Other than the FE cert, what else should I be doing? collecting awards from work?
i appreciate your advice
Glad to help - I had recently changed jobs when I was getting ready for the P&P and I didn't have a "mentor" or someone who had been there before in the office with me.
Awards are okay, but the part that's the most work, and the hardest to get down the road, is documentation of your experience. The two things they look for is (1) the work was done under the supervision of a P.E., and (2) your experience and level of responsibility grows over the course of the 4 years. You can usually download the Supplemental Experience Record (SER) forms either from your state board website, or from NCEES. Become familiar with what those forms are asking for and begin documenting all your projects and work experience.
When you turn it in with your application, it needs to be written in first-person narrative form; like "I designed cooling systems for critical data facilities for three clients..." and so on. I had eight years of work experience at the time and ended up with 12 pages of SER's. And these need to be sent to the P.E.'s who supervised you (these will also serve as your references), and they will in turn send them confidentially to the state board on your behalf.
It sounds like a lot of work, but it would be SO much easier to do it as you actually earn the experience; I had to do all mine after the fact, which made it a major chore.
BTW, my registration is in Texas - I don't suspect the process is much different in other states, but you should check. And good luck!
I'm taking mine next Fall... any recommendations for it?
For the FE exam, get a review manual with practice tests - a review course might be good, I didn't take one so I can't vouch for them - but the practice tests are great for giving you an idea of what to expect during the test.
Also, you might be tempted to take the discipline-specific test in the afternoon section; my advice is to take the general test. That way, you're studying the same information for both halves of the test. Just remember the problems in the afternoon are longer and more difficult, but the subject matter is the same as the morning if you take the general test.
