Career/EIT guidance and advice

[irchrisr]

After doing hours of research I have decided to just post my question.

I am about to enter my senior year of my engineering program. My major is Engineering Science with a specialty in project management. I currently work for a civil engineering and surveying company family company. Most of the work I do falls under surveying. I really enjoy the balance of management and engineering that my major focuses on but I also want to become a professional engineer. Being in my senior yeah its time for me to start studying for my EIT. This is where my dilemma comes into play. I have experience in the civil portion and I am now starting to move into the designing of projects. I have also taken project management courses and operations research along with electrical engineering and mechanical engineering. One of my professors has stated that we are pretty well prepared for the ME exam. My question is which test should I take for the best job outlook.

I was leaning towards industrial but after all the trash talk on it and how worthless a PE is in that discipline. I'm not so sure now. I feel like I could take the following versions; EE, Civil, IE, ME. I just don't know which one I should go with. To be clear I love my management classes and industrial classes.
Thank you for all of your time.
-Chris

 

[tygerdawg]

As usual, the answer is "it depends." For what, exactly, do you want a P.E. license? What do you think you would do with it, if you had it?

Having a P.E. license is necessary if you want to be in charge of design of projects that affect human welfare and the like. This is mostly the domain of CE, ME, & EE. And only necessary if you choose that path, which will likely land you in design firms. That's 'design & design supervision', not necessarily management.

I got my P.E. in ME almost thirty years ago. My career trajectory took me into manufacturing, machine design, & automation/robotics. I have never had the need to affix my stamp to any drawing. But I keep it up to date with inactive status because it proves that I was able to meet all of the prerequisite requirements and pass that test (although 30 years ago). Most folks don't take it, and never need it. My jobs never needed it, but it was useful to put on business cards and resumes. Having it has opened a few door along the way.

 

[jehake12]

If you are in CA, I recommend going the CE route.