Journey to becoming professional

 In college I first learned about who an engineer is and what they do and I also started learning about what it means to be a professional engineer.

My professor Wayne Wentzheimer shared that when he started working at ARCO Chemical after he completed his PhD in 1969, it was made a requirement within the company that he and some of his colleagues become licensed. Unfortunately, I've forgotten why.

The FE had started being administered nationally in 1965 and had become a standardized machine-graded test in 1970 (NCEES had been founded in 1920 and Pennsylvania licensing board in 1921). The chemical PE was first offered in 1966. The process to become licensed in a standardized fashion was nascent but becoming more uniform. I believe he would have had both F.E. and P.E. standard tests available to him for licensing at the time in Pennsylvania - he took both in direct succession.

So, to me very early on in my education, the P.E. license became a kind of implicit requirement toward becoming an engineer. At the same time, I understood the context that the P.E. was a license typically more vital for civil and mechanical engineering careers due to their proximity to public works and the building design trade. It was an impractical achievement on the road to doing meaningful engineering work as a chemical engineer but also embedded in my perception of what it meant to be a competent and accomplished engineer. I didn't need it to do interesting work, but I wanted it to feel like I was a "real" engineer.

With that backdrop, I opted to take the Fundamentals of Engineering exam during the fall of my senior year mostly as a contingency option (you never know...what if?). We had a mini review bootcamp that was optional to attend in the evenings, which was very helpful. I then joined other students and professionals in the Devos Place sitting at tables all day, silently pecking at calculators and filling in bubbles. The Calvin engineering education schedule had the controls class in the spring of the senior year, but other than that area, I felt well-prepared and was able to pass the exam (2010). And that's kind of where I left it - an engineer in training (E.I.T.) without much direct intention or need to move further.

My first job after graduate school was selling chemicals and doing engineering analyses for customers in support of selling chemicals (2014-2018). I didn't have any professional engineers at hand to oversee my work, and it didn't feel like it made much sense to find a P.E. to oversee and referee what I was doing. I was also under the mistaken impression that a non-P.E. was able to referee and direct qualifying experience.

Then I found work at a chemical company and the site director was licensed and could actually review and direct my work. It was also true of an eventual Disher colleague who is a P.E. and able to help me build qualifying experience. While at the chemical company I didn't really feel like I had the time to study and prepare for the P.E. test but was at least developing meaningful and significant experience in process engineering work at a chemical manufacturer.

Finally, when I left the chemical company to join Disher, I had what felt like the right time- and energy-balance (intentional pun) to actively pursue "the test". And I was also working at a food manufacturer doing qualifying project engineering work reviewed by my colleague. Ultimately, I started studying for a little over a year, a few hours per week, by taking and reviewing and re-taking the practice test published by NCEES. With trepidation and the strength-of-will from paying $400 in January (and not wanting to lose it), I set aside a day and took the test at the Grand Rapids 28th Street Pearson center - and I passed! What a relief and delight.

From there it was an administrative application to the State of MI with the right paperwork to get my license. After all the buildup of studying over the last year in earnest and long-term percolation in my head since I was a college student it was done in a very anti-climactic fashion.

My work mentioned it during an all-staff meeting and that's the end of this chapter (2010 - 2026!). What begins now is deciding if and how to use this license. And ultimately that's great.

I had built up the attainment of the P.E. license to be something it wasn't. It's not a pinnacle of achievement. It's really the minimum standard to work as the engineer of record on projects that impact the safety of the public in some fashion. It's a significant achievement, but it also demonstrates minimum competency and that was really good to realize and develop perspective around.