I'm graduating soon and planning on taking the FE exam. Any advice or experience you'd care to share?
>>2583499FE is easy. Just take it as soon as possible. In fact, I'd recommend doing it before you graduate.Of course, get familiar with the reference material..t PE
>>2583505Thanks!
>>2583499i took it for a credit, if you're at all good at exams then you'll have no trouble as long as you buy or steal a study book and do the practice exam in the back. still haven't done my PE though, i'm in aerospace.
>>2583505This. The FE was a cake walk compared to the PE because everything is fresh.
>>2583633>>2583648Thanks for the encouragement. How have your careers been since graduating?
>>2583666What's your concentration
>>2583730Chemical
I took the FE Other Disciplines and probably the only passed because I took an optional class in linear algebra and really liked it and got a lot out of it. Vectors and shit are really cool and every engineer should learn about them. If you think a vector is a quantity with a magnitude and a direction, you don't know enough about them.
>>2583666PE here. I left pure engineering to get my MBA.Having an engineering background and business know-how has made me a decent career.An important thing to know is that, while you're working on solving problems in school, in the real world it's all about communicating your solutions and convincing people about the way to go. Decent communication and writing skills are overlooked by engineers in undergrad (including my past self), but they are an important part of the job. Maybe it's different in chemical, but - for systems and aerospace - I would say less than 25% of my time was actual engineering. The rest was working with customers and doing project management.Also go out and make friends. Friends => connections => jobs. I've never had a job without a friend's or a fellow alumni's referral.Finally, people have confirmation bias. If they like you, then they tend to continue that way. In fact, they WANT to continue that way to avoid cognitive dissonance. So making good first impressions is pretty important. This applies to interviews where the first few questions (tell me about yourself, why this indsutry/company/role, etc) usually decide your fate* and to promotions where the bosses chose whom to lift up. Guess what, they pick the people they like, not necessarily the best engineers or hardest workers.*https://bpspsychub.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/joop.12118First 5 minutes => 30% of interviewers have made a decisionFirst 15 minutes => 60%
>>2583947>An important thing to know is that, while you're working on solving problems in school, in the real world it's all about communicating your solutions and convincing people about the way to go. Decent communication and writing skills are overlooked by engineers in undergrad (including my past self), but they are an important part of the job. Maybe it's different in chemical, but - for systems and aerospace - I would say less than 25% of my time was actual engineering. The rest was working with customers and doing project management.This. I'm a civil, have been working for 15 years now, here's my career progression:0-3 years: cadd monkey for engineers3-6 years: actually doing engineering work, sometimes6-12 years: project management and business development12-15 years: regional business development and operationsNote how much of this time I was actually using my engineering education versus business and people skills.>inb4 civil is too easy
>>2583950Does a PE factor into this? I work in mining which doesn't require a license unless you're doing consulting. I've noticed that when we get new engineering interns we throw them right into the deep end. These guys don't even have their degree yet and we're basically using them as full time engineers who work for half the pay.
>>2583958>These guys don't even have their degree yet and we're basically using them as full time engineers who work for half the pay.Yes, correct. We do lots of government work and we can't afford to have senior engineers, PMs, or positions like mine camping out on projects. I don't even make that much money but I would murder a project budget if I tried to even do the stuff I was scoped to do. We get EITs to do the heavy lifting and even that's a dice roll as half of them are either dumb as rocks, lazy, or (for the women, obviously) in for about a year until they get married and pregnant.The PE doesn't factor into it on my end other than a gateway to be promoted. I stamp plans when I supervise the work, but if it wasn't me it would be one of the PMs.
I did the electrical EIT and passed first try. Its not easy. Probably because it's not a civil "engineering" cake walk subject. But if you take it fresh out of school, and really hit the books to do practice problems( do them as if you're in the exam.) They give a break down of what percentage of the questions are each subject. Use that and your level of understanding to gauge how much effort to put in each section.
>>2583499EIT, training up for my PE right now. The FE exam is similar for all fields, and will have similar features. Make a ncees account nowhttps://ncees.orgYou *WILL* be required to put information in their for your PE that you can only get from university. Also getting references is more easy when you're surrounded by PEs and you need five or more. The NCEES makes the FE and PE tests, you will find the breakdown of how many questions and time here.https://ncees.org/engineering/fe/They also have sample questions. Study heavily on the money makers, getting every math problem will net you nothing compared to thermo/heat transfer. I used a PPI book to study and it's awesome, but don't pay for their class.
>>2583947I'm finishing up a civil PE and was thinking about getting an MBA afterwards. How does the income compare to straight engineering? Is the work just management and networking?
>>2585802>How does the income compare to straight engineering?My income went up 2x. I was making ~$95K as an PE in a low cost of living area and am currently making $192K doing tech consulting / account management in a medium cost of living area (think Phoenix or Philli).>Is the work just management and networking?No, it's extremely diverse. Most of my peers are individual contributors in fields like consulting, financial services, healthcare, and tech doing such roles as strategy, product or brand management, operations, HR, and marketing. People management and networking are important, but they're not the main part of the job at our level.Where you get the degree matters a lot too. Online or part-time programs are good if you want to learn about business and get that check-in-the-box for a promotion at your company. Univ of Illinois is a great example of that; however you need to go for a full-time MBA program at a top-20 school if you want to career pivot, grow your network, and graduate making $150K+If you're interested, my rec is to skim employment reports from top business schools. https://michiganross.umich.edu/graduate/full-time-mba/careers/employment-data
