Engineering Veteran without Formal Engineering Education
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Over at the "Gainful Employment" thread we talked about whether certain jobs require formal education. By chance I came across this news article about a retiring AT&T veteran who managed a 50 year career, reportedly an "engineering career", without having the formal education to be an engineer.
- Kip Turner, employed AT&T (and former versions of AT&T) since 18 years of age, is finally retiring after 50 years with the same company
- He claims to have attended over 150 training courses provide by the company and has learnt everything he needed to do his jobs on the job
- He claims to regret not having taken advantage of the company's tuition support program to complete an engineering degree
- He advises young people to not give up on pursuing jobs they are interested in just because they do not meet the formal education requirements for the jobs
The piece certainly reads like an uplifting, motivational article, and more likely than not Mr. Turner have made good contributions to the profession over the years and makes a good role model for many young professionals.
A couple of things I wish the article also reports:
- Whether Mr. Turner has ever had an engineer's title in any of his many roles at AT&T over the years. While many hi-tech companies (especially software and data networking technology companies) give "engineer" titles to employees with no formal licensing requirements, old school companies tend to only allow employees who hold state recognized "professional engineer" licenses to use the word "engineer" in their job titles.
- Whether Mr. Turner has acquired state license as a "professional engineer," lack of a formal college/university degree to that effect notwithstanding. (There are many who have acquired such licenses without having an engineering degree; there may be even more who have engineering degrees but never acquired a "professional engineer" license.)
Whether the job title has or does not have the word "engineer" and whether the person holds a state recognized "professional engineer" license may or may not be an issue depending on context (certain jobs must be signed off by a state licensed "professional engineer," and who is or is not a "professional engineer" can become an issue when something goes wrong and the lawyers start to argue over accountability and liability). Just that if the article's thrust is to highlight a person's achievement in an "engineering career," details like whether his job title ever carries the word "engineer" or whether he ever holds a "professional engineer" license would seem relevant.
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I worked for five years with a large oilwell drilling equipment manufacturer that sold its drilling and service rigs internationally. The head of Rig Engineering was a master tool and die maker/machinist from the UK. The professional engineers in the organization all sought his knowledge and practical advice on how to solve the tough design engineering problems that would turn up from time to time. He had forgotten more about designing onshore and offshore drilling equipment than most engineers could ever hope to know.
