God's Mysterious Ways

Hey sorry if my post was a little bizarre, it is something that’s been puzzling me and I was feeling philosophical.

> I’m still deciding whether I want to take that beast. I >mean, I honestly think it’ll be "fun" and a good
>challenge and opportunity to learn, but I dread the
>thought of it nonetheless.

In none of my job interviews have I ever been asked about the FE or if I wanted to become a PE. Maybe this is just a Michigan thing, but it seems like no one cares.  At my internship, there were "engineers" from colleges that were not ABET accredited and they got paid the same as the ones from accredited schools.  I guess what you need to decide is how much you want to be able to get sued someday when you are a PE. :-)
Unless it will really make you more hirable in your state it is all a matter of preference.  I will recommend taking it right away if you plan on taking it at all.  I bought the reference manual that they hand out during the exam, and that is a good thing to study.  They won’t be asking you anything you can’t find in the book.  Also, bring a lunch!

Fun?  Come on, it is an 8-hour exam!

>As far as schooling... you sound like one of those
>people who always conquers everything, but still
>always thinks she does poorly.

I *am* one of those people who always passes or does better than she thinks...  my grades and my effort/learning never match up.  I consider it an ongoing miracle.

>I mean... I can definitely relate about regretting your
>level of performance/effort in school, but you
>obviously learned some things if you passed the FE
>and everything.

I learned to guess well, and to do math.  Man, I’m good at math!! :-)  You wouldn’t believe some of the simple statics and circuit problems I couldn’t do.

>I mean, did you graduate and get a job?

Yes and no.  I graduated, no job.  I interviewed a bit because Career Services at GVSU is so helpful to engineers, but I couldn’t land a job.  Not a problem at the moment though because I had told God that I would serve him for 2 years after college.  A speaker at a retreat challenged us as professionals to use that as a way to get into countries closed to missionaries.  Sounded good at the time, had no idea how difficult that would be.  So now I’m going as an English teacher.  Not what I’d planned on, but why not, after all I didn’t turn out to be a great engineer anyway. :-)

I guess I was just ranting because I don’t understand God’s reasoning in letting me pass things I don’t deserve to pass.  Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate it, it has saved me a  lot of money.  Sometimes I just want to figure things out that apparently aren’t my business to know right now.

There were some students from Western Michigan University at the exam when I took it, and they said they were required to take it for a class. However, if you are mechanical or manufacturing, you probably don’t need to take it.  I assume the same for electrical or computer.  However I don’t know anything about structural or civil; it might be important for them.  What is your emphasis?

>I’m a computer engineer (or, will be, in a year), which is
>basically an EE with specialization in computer
>technologies. Well..... and a bunch of programming too.

At GVSU it seemed like the computer engineering students practically earned a double major in CS and EE. Except for my lab partner in Integrated Mfg. Systems; he was the only one I knew who wasn’t like that.  Seemed like he missed out on a bunch of EE classes.  Then again he was a junior.

I don’t know you but from the stuff you have on your web site I bet you’ll be a great computer engineer.  My opinion is worth something you see because my favorite thing is programming PLC’s. ;-)  Hang in there you’ll be done soon.