Poll: Is a Degree Necessary to Be Called an Engineer? - RF Cafe Forums

Greetings:

Some people are of the opinion that in order to called an "Engineer," it is necessary to have earned the proper engineering degree - the professional connotation of the position demands so. Others believe it is just a title that can be accorded to any competent person. Please take a couple minutes to read through my "Kirt's Cogitations" article and then respond to this poll question. Or, skip the article and respond to the poll.

Thanks for your participation.

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- Kirt Blattenberger
RF Cafe Progenitor & Webmaster

Kirt,
Thanks for the excellent article. I have recently worked with two "engineers", both of whom I thought were very good at what they do only to be surprised to find out that one had a degree in accounting and the other had no degree at all. These two gentlemen, however, had many years of experience.

Something that bothers me more, though, is the proliferation of professions these days that call themselves engineers; i.e. "sanitation engineer" (garbage man), and "recording engineer" among others. It bothers me that people attach "engineer" to their job when it has nothing to do with engineering, at least not in the scientific sense.

So, with that being said, my vote was "Yes, with few exceptions" because I think the title of "engineer" should be earned through engineering course work, but I recognize that there are exceptions where experience is a good (or better) substitute.

Thanks for maintaining such an informative site and keep up the great work.

I am a non degreed engineer. I have been one for 30 years. I managed to make the transition because I was doing significant RF design well and without close supervision. Since then I branched into RFIC design and RF systems design. I have had a interesting carrier.

To be honest I would not have had a chance if most engineers were not under employed. That was 30 years ago. Now it's much worse.

I agree with Tony that today's environment does not leave much room for an "engineer" without a degree and probably rightly so. Maybe I'm biased because I went to the trouble to earn an MSEE in microwave engineering, but I think the title imples the person took the time, trouble and expense to earn the degree and suffered through the same rigorous bit of training that I went through. It's a rite of passage and calling just anyone and "engineer" would be a disservice to those of us who did earn a degree. Those who haven't can claim to know what it's like, but they really cannot. Sorry if this seems snobbish, but it's merely protecting the integrity of an institution.

Ed

I believe in some US sates you can't legally call yourself an engineer unless you hold a PE license.

Yes, with a few exceptions. I was a radar tech in
the airforce, then went back to school but did not
finish for monetary reasons. I wrote the engineering
acceptance exams for my Province of Ontario,
Canada, just the same as if I had been an immigrant
with a degree from another country.

Best regards,

/Clay (first post)