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Why is a license more important than skill and experience? So you’ll trust a person that’s failed the license multiple times, is barely able to do the job, and

Why is a license more important than skill and experience? So you’ll trust a person that’s failed the license multiple times, is barely able to do the job, and has a history of failing at their job because they have a license? Because those issues still happen with licensed professionals. A license doesn’t prove aptitude, it just proves you passed a test. I’ve met multiple structural engineers that relied heavily on computer software for validation because they couldn’t understand calculus

brudgers 5y ago
The person without a license who is doing something that requires a license is not taking full responsibility for what they are doing. They are doing something that is only to their own benefit in a context where other people’s lives are at stake. Quite simply it is unprofessional. A person without a license can hire a licensed professional for oversight. That’s the responsible thing to do. In the US, engineering licensure requires supervised experience, testing, and typically (but not always) formal education at the bachelor level. One requirement of professional practice is not working beyond one’s competence irrespective of having a license and engineering boards take that seriously. I guess that’s the thing, an unlicensed person doing unsupervised work requiring a license is some combination of incompetent, unqualified, or negligent. To put it another way, licensure ensures that a person has a minimum amount of skill, training, and experience. And that they take responsibility.
- jbluepolarbear 5y ago
  But who decides it needs a license? Other licensed individuals? I would do a better job sticking to requirements than a lot of licensed engineers. It’s cheaper and easier for me to do all the work, and then hire a firm to say it passes requirements than getting said license. It gives me the freedom to engineer in any field I’m interested. I have previously done mechanical, electrical, structural, and medical engineering. How would a license help me? It’s waste years of my life, tons of money, jobs in don’t want, and at the end of it I can work in a field I may no longer want to be in.
  - lupire 5y ago
    Thats fine. The pount is that the work should be signed off by a licenssd engineer.
  - brudgers 5y ago
    The legislature delegates authority to the board. Yes you can hire an engineer to supervise your work. Then you have successfully avoided responsibility for it. And legally as well. A license would allow you to take responsibility for what you do. I can understand why someone wouldn't want it. I don't understand why someone who has chosen that route whines about it.

brudgers 5y ago

The person without a license who is doing something that requires a license is not taking full responsibility for what they are doing. They are doing something that is only to their own benefit in a context where other people’s lives are at stake. Quite simply it is unprofessional. A person without a license can hire a licensed professional for oversight. That’s the responsible thing to do. In the US, engineering licensure requires supervised experience, testing, and typically (but not always) formal education at the bachelor level. One requirement of professional practice is not working beyond one’s competence irrespective of having a license and engineering boards take that seriously. I guess that’s the thing, an unlicensed person doing unsupervised work requiring a license is some combination of incompetent, unqualified, or negligent. To put it another way, licensure ensures that a person has a minimum amount of skill, training, and experience. And that they take responsibility.

jbluepolarbear 5y ago
But who decides it needs a license? Other licensed individuals? I would do a better job sticking to requirements than a lot of licensed engineers. It’s cheaper and easier for me to do all the work, and then hire a firm to say it passes requirements than getting said license. It gives me the freedom to engineer in any field I’m interested. I have previously done mechanical, electrical, structural, and medical engineering. How would a license help me? It’s waste years of my life, tons of money, jobs in don’t want, and at the end of it I can work in a field I may no longer want to be in.
- lupire 5y ago
  Thats fine. The pount is that the work should be signed off by a licenssd engineer.
- brudgers 5y ago
  The legislature delegates authority to the board. Yes you can hire an engineer to supervise your work. Then you have successfully avoided responsibility for it. And legally as well. A license would allow you to take responsibility for what you do. I can understand why someone wouldn't want it. I don't understand why someone who has chosen that route whines about it.