Work on the side?

[frustrated]

Does anyone plan on doing design work on the side now that they can stamp their own designs? If so, do you have to carry insurance? I know that I have heard alot of engineers say "don't stamp anything". How do you guys (or gals) feel about that?

 

[Catatonic]

I, for one, am not going to stamp anything. The liability is too great. That is why all engineering firms carry insurance.

 

[EdinNO]

I am starting a new job. In the interview, the guy told me that the company frowns on side work for two reasons: 1)It could be work that they could be getting (although I'm sure they could care less about actually getting small stuff) and 2)In the event of a mess-up on the side work, their company could somehow be brought into lawsuiuts, etc....

I will stay away from it unless I hear that its OK on an individual basis.

Ed

 

[EdinNO]

Maybe this should be moved to the Engineering section?

Ed

 

[RIP - VTEnviro]

I'd imagine you'd need some kind of errors and omissions insurance so someone doesn't come after you for everything you own when that little septic field you threw together over the weekend fails miserably.

Also, I don't know how everyone's official corporate policy goes, but I don't think you want to be announcing too loud that you are moonlighting on the side. Some of them don't take kindly to it if it seems like a conflict of interest.

Again, like anything else, there's a right way and a wrong way. If you design a new driveway for a house, I don't think they would mind. If you try to underbid your firm on a project though, that might not be so cool.

 

[frustrated]

In my experience, it is only the most senior engineers in a firm that stamp anything. It makes me wonder what is the value for a newer engineer to have a licsence. Just so they can charge more for your work?

 

[cdhanners]

"Don't stamp anything" Are thet nuts, have they no confidence in there work. Can they not put there seal where there mouth is?

I plan on starting my own consuting firm. I will have no regrets about stamping my work. I will have worked my ass off to get the stamp, and I sure will not be affraid to use it.

As for insurance. It is expensive. If you don't do government work, it is rarely required. If you don't have anything for them to take then why protect yourself. I have also been told from several engineers that if something goes wrong, they always go after the guy with the insurance. SO thing real hard before you do get insurance, and like I said if you have something to protect, (besides your license), it is a must. And by the way most insurance does not help with Board related charges, you are on your own there.

 

[jeb6294]

I did some work on the side before I had my stamp.

I was working at a County Engineer's Office in SW Ohio and one of the local engineers came in and asked me if I could do a drainage report for a subdivision he was working on in the next county over. I made sure he knew I couldn't stamp it since that's usually one of the requirements. He said that was fine, that he would review it and stamp it before he submitted it. Two hours @$100 an hour.

That one turned out to be really simple, he just didn't have the software to spit out the type of report the county wanted. If it was something as simple as that, I might go ahead and do it. Anything bigger or more involved than that, I'd have to think about it. Of course, I do land development stuff so there's much lower chance of something of mine falling on someone's head if I screw up like the structural guys.

I suppose that $100 just went up to $200 an hour too.

 

[Road Guy]

at my old firm a lot of people did side-work, it was mainly stuff that was too inexpenive for our firm to do (we wouldnt touch anything less than $100,000)

I dont know if they had there own insurance or not, is was mainly subdivision design, I do know they all made some serious money doing it though.

One guy ended up starting hs own business. I dont know about the others, have not talked to them in a while.

My neighborhood has been bugging me to do a "free" traffic signal study for them. I told them I would do it for a "lifetime waiver" of Home owners dues.. They were not responsive, and the law doesnt technically require it to be stamped..."the study"

 

[RIP - VTEnviro]

Jeb - Were you using company software to do the work?

There were two guys I knew that were PE's that did side work. One of them did it all on the side. He used his own equipment, did the work on his own time, etc. It never interfered with his primary job. I also knew a licensed surveyor who did the same. Nobody had any problems with those guys.

The other PE was the complete opposite. He was always running to his job sites on company time. He used the company's copy of CAD, company plotter, copier, etc.

He even occasionally gave one of the drafters his personal shit to do on company time. The drafter barely spoke English, and pretty much had blinders on. Just your head down plug through the markups kind of guy, didn't know or care about project details.

And the PE was sneaky about it, so I don't think this drafter knew he was doing someone's side job.

He tried to sucker me into doing his work once or twice too. I was fresh out of school and he must have thought I'd be easy to take advantage of. I knew something fishy was up. Anytime he tried to give me something for a project I wasn't familiar with, or got real sketchy on the details, I'd just smile and ask: "What's the project code for this?"

How the guy wasn't fired is beyond me.

How this one individual

 

[jeb6294]

It was software we had on our computers at work, but it was some kind of free download from somewhere and I just didn't feel like reinstalling it on my computer at home. It only took a couple hours to do it and it was done after hours so I didn't feel too bad about it...especially when you saw the garbage that was going on in that office (and most of it was done by the County Engineer).

 

[rleon82]

If we only had a copy of AdICPR here at work.