P.E. versus Masters Degree

[willsee]

^Engineering licensure is going the same way with the B+30 thing.

I'm sorry, could you elaborate on what a B+30 is. My guess is that it is a Bachelors + 30 Credit Hours to a Graduate Degree. Correct?

Yes

I have both and I feel my PE is more valued in MEP Consulting. Just depends where you work as I have friends that work in design and testing where the PE would be worthless and the Master is more valued.

 

[Jaylaw_PE]

i don't think i planned my course out that well in advance, but i think i lucked into doing it "the right way"

which was...

1) undergrad

2) work for 5 years

3) continue working full time but do part time grad school

4) get PE at same time as Masters

5) get new job double salary

I maybe should have gotten the PE a bit sooner (was 8 years out of undergrad) but otherwise this progression worked well.

It's true that having the masters too early can HURT your employability (ie too much salary demand too little experience). i think people want to see 5 years of experience to make sure you can actually perform in a work setting not just academic along with your MS before they lay a big salary on you.

As for MS/PE, for me, i've never been the strongest TECHNICAL engineer, and more of a manager type. I will basically NEVER use my PE for stamping or do any design, but it's nice to have! I am personally much more proud of my Master's because i know the effort i put in 3 nights a week for 3 years while working full time was A LOT! And while i admitted i am not the strongest technical engineer, i have always been a GREAT test taker. I had a B- average in undergrad, and then 8 years later without studying a millisecond i failed the PE test by 1 or 2 questions. 6 months later i studied about an hour a day for two weeks leading up to the exam and passed. While it seems to impress people that i have a PE, it didn't feel like anywhere near the amount of effort for me to obtain.

 

[pgm44]

I have been involved in hiring staff for consulting industry positions for many years now. When I evaluate for a position I would give significantly more weight to having a PE vs having a masters degree. I have both and did go the route of working on both concurrently by going to school at night after work for the masters. In addition to the consulting industry I also work with professionals in the R&D field. In talking with them my impression is that in that field they value the masters degree more which makes sense because they are generally not signing drawings for construction. As it relates to obtaining a job, many firms including my own would value having a PE at a higher level than valuing a masters degree. This often holds true for my evaluations even for positions that don't require a PE. This is because the growth and responsibility potential of a PE is much higher than a candidate without a PE because they could at a future date be fully in charge of their own projects and provide direct guidance to clients on projects where someone without a PE, even if very capable would ultimately need sign off from a PE. Our clients also know this and always ask who the PE on their projects will be.

I think the masters degree is great to provide an engineering base of knowledge and to understand why codes and configurations require us to prepare designs the way we do, and also helps to provide the knowledge needed to prepare new out of the box solutions when they are needed. I have seen over the years that the engineers with a masters degree have this out of the box thinking ability more than those who have mostly designed to code so there is still great value in getting a masters.

I suggest getting both of them concurrently is a good approach if you have the time and resources If not, I would suggest that the PE provides more value even if the initial pay rate for the position is comparable with either the license or the masters. Often I have to base the salary on the position and what the market rate for the position so we can be competitive with our industry so the pay rate for the position is often limited by this range. So from this perspective the pay rate for an initial position with a firm may be the same with either a PE or a masters but I would hire the PE for the reasons noted above. If there has been demonstrated industry experience with references the initial pay and the growth pay for a PE would be greater which is also confirmed when comparing to industry salary surveys such as ZweigWhite.

 

[JB66money]

I just recently passed the PE and I plan to start studying for my Masters in EE next year God willing. I always try to keep up with the job market, and what I see constantly peffered when it comes to getting electric power, civil / structural and construction jobs is a PE license. A MS is hardly ever mentioned. I work in a utility and most of the people who advance in technical path have PE licenses and not MS dgrees. I had a former co-woker who had a PHD and a PE license, but he was respected for his experience and PE and not his PHD. In fact his job title was classified as a career engineer, while there was another co-worker with only his BSEE and PE license, but had more years of experience but his title is classified as a consulting engineer which within our company is higher than career engineer. The career engineer title is for a well established competent engineer and the title consulting engineer is for an engineer who is a subject matter expert within the company.

 

[iwire]

Does Masters in EE has additional beneficial if you are working as a engineering consultant, designer etc? I always thought unless you are doing PHD, masters doesn't bring ROI than maybe getting a MBA?

 

[Ken PE 3.1]

I was advised by a former employer that he would take a PE over a ME any day of the week. Seems to make sense in the consulting world, PE are more marketable.

 

[knight1fox3]

MBA in my opinion are that everyone seems to have them now a days and it isn't very distinguishable anymore. It also depends on what engineering career path you decide to follow. Do you want to go the management route? Then MBA is probably a good choice. Or do you want to go the senior/lead project designer route? Then MSEE is probably best.

In my experience as a consultant, the material being presented in my MSEE is extremely relevant. To the point where I can use some of my notes at work when specifying transformers or synchronous machines.

 

[solomonb]

This question is not one sided. My answer is that you should do both-- however, I would suggest getting the PE first, then the MS. Why? Graduate school is most beneficial and valuable when you have 4-7 years of real work experience under your belt. You understand the concepts that they are teaching, have probably been introduced into some of them and have a much greater grasp of the "big Picture." Folks who go directly from a BS to a MS really cheat themselves-- they don't have the experience to be able to really argue and make great points in a controversial discussion. Not a knock on them, they just don't have the experience.

You can get your PE 4 years after your BS. Anyone with a BS should be working on his/her PE as soon as they graduate. Those 4 years come and go FAST! Get your PE and then go to graduate school. Many companies will pay for a graduate degree-- in fact, most good universities will offer scholarships for American students in graduate school. If you check out most good graduate programs, almost 95% of the students are foreign students. Why? American students are making money in their profession. The foreign students want/need the graduate degree either to stay here or go back to their home country. Most after being in America, desire to stay here and hope to get visa sponsorship with their graduate degree.

The NCEES B+30 rule which will be enacted in 2020 strongly suggests getting a graduate degree-- in fact, most masters degrees are about 36 hours beyond a BS. Now, many states have NOT and I suspect, will not, agree/concur with NCEES and require the +30 hours for the PE license. However, you can see that sooner or later, it will happen. There is precedent-- in order to become a CPA, you have to have 150 total credit hours to sit for the exam. Some folks just take another 30 hours in subjects which they enjoy. However many folks go on and get a Master's degree in Accounting, which fulfills the +30 hour requirement.

It will only be a matter of time before engineers will be required to have the B+30 credit hour rule. It may be 2030 before it happens, but it will happen.

OK, my take--- get the PE ASAP. As is cited above, you need continuing education hours, but you have the PE. AFTER you have the PE in hand, then go for graduate school. Get into the BEST graduate school you can---- the best ones even have online delivery modalities which work.

The MBA-- the real truth to the question is that if your MBA is not from one of the top 10 MBA programs, it really is not as valuable as the admissions folks told you it was. Granted, you will learn a lot of great material and will be able to use it in your job, however, the top 10 MBA programs are the ones that really command the real dollars.

Don't worry about dollars. Dollars come-- maybe not as fast as you want, but they do come along. Get the PE then the MS. You will be golden at the end of the road.

 

[Lomarandil]

In my two industries of experience (EE-power and CE-structural/construction, both consulting), the general sense has been that a PE is much more valuable and marketable than an MS. I suspect most of the variety of answers can be applied to different industries and applications.

I actually have a PE, an "MBA" (technically Engineering Management, but very similar), and an MS in Civil (thesis based). I learned from all of those experiences, but if you count the work experience required to sit for the PE as part of the process, that far and away was the most valuable and most difficult of the three.