Work from home as a mechanical engineer?

[amrfd]

is there any work from home as a mechanical engineer?

 

[Mech_Engineer]

Some people start their own engineering consulting businesses and work from home, but you will typically need to have a good amount of relevant experience and professional certifications such as a PE.

 

[amrfd]

what is pe?

 

[Mech_Engineer]

It's a professional engineering certification in the US:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professional_Engineer#United_States

 

[rcremont]

@amrfd
You will need to complete your FE license first if I am not mistaken. After you pass this 8 hour exam you can go on to get your PE. First you have to complete an "ethics quiz" mandated by your state board of engineers depending on your state of residence. Here's a link to help you out. Best of luck!

http://www.ncees.org/exams/fe_exam.php

 

[amrfd]

i need some recruiting sites in work from home

 

[Mech_Engineer]

I don't think you're going to be able to find anything quite like you're looking for since you don't appear to have any drive to look for yourself (and therefore probably aren't interested in starting your own company).

The closest option might be contract engineering positions, but those are typically filled through companies which specialize in temp (contract) workforces. They aren't typically work from home, and won't be possible without lots of experience and probably some kind of certification to prove you know what you're doing.

 

[Travis_King]

Short answer:
No. You can't be a mechanical engineer and work from home unless you have many years experience, a professional license, and you work as a contracted consultant.

Recruiting firms do not generally deal with these people, as these folks usually have 25+ years in industry and know who to talk to.

If you want to be an engineer, you will need to leave your home.

 

[rcremont]

If you want to be an engineer, you will need to leave your home.

I second this. Get to work amrfd.

 

[Topher925]

Some people start their own engineering consulting businesses and work from home, but you will typically need to have a good amount of relevant experience and professional certifications such as a PE.

I would also add a very solid reputation to that list.

Although, I do a lot of consulting work right now that allows me to work from home and only go into the office on occasion. I work my own hours when and where ever I want which is great while I'm getting my PhD but isn't something I could do as a long term career.

 

[TokerM]

First...

YOU DO NOT NEED A PE CERT! Very few things REQUIRE a PE to sign off on them. The only one I really know of is nuclear plant design. Westinghouse pushes their M.E.s to get certs.

Civil engineers usually have to sign off on site plan/foundation drawings for local code regs, but in the mechanical world, certs are pretty rare, and you will never compensate the loss of all the cert classes/tests you will have to pay for. Certified engineers aren't going to get paid more if a cert is not required.

On the work from home deal... As everyone before me said, you need experience to get moonlighting jobs. I have 2 engineers I use for FEA and design work that operate from home, but each of them has 20+ years experience, and I know how they work from working directly with them in an office.

You can only make contacts in your career if you go out and contact people. Do a good job, and they will remember you and call on you later.

 

[Travis_King]

TokerM:

1) Yea, you don't need PE licensure.

2) Maybe in the US, I agree not much is stamped. However in places like Canada, stamping is pretty much mandatory in most areas (even Ontario, which has an exemption, is seeking to require stamps on most drawings and technical documents). I work in the mining and minerals processing industry and, during my time in Canada, almost everything I ever produced that was going to be built or purchased had to be stamped.

3)

Certified engineers aren't going to get paid more if a cert is not required

This is untrue. Loads of companies are looking to hire PE's as it adds a level of professionalism and status to the organization. If company X's prices are similar to company Y's, but company X has 50% licensed, whereas Y has 20% licensed, most clients will choose company X.

Companies will not only pay more for licensed professionals, but they will often times pay you to become one. Also, the typical cost for stamping an engineering drawing, if contracted, is around a minimum of $1000 (usually more, since almost all places require the PE to be intimately involved in the drawings production).
Many smaller companies don't like liability (for good reason), so they'll pay good money to get a PE to do, review and sign off on their designs.
Most PE's recouperate their losses, if not directly through contracts, then indirectly through pay.

Though, as it applies to someone working from home, yea I suppose it'd be a tough going if you only stamped drawings. But in my mind, there's no such thing as a work-from-home engineer.

 

[TokerM]

I probably should have been a bit clearer there. My company is in a couple areas, mostly we do heavy press mfg. (extrusion & forging presses, rolling mills, B.O.Ps, etc...) in the U.S. with contracts in Germany & Canada. We have never needed a mech engineer, with a cert & stamp to sign drawings, but, clients do want to see FEAs and our "engineering design failure & inclusion" insurance. Again, I'm only talking mech dwgs, civil plan dwgs ALWAYS need signed by a PE for us. (not details)

Insurance company does want to know what employees have certs and what don't, but our rates are not affected by ratio of certs to non.

As for the pay aspect. I agree. If the company is structured that cert engineers are preferred to non-certs, pay will be higher, but in my market, adding you have a cert to your resume gets you the same treatment as putting that you were an Eagle Scout. "I'm impressed with your achievement, but that and $1.50 will get you a cup of coffee."

Back to the OT...

Sorry to break it to the OP, but you'll need to do your time in the trenches like the rest of us! ;)

**edit**
I can think of another reason for having the cert... I had once heard that in order to use the name "Engineering" in the company name, you had to have a PE on staff, but I really don't know how true that is. :D

 

[Travis_King]

I had once heard that in order to use the name "Engineering" in the company name

In most countries you have to be a PE to call yourself an engineer!

 

[Pkruse]

My experience is that mechanical engineering is both a creative process and a team sport. How well does a team sport work if all the players want to work from home and never practice or train together? How well will a music group work if the musicians don't spend time together to develop an inspiration for their next song?

The possibilities you see here are the rare exceptions. Our company does not have a metallurgist, for example. When we need one, we call a consultant. When he signs a drawing, everyone in our industry will recognize his name and trust it. He has spent 40 years developing that reputation. At one time or another he has worked for most of our customers.