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Progressive experience, and who it has to be under

Between the two examinations a board requires a period of progressive engineering experience, generally under the supervision of a licensed professional engineer. How long depends on the state and on the accreditation of your degree, and what counts as progressive is defined rather than assumed.

Hone is a place to practise a career, one idea a day. This is one of its lessons, written out in full and free to read without an account.

In beta. This lesson was written for Hone and has not yet been checked by a licensed engineer. Practice material, not professional advice. What that means.

What it is for

Two things go wrong here and both are avoidable. The first is the supervisor: experience gained where no licensed engineer was supervising can fail to count, which is a particular risk in exactly the workplaces that operate under an exemption, because there may be no licensed engineer to be supervised by. The second is the word progressive, which means work of increasing responsibility rather than the same year repeated; a board can decline time that shows no progression. Neither is discovered until the application, and neither can be fixed afterwards except by serving more time.

How to think about it

Before settling into a role, confirm that a licensed engineer will be supervising you and is willing to verify the time. Keep your own record of what you did and how the responsibility grew, in the board's own terms, as you go. Is there somebody here who can verify this, and would a board call this year progressive? Boards set these rules and change them, so any figure you plan around has to come from your own board's page rather than from here or from somebody who qualified in a different state or a different year.

Worked example

The period sits between the two examinations
Fundamentals first, then the experience, then the discipline paper.
Generally under a licensed engineer
Whose supervision is what a board is looking for.
Which is a real risk under an exemption
An exempt workplace may have no licensed engineer to supervise you.
Progressive means increasing responsibility
Not the same year served several times over.
The length depends on your degree's accreditation
Which is the decision from years earlier arriving.

Your turn

Name who the experience generally has to be supervised by.

Progressive experience is generally served under a licensed

The trap

Accumulating years in a workplace with no licensed engineer in it. The time can be genuine, valuable and uncountable, and the place it happens most is the exempt employer where nobody needed a licence. Boards set these rules and change them, so any figure you plan around has to come from your own board's page rather than from here or from somebody who qualified in a different state or a different year.

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