Timing is Everything for Getting Your P.E.

Passing the Principles and Practice of Engineering exam is an important achievement—lending professional credibility, bumping up salaries, yielding more responsibility, and offering access to higher-level engineering jobs. But there’s a more practical piece to adding a P.E. after your name.

“It’s a license that says you’ve proven competence to legally perform engineering services to the public,” said Davy McDowell, P.E., chief operating officer at the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying. Based in Greenville, S.C., the council that administers and scores the exam.

It also pays to have a P.E.—literally.

“Numerous surveys have shown the median salary of a P.E. is constantly more in terms of dollars throughout an engineer’s career,” said David Soukup, P.E., managing director of governance at ASME. “The average P.E. is making approximately 15 percent more than an unlicensed engineer, which could translate to over $500,000 more in compensation over the course of a 40-year career.”

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So, when is the best time to pursue one?

“As soon as you can,” said Thomas H. Brown, Jr., P.E., founder of Dr. Tom’s Classroom, an online resource for mechanical engineers. “You know how they say, ‘Use it or lose it?’ That happens. You forget stuff. Get this while you still remember things.”

Brown, based in North Carolina, added that this is also why it is imperative to take and pass the Fundamentals of Engineering exam—which is required to take the P.E. exam—before graduating from college. “You’re taking classes right then that the exam is all about, so the FE should be a walk in the park,” he said. “Don’t even think about why you’re doing it. Just do it.”

Two-thirds of states now allow people to take P.E. exams right after graduating from college, as long as they’ve passed the FE exam. This relatively recent, shorter timetable can sound attractive, but test-takers with at least some work experience under their belt tend to pass the P.E. at a higher rate than those who try right after receiving their diploma.

According to NCEES’s publication “Squared 2023,” “Examinees with four years of engineering experience after graduation have the greatest probability of success on the P.E. exam. Pass rates for examinees with fewer than or more than four years of experience are lower, typically in proportion to the length of time from the four-year mark.”

There are potential challenges to consider that go beyond the exam material. For example, be prepared to toot your own horn when describing your work experience.

“Engineers in general don’t seem to like to brag, but that’s exactly what state boards want to see,” McDowell said. “They don’t want to know what your company did, or what you did as a team member; they want to know what you’ve done as an individual.”

And preparing for the exam takes discipline. Brown suggests carving out roughly 20 hours a week for studying. “You’re going to be missing in action for several nights a week,” he said.

To find out more about the process affiliated with the eight-hour exam, the NCEES website details the specific credentials required for each state.

“A P.E. opens doors that otherwise wouldn’t be open,” Soukup said. “You can’t really predict today what you might be doing several years from now. Even if you don’t plan on doing any of the things that require a license, such as consulting work or owning your own firm, you never know what will come up in the future.”

Robin L. Flanigan is a technology writer in Rochester, N.Y.