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Other roles using the word 'Engineer'

Orwellmerchant

Hi, I am a Civil Engineer from DIT and first time thread maker!

Recently I have noticed just how many jobs and people claim to be engineers.

Roles including people who carry out gas boiler servicing to those who install telephones and television packages.

Do any other engineers who have studied at 3rd level for an undergrad in engineering find this frustrating? Surely this wouldn't happen in other professions such as law and medicine.

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[Deleted User]

Dardania wrote: »

CEng is more relevant to some engineering roles than others. Civil/Structural engineers and also partially electrical: it's a big deal. ...............

Indeed, to be fair they are essentially two a penny and paid accordingly so the CEng gig/speel/ordeal might well be a hoop some are happy to jump through to get more wages etc.........http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057532957

kirving

The Rape of Lucretia wrote: »

Nonsense. No company lumps the photocopy machine engineer with the electronic engineer.

Well, since two wholly different jobs have the same name, why wouldn't someone who doesn't know any better lump the two together? Because I'm a mechanical engineer, and service my own car, and my day job is for an automotive company, some very well educated people I know compare my work to a mechanic.

It's not snobbery on my part either, a good mechanic will be better place to fix a car than I ever will be, but he's not an engineer, and I'm not a mechanic.

His job or my job will never be respected as highly skilled (which it absolutely is) if people think he's a second rate engineer, or I'm a jumped up mechanic -they're entirely different and should be referred to as such.

Dardania

Someone showed me this image a few years ago about the spectrum of engineering - helps show a nice overview:

https://goo.gl/images/Deyt5k

SpannerMonkey

look up the word in a dictionary . its a pretty broad title

engineer
ɛndʒɪˈnɪə/Submit
noun
1.
a person who designs, builds, or maintains engines, machines, or structures.
synonyms: designer, planner, builder, architect, producer, fabricator, developer, creator; More
2.
a person who controls an engine, especially on an aircraft or ship.
synonyms: engineering officer, controller, handler, driver; More
verb
1.
design and build (a machine or structure).
"the men who engineered the tunnel"
2.
skilfully arrange for (something) to occur.
"she engineered another meeting with him"
synonyms: bring about, cause, arrange, pull off, bring off, fix, set up, plot, scheme, contrive, plan, put together, devise, manoeuvre, manipulate, negotiate, organize, orchestrate, choreograph, mobilize, mount, stage, put on, mastermind, originate, manage, stage-manage, coordinate, control, superintend, direct, conduct, handle, concoct; More

fg1406

I did a BEng about 12 years ago. This was a topic myself and my husband laugh about as he has a Masters in Mechanical Engineering. One of our mutual friends did a one year plc course after the LC in autocad and is calling himself a Cad and Mechanical Design Engineer.

kirving

SpannerMonkey wrote: »

look up the word in a dictionary . its a pretty broad title

Look up Architect and you'll find similar, but it's protected.

lawred2

The Rape of Lucretia wrote: »

Oh, and software 'engineer'.

ye wha?

lawred2

I might add that some of history's greatest engineers had zero 'qualifications'

Yer man Galileo was a right spoofer... where were his quals?

As it goes - I'm a software engineer and in my time I've met a few top notch engineers, who more than deserve the title, who were self taught

y0ssar1an22

any one can call themselves accountants as far as i know. it was also the same with physio's a few ago, but they won a case and now any non-physio's are called physical therapists. i think the accounting profession are trying to put a stop to this.

i dont find it frustrating, but if will help the person on the street make a more informed decision, well then its a good idea.

Cedrus

I have worked in engineering all my working life, despite "only" being a Draughtsman. I have worked with first year students who called themselves engineers. I have worked with fully qualified engineers in suppliers who cannot do anything without their bespoke manufacturers software. I have worked with at least two engineers (one with a masters degree kept specifying pipe or circuit breaker sizes that did not exist "but the text book says this is the optimum size"! I currently work with several engineers (one of them chartered) who would be lost without google. The best engineers I have ever met usually started on the tools or as technicians.

To me an engineer is somebody who can design or commission a system that works or somebody who can repair a system that doesn't.

tayto lover

I know a lad who calls himself a Consultant. He's a great lad but he knows f**k-all about anything.

lawred2

tayto lover wrote: »

I know a lad who calls himself a Consultant. He's a great lad but he knows f**k-all about anything.

lol

Accenture as an organisation have been doing that for a long while now... dubbing their new grads as consultants for billing purposes. The majority of them would be utterly clueless.

[Deleted User]

lawred2 wrote: »

..................

As it goes - I'm a software engineer and in my time I've met a few top notch engineers, who more than deserve the title, who were self taught

I'm all for IT ish folk using the term engineer once it's prefaced by IT, Software etc etc etc.
That's the key really.
Sky Install Engineer, Elevator service engineer etc etc............ the term engineer on it's own it quite meaningless.

I liaised with a CNC operator once, he described himself as an engineer at the top of his game.

2011

I have just returned from commissioning a project in Poland. I was surprised when the person that I assumed was an automation engineer refered to himself as an electrician. I found this kind of refreshing

I have spent many years working with automation engineers and this individual is as good as any of them and having worked literally all over the world is more experienced than most. As it happened he also did a designed the control panels.

josip

Is there a pecking order within engineering between Electrical, Mechanical, Civil ?

Dardania

josip wrote: »

Is there a pecking order within engineering between Electrical, Mechanical, Civil ?

There is, in some people's heads! And interesting the order you put them in...

[Deleted User]

Casey Jones will always be my number one engineer

ChippingSodbury

josip wrote: »

Is there a pecking order within engineering between Electrical, Mechanical, Civil ?

Not so sure about Electrical Engineers, but:
Mechanical Engineers build weapons, Civil Engineers build targets...
so, obviously Mechanical Engineers are at the top of the food chain

flaneur

Why doesn't the engineering sector just come up with a protected term like Chartered Engineer or something like that?

The term "engineer" predates the modern professional use of it.

Dr_Bill

Maybe the government needs to open up an IT in Mullingar... where did you study and get your degree from?? MIT :-D

mikhail

flaneur wrote: »

The term "engineer" predates the modern professional use of it.

The term doctor meant a teacher, then a learned person. Early medicos seized it to lend credibility to their half-assed blood-letting and opium-proscribing.

Dietician was only protected relatively recently. Engineer is protected in other jurisdictions. No reason we can't do it now.

Johnnyhpipe

I'm a chartered engineer with both EI and the IStructE, it seems a little unusual that power city will send an engineer out to install my dishwasher. But, honestly, I really don't care. I enjoy my job and get paid what I get paid regardless of whatever someone else calls themselves.

PMBC

greenfield21 wrote: »

I think there was something a while back about making it a protected title because it is overused. Maybe it was in UK don't think much happened though. Just get chartership and that will make you feel special.

There is/was no protection for the word engineer; that's why Chartered became such a big deal as it is a protected in law. On the practical side it doesn't make much difference as engineers, certainly civil, are relatively badly paid. When I was studying, years and years ago, engineering students were, in general, the equal of medical undergrads. Now there is no comparison. The young, far smarter than their parents, voted with their feet and rushed towards medicine as the money, whatever about the training, work like balance etc., was better thus pushing up CAO points. None of my children wanted to follow my footsteps by maybe that reflects on me.
Also IMO it doesn't matter too mch from where you graduated as Ive met assho*** from both sides. Although I'm from the 'posher' side I find DITs etc to be better practically. They might not have learned about virtual work for structural design but they come to sites knowing what an Acrow (prop) or a sky-chain is/isn't. The big problem with civil engineering is the cyclical nature that has led to an industry where there are few long term prospects, except for a few, and where contracting is led and driven, for rational reasons, by QSs.

CIP4

When I was doing my undergrad it did bother me more graduated and working now I don't really care as much. If the guy that installs my sky box wants to call himself an engineer fair enough I think most people understand the difference and our salaries reflect the difference. Even though I completed my degree level 8 BEng in Chemical and Process Engineering you will get people who say I am not really an engineer as I work in Operations/Manufacturing and in order to be an engineer I need to either work as a Project engineer or sit in an office as a design engineer. Maybe they are right but I enjoy my job and do still plan on building up experience and becoming chartered down the road and still find my degree hugely relevant and useful to my day job even if I am not designing or building plants. Whenever someone asks me what I do I always say I am a chemical engineer even if its not in my job title thats what I trained to do.

snowflaker

Pelvis wrote: »

Am I a Scientist if I have a B.Sc?

What are you if you have a B.Comm?

rebel456

In the midst of a discussion in work a few years back I raised the point that we needed to bring in 'professionals' to deal with the problem we were having. Let's say it was a software issue. My colleague said to me, 'what is a professional software engineer', my response was that 'it was someone who gets paid to fix our software issues'. He promptly gave me a one euro coin, 'congratulations, you're now a professional'.

Avatar MIA

Passing exams doesn't make one an accountant, but a certain amount of approved experience by a professional body, with on going supervision and CPD.

Simply passing a B. Eng doesn't make one an engineer, imho.

godtabh

ChippingSodbury wrote: »

Mechanical Engineers build weapons, Civil Engineers build targets...

You do know where civil engineering came from?

Speedwell

My mother used to refer to me (I'm the oldest of three) as a "bull**** engineer" when I was a preteen because I knew a lot from reading all the time, was excessively verbal, and had inherited the family talent for saying any old rubbish sincerely and with a straight face. My father, a bona fide electromechanical engineer (back when there was such a thing) used to give her a look that plainly said, that was aimed at me, wasn't it.

mikhail

snowflaker wrote: »

What are you if you have a B.Comm?

Overpaid.