Can I use work experience if i was fired from my engineer job?

[danielson9609]

I graduated in 2005 as an Mechanical engineer and took jobs as manufacturing engineer. During the second company I worked for, I was given an engineering project to deliver on time but it was late. In addition I didn't get along with my boss, many people were fearing to loose their job, and management was using any small mistake to get rid of the me. So my boss found the late project delivery and other small reasons to fire me. A year after this incident the company was taken over by another company and I'm not sure if he is even working there.

After working there and enduring the economical recession, I've been working for other companies for shorter amounts of time (1 to 2 years time). In some other companies, I've gotten laid off or my contract was up...so my experience is not with 1 or 2 but several employers. None of my previous bosses were PE's. (My ex-supervisor who fired me did not even have an engineering degree).

In NC employers can fire an employee with little or no warnings.

I'm reluctant to send the work experience questionnaire to this employer but I may have to if I want to apply for the PE exam.

What are my chances of getting this employer to get me a job recommendation/experience validated to seat for the PE exam?

What else can I do if I wan to have a chance to seat for the PE exam?

 

[Ship Wreck PE]

It will be tough, but it can be done. Most of the time, the board will require your work experience to be under a PE. Just be real nice to them if they send you a dear John letter. You might have to change jobs to get experience under a PE. Don't forget to be nice.

 

[danielson9609]

Alternatively, could I use employers who I've worked for after and before? (The only issue is that I've worked for them short periods of time under contracts).

 

[Dexman PE PMP]

Depending on the state, working under a PE is only preferred and isn't necessarily a requirement.

I can tell you that the CO application requires you to list ALL jobs held after graduation of high school (yes, high school). The purpose of this is to show your entire work history and that you have been working in a "progressive engineering" role (ie, your work experience and roles have gradually grown and that you haven't been simply a CAD monkey or only doing takeoffs). If you want to count that work experience towards the state PE requirement, it must be signed off by your supervisor. If you can't get in contact with said supervisor, or he refuses to endorse your experience, you're SOL unless you can find a different supervisor to sign off on that same experience.

The state typically doesn't care how your employment ended, unless it was due to something like a gross negligence case. People quit, get laid off, fired, transferred, etc all the time.

 

[solomonb]

Perhaps I misunderstand, however, my impression was that if you could not get a specific supervisor to sign, for a host of reasons, you will need a PE to attest that the work that is described in the SER is indeed real engineering work. So, if a PE is willing to attest that the work done during the specific timeframe was indeed real engineering work and the PE has some knowledge of the industry/business in which the candidate is claiming credit for the work, he/she does not require his/her immediate supervisor, but just a PE who will attest that the work is real engineering. Is my understanding/thinking flawed here?

 

[Road Guy]

It's a little different for each state for example in Georgia you just have to have three licensed engineers and a total of five references.

You don't have to have an actual licensed engineer to cover every specific work experience for example I work for a small firm when I got out of school for about eight months I couldn't find that boss if I try so what I did was I sent a letter to the firms headquarters for employment verification of those times and included it with my experience.

Of course it may vary a little state to state.

But even if you got laid off or fired you still worked there and it still there duty to help verify your employment so you can seek your license they should be professional about it and so should you