Career advice
Career advice
(OP)
Hello,
I am a civil engg graduate with 2 yrs of work experience in Oil and gas industry as a design engg. After completing my Masters in Transportation Engg I worked as a traffic engg for 8 months. Worked as an asst prof in college overseas for 6 months too (in civil engg dept, training undergrads). Due to personal reasons, I couldn't take the FE exam and have a career break of 8 yrs now.
I am now ready to work again and ernestly seeking ways to go about it. Is FE really necessary to obtain a job in companies?? How much relevance do online certificate courses hold in gaining a job in the industry?
Any advice on how to go about it would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Juchem.
I am a civil engg graduate with 2 yrs of work experience in Oil and gas industry as a design engg. After completing my Masters in Transportation Engg I worked as a traffic engg for 8 months. Worked as an asst prof in college overseas for 6 months too (in civil engg dept, training undergrads). Due to personal reasons, I couldn't take the FE exam and have a career break of 8 yrs now.
I am now ready to work again and ernestly seeking ways to go about it. Is FE really necessary to obtain a job in companies?? How much relevance do online certificate courses hold in gaining a job in the industry?
Any advice on how to go about it would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Juchem.





RE: Career advice
Should you decide to take the test, remember a few things. First and fore most, the FE is MINIMAL COMPETENCY EXAM. You really only need to score 65-70% to pass, so don't stress to much over the exam (of the people in my class that failed, I'd say about half were due to test anxiety). The second thing is to learn the FE reference manual that is provided for the test. I had the paper test and knowing how to navigate the reference manual was what could make or break a section for you. Since they have switched to electronic, my understanding is that its even quicker to find things using the "Search" function. Finally, just remember the various test taking skills you were taught since you first started taking standardized tests (always fill in an answer; guess the same letter on every question you don't know - for example, my "answer of the day" was "B" when I took the exam; statistically, the answer is NOT "All/None of the above"; etc).
I can't give you any insight into online certification. The only other advice I have is to consider taking a test prep course if you have been out of the civil field for 8 years now just as a refresher. Below is a link to the NCEES (the guys who administer the FE) with a breakdown of how many questions and of what subjects the Civil FE covers.
http://ncees.org/wp-content/uploads/FE-Civil-CBT-s...
Best of luck,
RE: Career advice
I'm a bridge engineer and most of the projects I work on are for government agencies. On many transportation projects
to be a project manager or discipline lead (bridge, highway, traffic) you need to be a PE.