this post was submitted on 26 Dec 2023
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The article is pretty short so it's hard to tell, but I know in other cases there can be a significant difference between whether or not you say you're an engineer when you make these claims.
The term engineer is effectively a trademark controlled by a state licensing board. They want to protect the word engineer so it's clear to the public when someone is speaking as a professional licensed engineer vs not. Overall, this is a good thing and a direct response to specific and numerous very bad things that have happened in the past.
However, this has also resulted in some very awkward situations because the word engineer has almost become a genericized trademark in that there are many people who have the word engineer in their job title but do not have or need a professional engineer's license.
Based on the fact the guy won the case, I'm going to assume he wasn't substantially misrepresenting his qualifications. The headline is very sensationalized though and the article is lacking any detail, so I don't know how relevant this little anecdote is but I find it interesting.
Is it? My tile is "Field service engineer", but I only have on the job training, and an environmental science degree. I know another guy with my title who has no degree. I know it's obviously a different job than a ME or EE, but still officially has engineer in the title.
I have engineer in my title, I work in software, and there kind of is a PE available for software but it's actually just an EE license with maybe half a dozen software questions tacked on. I've never heard of anyone in software actually getting it. It's slightly more common in EE and ME, and I think a lot more common in civil and structural engineering.
I don't know how aggressively state engineering boards actually enforce their hold on the word "engineer", but I still try to be careful. The last thing I want is to get sued for misrepresenting qualifications.