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PE at a Non-Engineering Firm 1

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EVCalvin

Structural
Joined
Aug 12, 2015
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Location
US
I've got a little bit of a pickle, and I'm hoping that the great minds here can give me a hand . . .

By way of background, I started my career as a draftsman doing shop drawings; I passed the FE and got a gig designing tract homes, then passed the Civil/Structural PE a few years back. I've been living, working and practicing in Colorado.

Recently, an old co-worker of mine from the shop-drawing days started his own shop and brought me on to run his "Technical Services" department. We're legally not an engineering firm, and we're not marketing engineering services. Now that I've joined, we're working on changing that, but it's going to be a long road.

In my current role, I'm giving advice to Engineers of Record, but I'm not stamping anything. In the old days, I'd give that advice to the PE that owned the shop, and he'd pass it over to the EOR because "Old Boss, PE"'s advice went down a lot smoother than "Calvin Surname, Sr. Draftsman"'s advice did. Can I sign my emails "Calvin Surname, PE"? I don't want to open us up for a professional error suit before we have E&O insurance.

The second, related issue, is that, while I'm still in Colorado, the company is located in Texas. I'm working on reciprocation now, but I also don't want to get gigged for practicing in a jurisdiction where I'm not licensed. My solution was going to be signing email "Calvin Surname, PE (CO ######)", but I thought I'd bounce it off the collected wisdom here before I sent it to customers.
 
On the insurance end, I don't think it makes any difference how you sign your name as to what your liability is.
A while back, Texas came out with a statement on the second issue, look on the Texas website for directives/ interpretations and updates thereto. It was along the lines of signing your name as "John Doe, Not Licensed In Texas" or something similarly awkward.
 
Keep in mind that no matter the company status or issue, as a licensed professional engineer you will always be held to a higher standard than a non-engineer doing the same stuff.
 
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