October. I am able to obtain my PE license in June once I have my 4 years of experience. How have others described their experience when it is all field engineering experience. I do a good bit with project controls, scheduling, system walk-downs, and project budgets. I work for an industrial construction company that does not do much engineering at all. Most of my experience is in the field. I am having a hard time writing my experience and any help would be appreciated. Does anyone know how often applications are denied?

Hi. Not sure how much help this is.... but I was a Construction Inspector for 5.5 years when I took the exam in April in CT. 

I was just honest in my application and described the more technical operations I was responsible for. I was approved no problem. I'm pretty sure they created this discipline of the exam for people like us. If there was no construction exam, there would be few PEs in construction, which I don't think the industry is after.  

The CT application was online and they limited the experience text box to maybe 500 characters per position held, so there wasn't too much opportunity for details. 

Good luck. 

Where are you from? If I'm not mistaken,  most if not all states resquire some design specific experience working directly under a PE. Do you have any internships you can include? Also make sure you read the application instructions to see what they are looking for in the experience area. For example, in NJ they want to see growth in your experience.  If someone is just a CAD drafter for 5 years they probably won't be approved.  But if you can show that you went from CAD, to working on the actual design, to leading actual projects you'll have better chance of being approved. If you have experience where you didn't work under a PE,still include this, but make sure you still have enough qualifying experience.  I spent 5 years doing project management on major renovations, additions and new home construction.  There was no PE, so I could not count this towards my 4 years of required experience.  However I still included it to show that I had this project management experience and working with clients and municipal inspectors. I also got the company owner to be 1 of my references as a way to try to add even more weight to this experience.  

This is from another post on this subforum and should help (Credit to NYCProjectEngineer PE PMP for his write up below): 

Here is a list of action verbs you can use in your record to get you started:

•      Designed

•      Analyzed

•      Specified

•      Programmed

•      Planned

•      Evaluated

•      Problem Solved

•      Produced

•      Created

•      Implemented

Example: “I designed Scopes of Work for various change orders on the Project including re-design of pile layouts for building foundation, design of concrete expansion joint detail, etc.”

Some other design examples, notice how specific the examples are:

•      Performed troubleshooting on air handling unit during commissioning.

•      Calculated construction loads for scaffolding to be used for concrete placement.

•      Calculated the loading on new concrete foundations to verify it was acceptable to backfill and place construction equipment on top of the foundations.

•      Specified foundation detail requirements

•      Designed storm water drainage plans

•      Designed formwork for concrete.

•      Calculated equipment fleet productivity rates and scheduled project to optimize equipment and manpower resources.

•      Designed temporary excavations support systems.

•      Designed construction haul roads.

•      Design of rigging systems.

•      Design of crane safety and operation plans.

•      Design of storage and lay-down facilities.

•      Design and inspection of site drainage and sedimentation controls.

Other engineering duties can include:

•      Inspection of construction to verify conformance with design documents.

•      Perform value engineering analyses

•      Perform constructability reviews; provide design input based on reviews to the engineer of record.

•      Perform materials testing (concrete, steel, soils) and generate reports of results for use during construction (i.e., took soil samples and performed standard proctor).

•      Design and optimization of construction project schedule

•      Review shop drawings and submittals

•      Review and answer Requests for Information (RFIs)

•      Generate engineering cost estimates

•      Perform engineering economic analyses of construction plant and generate findings (i.e., buy or lease analysis, amortization schedule, maintenance costs over life of equipment, etc).

•      Performed safety inspections to verify compliance with OSHA requirements.

•      Generated (or reviewed) safety plans to ensure engineering controls were properly implemented (i.e., shoring for excavation, steel erection plans, critical lift plans, rigging, noise/light control plans, etc).

The key is to say what YOU did on the project. Do not say you “managed” other people doing the work; you have to have actually done the work to get credit for it. You need to properly and completely explain your design experience which, depending on your state, is required in conjunction with your general engineering experience.

This is from the State of Tennessee Board:

What constitutes progressive engineering experience?

The Special Committee on Experience Evaluation of the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying (NCEES) has developed the following guidelines for the work areas and skills an engineer intern must develop to obtain progressive engineering experience. Board members utilize these guidelines when evaluating exam applications, with greater weight being given to the Practical Application of Theory component.

PRACTICAL APPLICATION OF THEORY

ANALYSIS--of operating conditions; performance assessment; feasibility studies; constructability; value engineering; safety; environmental issues; economic issues; risk assessment; reliability.

DESIGN--construction plan or specification preparation; product specifications; component selection; maintenance and social implications of final product.

TESTING--developing or specifying testing procedures; verifying functional specifications; implementing quality control and assurance; maintenance and replacement evaluation.

IMPLEMENTATION--of engineering principles in design, construction, or research; performance of engineering cost studies; process flow and time studies; implementation of quality control and assurance; safety issues; environmental issues.

SYSTEMS APPLICATION--evaluation of components of a larger system; evaluation of the reliability of system parts; design and evaluation of equipment control systems while considering ergonomics, utility, manufacturing tolerances, and operating and maintenance concerns; the engineering required to establish programs and procedures for the maintenance and management of buildings, bridges, and other types of structures where failure or improper operation would endanger the public health and safety.

TIME IN THE ENGINEERING PROCESS--difficulties of workflow; scheduling; equipment life; corrosion rates and replacement scheduling.

KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING--codes, standards, regulations, and laws that govern applicable engineering activities.

MANAGEMENT OF ENGINEERING

Engineering management includes supervising staff, managing engineering projects, and managing and administering technology as it is applied in the field or in construction. It may involve:

PLANNING--developing concepts; evaluating alternative methods.

SCHEDULING--preparing task breakdowns and schedules.

BUDGETING AND CONTRACTING--cost estimating and control; contract development.

SUPERVISING--organizing human resources; motivating teams; directing and coordinating project resources.

PROJECT CONTROL--complete or partial project control.

RISK ASSESSMENT--assessment of risk associated with the progression of the project.

COMMUNICATION SKILLS

Accumulation of project knowledge through interpersonal communication with supervisors, clients, subordinates, or team interaction.

Transmission of project knowledge in verbal or written methods to clients, supervisors, subordinates, the general public, or team members. Examples would be via meetings, written reports, public hearings and reporting or findings and suggestions, other written correspondence and/or verbal briefings.

SOCIAL IMPLICATIONS OF ENGINEERING

Promoting and safeguarding the health, safety, and welfare of the public as demonstrated in daily work activities.

Demonstrating an awareness of the consequences the work performed may incur and a desire to mitigate or eliminate any potential negative impact.

Following a code of ethics that promotes a high degree of integrity in the practice of professional engineering.

I had to clarify my experience and followed this as an outline and it was accepted.  MY NCCES record also follow this format and was eventually accepted, although they made me redo it a number of times.

youngmotivatedengineer said:

If I'm not mistaken,  most if not all states resquire some design specific experience working directly under a PE

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YME,

This can be a rather loose term.  In addition to your direct supervisor, a co-worker who peer reviews or checks your work, a "consultant" (internal or external) who may work for you but who you check their work and host constructibility reviews, or a Project Manager whose team you are assigned too can all sign off on your work.  I have worked in multiple matrix organization and the "direct supervision" term can get convoluted and be confusing.      

If you look at the examples above, "Design" experience can be a rather loose term also.

BTW, Happy belated Birthday.

I hit a road-block with A Board that would not accept my construction experience even though it was responsible in-charge oversight and implementation of engineering projects.

Luckily i had a position in my career that required design work so that counted. Some Boards can be picky about experience.

WE WERE THE MULVANEYS said:

I hit a road-block with A Board that would not accept my construction experience even though it was responsible in-charge oversight and implementation of engineering projects.

Luckily i had a position in my career that required design work so that counted. Some Boards can be picky about experience.

Click to expand...

Considering the fact that a PE is allowed to sign off on engineering design documents, it makes sense to require actual design experience in order to become a PE.

youngmotivatedengineer said:

Considering the fact that a PE is allowed to sign off on engineering design documents, it makes sense to require actual design experience in order to become a PE.

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In Wyoming, they have a PhD exception. I *think* you can get the PE via a PhD instead of industry experience. Something like that.

squaretaper said:

In Wyoming, they have a PhD exception. I *think* you can get the PE via a PhD instead of industry experience. Something like that.

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That would make sense considering that you are pretty much doing design work in order to prove/disapprove something. Some states also allow you to use a Masters degree as 1 year towards your experience. 

WE WERE THE MULVANEYS said:

I hit a road-block with A Board that would not accept my construction experience even though it was responsible in-charge oversight and implementation of engineering projects.

Luckily i had a position in my career that required design work so that counted. Some Boards can be picky about experience.

Click to expand...

I was in same boat as you after spending 5 years doing project management for a home residential/renovation company. However I still used it on my application and while it wouldn't count towards engineering experience,  I used the owner of the company as one of my personal references  ( in NJ only 3 out of 5 need to be PE) to try to add some weight to that experience since I was not able to get one of my previous managers to do a reference letter.