This is from another post , but provides great advice:
Getting Approved to Sit for the PE Exam (Civil-Construction):
If you are reading this thread you likely have been approved by your State Board to site for the PE exam. If not then you can read a few tips I have for making sure your experience is approved and you can site for the exam. This applies for Civil-Construction.
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.
If you do not do any of the work activities I mention (or similar type), then you likely are not qualified to sit for the PE exam. I also do not recommend you take the PE exam if you do not have the right experience; the exam is designed for engineers who do this kind of work on a regular basis. Also, if you do not have the proper experience and somehow are permitted to sit for the exam (and pass), the P.E. after your name will mean very little if you do not know what is going on around the construction site or with the design. You will end up becoming one of the people which the real construction engineers make fun of behind their back. Sorry to be so blunt but this is just the way it is and anybody who has spent time on a construction site knows this is true.