Engineers/Engineering

My job title is an electrical engineer, but in reality I'm just a well qualified sparks without an Eng degree. I am however planning on doing an electrical engineering degree so, if I succeed I can call myself an engineer. Which will be nice.

Brings down my car insurance being able to select electrical engineer as my job description, as technically that is my job title and what it states on my contract.
 
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Delvis said:
So you're going to leave purely because other people share the same job title? :p

How very odd
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No I'll be leaving for better pay and better working conditions in somewhere like Canada or Aus.

But nevermind Delvis, when I leave, you might be able to get my job as an engineer.

KaHn
 
KaHn said:
No I'll be leaving for better pay and better working conditions in somewhere like Canada or Aus.

But nevermind Delvis, when I leave, you might be able to get my job as an engineer.

KaHn
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Not really, as I know I wouldn't be able to do your job at this current time.

Fair play on leaving for better working conditions though.
 
I'm a CEng which makes me unable to fix a photocopier :).

Much as I'd like engineering to be better respected and 'engineer' only used by those really in the engineering professions, it isn't likely to happen in a hurry. It doesn't actually matter too much in the area I work in - what you call yourself is pretty irrelevant if you can't back it up (e.g. with relevant qualifications, chartership, experience).

There is an e-petitition running on direct.gov.uk calling for making engineer a protected title if anyone wants to sign: http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/6271
 
I shall have your job Nick when you leave :D;)

I have to say that many people in here who arn't Engineers (I'm talking about those defending the title) do seem to think that an Engineer 'Designs stuff', that isn't completely true. I have hardly ever done detailed design in the working world (except when as a Building Services Mechanical Engineer), with most of my designs/projects being conceptual with a little detail design before passing it onto a CAD Tech to draw up or for a specific Mechanical Designer/Engineer to do the main design drawings and speccing up the generic components etc.

Does that not make me an Engineer in some peoples eyes or do they truly not understand what an Engineer can be and the variety of the job ;)
 
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I'm studying Mechanical Engineering (BEng), so will be a Incorporated Engineer when I graduate. It really does annoy me how the term engineer is thrown around, most people think I'm trying to be a mechanic which really winds me up.
 
Scythe said:
I'm studying Mechanical Engineering (BEng), so will be a Incorporated Engineer when I graduate. It really does annoy me how the term engineer is thrown around, most people think I'm trying to be a mechanic which really winds me up.
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You wont magically get IEng when you graduate, the same way graduating with an MEng doesn't automatically give you CEng, they're just part of the requirements :p
 
MEng civils reporting in. Undergoing training for CEng (slowly but surely :p). Even I don't call myself an engineer, because I'm not chartered. Technically I'm a graduate civil engineer. To leave off the "graduate" would be an insult to those who have worked hard and passed the review.

Whilst we are at it:
http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/6271

i.e. sign that to improve the level of respect (and hopefully money!) that I may gain later in life :D

P.S. the real reason I want people to sign that is because Architects get their nice little title and Engineers get nowt, except muddy boots of course ;)
 
Who cares what people call themselves?

You have the proper qualifications, they don't. I wouldn't lose any sleep over it :confused:
 
EVH said:
Who cares what people call themselves?

You have the proper qualifications, they don't. I wouldn't lose any sleep over it :confused:
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Engineering suffers from a lack of graduates, and at a time people are looking to manufacturing to fix the economy we need all the graduates we can get. Sadly they are put off by the false image of engineering. It is thus proposed that the title 'Engineer' is protected legally, like 'Doctor' or 'Architect'.
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Lack of graduates because engineering is not cool or sexy any more, like it was in the Victorian glory days. The UK economy is arguably suffering because of this diminishing expertise.
 
Sundance said:
Lack of graduates because engineering is not cool or sexy any more, like it was in the Victorian glory days. The UK economy is arguably suffering because of this diminishing expertise.
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Erm, no...Theres lack of graduates because people obviously don't want to be doing them. Instead they go and do English as it's easier to get a degree
 
The problem with engineering in this country is that the title is unregulated. I know I've stated the problem, but is it really that obvious? You have a host of bodies such as the IMechE (which is what I'm registered to), IChemE, IStructE, IET, INucE etc. Unfortunately these bodies have little influence over who can be called an engineer. Pressure should be mounted on the Engineering Council UK, and on the government.

It's rich because the government loves to encourage kids to study STEM subjects in college, university and through apprenticeships, in order to cover the skills gap. How can people take engineering seriously if the IT man can call himself an engineer?

Unfortunately I think the only way engineers will get recognition are through a series of strikes.

Edit: To add to my post. I think more should be done to educate kids. I'll give you an example - I'm a STEM ambassador. I went into a school in London to run some STEM activities. I asked a class of year 11's "Who knows what an engineer does?" A few of the replies were "someone who fixes a car in a garage".
 
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It's almost as overused as 'consultant'. I started as an IT consultant so called right out of uni. 4 years later and I don't think I have done much to merit that title. Of course in an interview I'd try and talk it up as much as possible.
 
Delvis said:
Erm, no...Theres lack of graduates because people obviously don't want to be doing them. Instead they go and do English as it's easier to get a degree
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You have a point, but as Sundance says science subjects/engineering aren't cool to do at school, which has some impact. There's also the issue of many kids/people not really knowing what engineering is, or what jobs it can lead to. I guess in part that can be attributed to what we're discussing in this thread, that the term 'engineer' is thrown about too easily.

Campaigns like 'Why Not Chem Eng?' have helped, but I think more can be done. The increased tuition fees combined with the engineering degrees being longer than most won't help either.
 
Moses said:
Apart from maths and the sciences ;).

My old school received specialist engineering college status whilst I was there, and it's produced F1 in Schools world champions, lol. I don't know if that's all resulted in loads of people applying for engineering, though!
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I know you're first comment is said in jest, but I found at school that whilst maths/physics/chemistry teachers would push science and their own subjects, when it came to picking an engineering subject at university they were of very little help.
 
Indeed, for instance I was a 'Projects Engineer' in my old job of 4 years ago.

All I did was build rackmount cabs for servers, wire the cabling, and install the server on site. :p
 
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