Disciplines - PE in Maryland

[raulmartinv]

Hi everybody! My name is Raul, alumn from WVU Tech, class of 2014. Currently working for an offshore wind contractor - based in Europe - I got approval from the Board of Engineers of Maryland to take the PE test. 

Due to the nature of the market that I work on, it is unclear which discipline should I pick: in one hand, Civil (Construction) seems relevant - and potentially, where my main knowledge falls upon - but disciplines like Civil (Geotechnical) - a lot of soil analysis for the offshore foundations - Civil (Water Resources), or even Naval Architecture and Marine are relevant as well. 

I have been reading online that some states have a "general license", regardless of the discipline in which you take the test. In other words, as long as you pass the test, they will grant you a PE License and it is your sole decission to analyze if your stamp goes into something that is within your expertise boundaries. Do you know if this is the case for the State of Maryland? Otherwise, how would you advice? I see that my market touches base in several engineering disciplines, and to draw a boundary line between them is very difficult. 

Many thanks everybody for your comments and help!

 

[RBHeadge PE]

I have been reading online that some states have a "general license", regardless of the discipline in which you take the test. In other words, as long as you pass the test, they will grant you a PE License and it is your sole decission to analyze if your stamp goes into something that is within your expertise boundaries. Do you know if this is the case for the State of Maryland?

Maryland does not license by discipline. They don't use the term "general license", but it is as you describe above.

 

[Will.I.Am PE]

Due to the nature of the market that I work on, it is unclear which discipline should I pick: in one hand, Civil (Construction) seems relevant - and potentially, where my main knowledge falls upon - but disciplines like Civil (Geotechnical) - a lot of soil analysis for the offshore foundations - Civil (Water Resources), or even Naval Architecture and Marine are relevant as well. 

What do you do for this offshore contractor? That might help inform those who would offer advice.

Regardless, the first thing I'd recommend is going through the exam specifications for the exam disciplines that you're considering. I took the Civil: Geotechnical exam, and referenced that specification a ton as I started studying. The page with the Civil specifications is linked, below:

https://ncees.org/engineering/pe/civil/

Particularly for the Civil: Construction exam, take a look at the codes and how familiar you are with each of them. If you're familiar with those (or feel like you could get familiar with them), the Construction exam could be the way to go. If not, I'd probably go another route, like Civil: Water Resources, which has no codes.

It sounds like your experience probably won't fit nicely into any of the exam disciplines. If that's the case, it'll probably be an uphill battle, but I've seen it done.

 

[raulmartinv]

Many thanks for the replies to both of you. Very useful. 

What do you do for this offshore contractor? That might help inform those who would offer advice.

We analyze a bunch of things, specially during the tender phase. In particular:

• the behaviour of the foundations (monopile or jacket) into the soil profile --> Civil Geotechnical
  
• installation challenges (lift-off of structures up to 2000 tons) --> Civil Structural
  
• behaviour of the installation vessel --> Naval Architecture and Marine
  
• potential improvements into the vessel crane, upending bucket, etc etc --> Industrial Machine Design
  
• Ballasting operations --> Civil Water Resources
  

Hence, there is a very thin line between disciplines. Anyhow, I will get a look at the specifications for each exam and decide on which one do I think that I know the most of.