What is an "associate" level engineer?

matsil

I sort of know myself, in my head, when someone says "oh, I'm an assocaite with company x"...... but in terms of actually defining it...... what would the difference be between say a "project engineer" or "lead design engineer"..... strangely, my department head in Arup's wasn't an "associate" (that was a few years ago).

Anyone shed any light on that? Just curious really.

Cheers,

Matt

breadmonkey

In the place I worked (~150 employees) an associate was one step below director iirc.

godtabh

It usually goes (generically speaking)

MD
Director
Associate Director
Senior Engineer
Engineer
Graduate Engineer

testicle

An Associate Engineer is one step below a full Engineer, and one level above a Senior Technician.

If you look at the IEI - Engineers have 4 year BEng (or equiv) degrees, Associates have 3, and Technicians have whatever you get after 2 years in an RTC these days.

godtabh

testicle wrote: »

An Associate Engineer is one step below a full Engineer, and one level above a Senior Technician.

If you look at the IEI - Engineers have 4 year BEng (or equiv) degrees, Associates have 3, and Technicians have whatever you get after 2 years in an RTC these days.

You have to call them Engineers Ireland or they wont talk to you any more.

I think the OP was thinking more about associate director.

I've never heard of an associate engineer being less than a graduate engineer

breadmonkey

testicle wrote: »

An Associate Engineer is one step below a full Engineer, and one level above a Senior Technician.

If you look at the IEI - Engineers have 4 year BEng (or equiv) degrees, Associates have 3, and Technicians have whatever you get after 2 years in an RTC these days.

I don't think this is right. For one thing, technicians and engineers do totally different things so I don't see how you can place them in the same hierarchy.

matsil

kearnsr wrote: »

You have to call them Engineers Ireland or they wont talk to you any more.

I think the OP was thinking more about associate director.

I've never heard of an associate engineer being less than a graduate engineer

Yes - I was talking about compqny positions rather than the IEI "tree".

Thanks for the input - bascially, as you have said, it is as such one step below a director..... but where I get consfused with company structures is the way you have graduate, junior, intermediate, senior design engineers - then project engineers..... and somewhere in there is the "associate" ..... with a couple of directors over the lot, answering to a regional director who in turn answers to an MD (and in the case of multinationals it keeps going on). I understand what a director does, I understand what the various grades of design engineers do, and I understand what project engineers do...... but what actually does an "associate" do ??????

Still confused I'm afraid :rolleyes:

mawk

matsil wrote: »

Still confused I'm afraid :rolleyes:

im not sure its any use, but if you are dealing with americans;

over there an associate degree is lower than a bachelors degree. and possibly lower than a diploma. its like the higher cert RTCs give after 2 years

Darren1o1

Here stateside it goes, technician, associate engineer, engineer, senior engineer, principal engineer, lead engineer etc etc

godtabh

matsil wrote: »

Yes - I was talking about compqny positions rather than the IEI "tree".

Thanks for the input - bascially, as you have said, it is as such one step below a director..... but where I get consfused with company structures is the way you have graduate, junior, intermediate, senior design engineers - then project engineers..... and somewhere in there is the "associate" ..... with a couple of directors over the lot, answering to a regional director who in turn answers to an MD (and in the case of multinationals it keeps going on). I understand what a director does, I understand what the various grades of design engineers do, and I understand what project engineers do...... but what actually does an "associate" do ??????

Still confused I'm afraid :rolleyes:

An associate director would normally be in charge of a team. A director would be in charge of a few assoicaites. A md would be in charge of the direcors

Irjudge1

As one of this strange mysterious breed of they call "associate" I can tell you that generally it means that you are part of the senior management team but do not have any actual share holding within the company. i.e you are still an employee of the company instead of a part owner of the firm.

The term refers to directorship as opposed to engineer i.e you have associate directors not associate engineers. You also get associates in legal practices, accountancy firms etc.

As to what associates do I would be of the opinion that they do more than the staff working for them and more than the directors for whom they work but then I would say that wouldn't I. Depending on the size of the firm an associate may act in a project engineer role or in larger firms oversee and number of projects with project engineers working with them.

There is an associate grade in the IEI which the awarded the designation AMIEI. To achieve this title you have to have a level 7 qualification. It is a midway level between engineer and technician as you would be expected to be able to carry out design work based on design codes and crunch the numbers with the C.Eng making the decisions and signing off work.

Hope this helps.

godtabh

Irjudge1 wrote: »

As one of this strange mysterious breed of they call "associate" I can tell you that generally it means that you are part of the senior management team but do not have any actual share holding within the company. i.e you are still an employee of the company instead of a part owner of the firm.

That doesnt apply to larger and or multi nationals companies