not only diversity is killing it, engineering in the public sector is also destroying this profession.
i am an engineer with a state dept of transportation in the ne. i got my eit and passed my pe (professional engineer) exam last year. it'll take me another 4 years of working under a pe to earn my professional engineer designation.
HOWEVER, in government where i work, my boss, the 2nd-in-command in traffic for the 12-county region area, is NOT an engineer. he came up thru the rank from a foreman into an assistant area traffic engineer with NO training nor experience in traffic/signal timing, crash analysis, warrant, and many more. he's the kiss ass type.
sadly, hes not the only one, i estimate about 1/4th to 1/3rd of those with "engineer" in the job title at my dept are NOT engineer but those who got promoted due to seniority. some actually knows their stuff, but the majority does not, and relies on newly grad or eit to do the grunt work, yet they themselves are responsible for making important decision (my boss, who doesn't have any signal timing experiences, doesn't know how to do warrant analysis, doesn't have anything formal past his hs diploma, is responsible for deciding whether to install a signal at an intersection, whether to switch from loop detection to radio or video detection etc.)
on the other hand, private firm cannot and will not put anyone in any "engineer" position without formal education nor licensing, unlike the public sector.
not only diversity is killing it, engineering in the public sector is also destroying this profession.
i am an engineer with a state dept of transportation in the ne. i got my eit and passed my pe (professional engineer) exam last year. it'll take me another 4 years of working under a pe to earn my professional engineer designation.
HOWEVER, in government where i work, my boss, the 2nd-in-command in traffic for the 12-county region area, is NOT an engineer. he came up thru the rank from a foreman into an assistant area traffic engineer with NO training nor experience in traffic/signal timing, crash analysis, warrant, and many more. he's the kiss ass type.
sadly, hes not the only one, i estimate about 1/4th to 1/3rd of those with "engineer" in the job title at my dept are NOT engineer but those who got promoted due to seniority. some actually knows their stuff, but the majority does not, and relies on newly grad or eit to do the grunt work, yet they themselves are responsible for making important decision (my boss, who doesn't have any signal timing experiences, doesn't know how to do warrant analysis, doesn't have anything formal past his hs diploma, is responsible for deciding whether to install a signal at an intersection, whether to switch from loop detection to radio or video detection etc.)
on the other hand, private firm cannot and will not put anyone in any "engineer" position without formal education nor licensing, unlike the public sector.
so yea, gov is corrupt and rotten af.