Career Path

Certification is not required, but could make employers more likely to hire you or offer you a higher salary.

Depending on your education and work experience, you may be eligible for Certified Energy Manager (CEM) certification, offered by the Association of Energy Engineers. There is a combined education and work experience requirement: higher-level degrees can be combined with less work experience, while you can also take the CEM exam with no degree but at least ten years of related work experience. 

Once you have achieved CEM certification, you can go further and pursue a Certified Green Building Engineer credential, if you also hold a PE license.

Licensure is not required to work as an Electrical or Electronics Engineer, although becoming licensed can help advance your career.

To use the title Professional Engineer (PE), you must have a PE license; but you do not need to be licensed as a PE to practice engineering in the U.S.

• You must have a PE license if your work will require you to do specific tasks, such as stamp and seal designs or testify as an expert witness in court, or if you wish to be self-employed or start your own engineering firm.
• However, many engineers work in the U.S. without a PE license if their position does not require it.

Licensing as a professional engineer (PE) in the US is complex and can take many years. Although requirements vary by state, a PE license typically requires:

• A bachelor’s or master’s degree in engineering from a program accredited by the Engineering Accreditation Commission (EAC) of ABET, or from a jurisdiction that has signed an engineering Mutual Recognition Agreement (MRA) with ABET. These include the Seoul Accord for computing programs and the Washington Accord for other engineering programs. See “Mutual Recognition Agreements” below for more information.
  • In the past, ABET recognized a number of international engineering programs as substantially equivalent to ABET-accredited programs. Most of these programs are now accredited. If you graduated with an engineering degree from one of these programs, either during the time that it was recognized by ABET as substantially equivalent or once it obtained ABET accreditation, then your licensing board may accept your degree as equivalent to a U.S. degree.
• A credential evaluation of your degree, if you have graduated from an engineering program in another country that is not ABET-accredited or recognized under a Mutual Recognition Agreement. The results of your credential evaluation will determine your next steps: either you will be found eligible to proceed with the licensure process, or you may have to take some additional courses first.
  • For licensing purposes, the engineering industry prefers that credential evaluations be performed by NCEES Credentials Evaluations, offered by the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying (NCEES). This is the only evaluation service accepted by all state licensing boards.

• Passing the Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) exam, to be taken upon or just before graduating with an undergraduate engineering degree.

• • After passing the FE exam, some states give you Engineer in Training (EIT) or Engineer Intern (EI) status. In other states it is called Intern Engineer (IE), but all three terms mean the same thing. Some states do not give you any special status after passing the FE exam, but it does not matter, because passing the FE exam is the only thing you need to be able to proceed with your licensure process.

• Four years of acceptable work experience in your engineering discipline.

• Achieving an acceptable result on the Principles and Practice of Engineering (PE) exam in your discipline.

To learn about the licensure requirements in your state, contact your local licensing board.

A Mutual Recognition Agreement (MRA) is an agreement between two or more jurisdictions to accept the educational or professional credentials granted under each other’s authority. This means that if you graduated with a specific degree or earned certain professional qualifications in a country covered under an MRA, your credentials may be automatically recognized here in the U.S. Several professions in the U.S participate in MRAs, including accounting, architecture, and engineering.

The Washington Accord is an MRA between engineering organizations in multiple countries to recognize each other’s accredited academic qualifications. If you graduated from an accredited engineering program in one of the 22 non-U.S. jurisdictions covered by the Washington Accord, then your engineering degree may already be declared substantially equivalent to a degree from a U.S. program, and you may not need to obtain a credential evaluation. However, individual state licensing boards have the final authority on whether or not a particular degree meets their specific requirements for licensure. MRAs are not legally binding, and some states may choose not to recognize credentials covered under an MRA.

• In addition to the U.S., the jurisdictions that have signed to the Washington Accord are: Australia; Canada; People’s Republic of China; Chinese Taipei; Costa Rica; Hong Kong, People’s Republic of China; India; Indonesia; Ireland; Japan; Korea; Malaysia; Mexico; New Zealand; Pakistan; Peru; Russia; Singapore; South Africa; Sri Lanka; Turkey; and United Kingdom.

The Seoul Accord covers computing and IT degree programs, which may apply to internationally trained computer engineers and other engineers in computing-related fields.

• In addition to the U.S., the jurisdictions that have signed to the Seoul Accord are: Australia; Canada; Hong Kong, People’s Republic of China; Japan; Korea; Mexico; Taiwan, Republic of China; and United Kingdom.

For engineering technicians and technologists, there are also MRAs that cover 2 and 4-year engineering technology degrees: the Dublin Accord and the Sydney Accord.

If your degree may be covered under an MRA, always check with your state licensing board to be sure that they accept the agreement.