A brief sharing on how to become a PE~

Bismillah,

*THIS ENTRY MAY BE RELEVANT ONLY TO THOSE TAKING ENGINEERING COURSES*

Yesterday, i had a long..looong chat with my dad in the car. Around 3 hours gakla. Basically we discussed things related to my studies. And there are some points i wanted to share with the rest of the future engineers who's reading my blog.

How to become a Professional Engineer (PE)? Wah2. Haha. Okla. Before i brief skit, let me tell you bout my dad. Yela. Takut nnt baca maklumat ni, kang kata "mana ko dapat bende2 nih? betul ke? serious ke??".

So ok..my dad, Muhamad Fuad is a member of IEM n BEM. But i guess most of his times are with IEM (Institution of Engineers Malaysia). He was the Rep for Electrical Engineer dept. during the 2004/2005 IEM council. You can click here to check: CLICK!!

And skang pn dia still in IEM. And he's one of the examinors (or..we say interviewer) for being a Professional Engineer where u will be entitled to get an IR in front of your name.

Okes. So back to the things i wanted to share. Plz bare in mind this is not 100% briefing towards being a PE, but it's just good for the students like u n me to know and have an idea of it.

1. To all engineerng students:

• Lepas grad, kne register as a graduate engineer dulu kat BEM (Board of Engineering Malaysia).
  
• Degree engineer kita tu must be a 4 year program degree (like UTP..just nice la 4 years kan). This is the requirement coz yg 3 years program degree tak layak utk dpt PE. Diaorg kne topup ngan other things like buat masters or something baru leh recognized as a PE.
  
• Utk nak jadi PE, for working people..like if u grad and work in the industry which is called Practicing Engineer (not teaching or be a researcher), the basic year to become a PE is at least 3 tahun experience in your own field of study. Maksudnye kalo amik mechy, kne 3 years minimum keje in mechanical, kalo amik civil, 3 years min in civil. Etc2. So kne kje at least 3 tahun dulu la utk dptkn sufficient experience. Tapi tu minimum la. The 'just nice time' is like 5 years or 6 years experience.
• Kalau Teacher Engineer (lecturers), minimum 4 years experience. Syarat2 lain adalah sprt:
• 1 year keje kat luar selain lecturer tp dlm bidang yg sama,
  
• 1 year kne ngajor dak2 3rd year or 4th year.

• Bare in mind, if u wanna become a PE with the title IR, sejurus lepas grad dan start kerja..please keep the records of your work. What have u done, your designs, calculation, etc2 that is related to your work, so that masa interview dan submission of experience pnye paper, maka korang dengan mudah bleh cerita tanpa lupe bende2 yg penting. Ini sangat mustahak utk diambil tahu sbb ramai orang yg nak mintak PE gagal utk ingat pengalaman2 bekerja dia. So susah nak korek balik
• Masa korang keje tu plak, wajib kne keje under a Professional Engineer lain yg diiktiraf sbg ahli IEM. Of coursela kalo dah registered as a PE, mestilah diiktiraf kan. Heh. Sebab kalo cthnye keje under a contractor yg takde PE, so korang tpaksa amik skim MENTOR IEM dan kne submit logbook pada MENTOR nih disebabkan kita tak bekerja under a professional engineer

• Sesapa register lepas tahun 2005 (kita pun termasuk skali la yg belum grad nih), kena ade 90 hours PDP. Which is Professional Development Program. Iaitu:
  

• 12 house course tentang OSHA (Occupational Safety Health pe bende tah),
• 12 hours of Engineering management course
  
• 12 hours code of ethic course
• 24 hours kursus yg berkaitan ngan bidang kita. Example kalo amik EE, pegila pape kursus yg ckup sampai 24 jam
• 30 hours utk ape2 program yg related to engineering. Tak kire la pape. Like finance in engineering ke, how to be a future engineer, how to be a success engineer. Etc2.
• Semua kursus di atas disediakan oleh IEM dan rasanya bleh je ade kursus2 luar selain IEM. Dan pengiraannya bermula lepas grad ye. Bukan masa student lagi.
  
• Kemudian, sape2 register lepas 31 May 2008. Haha..which is about 5 days more, dia akan kene sit for examination It's called a competency examination (baru diperkenalkan tahun ni). Iaitu:
• Regulation of Professional Engineer
• Codes & ethics in engineering. Kire undang2 dalam engineering la
• Environment act pnye exam
• Tujuan exam di atas diperkenalkan sebab diaorg kata engineers now days dah tak tahu undang2 yg betul. Main belasah je buat itu ini tanpa mengetahui ethics n laws.
• Lepas kita ade sume documents, experience pnye story line, smua PDP pnye pengesahan, so kita leh submit ke IEM. Then diaorg akan panggil utk interview and ask us questions la. Registering as PE through IEM n BEM is said to be the same coz my dad interview for both pun. So it doesn't have any difference at all.
• One important thing of all, apply for PE in your related course. Diceritakan, ade yg amik Agricultural Engineering, pastu dia grad, keje things related to Civil Engineering pnye field. So dia nak apply jadi PE in civil, tak dapat la. Sebab degree dia tak menunjukkan yg dia qualified utk apply professional engineer in civil although dia keje betahun2 dalam bidang Civil tuh.

2. To EE students. Here are some info got from my dad. Oh ye, he's an Electrical n Electronics graduate from Uni of Southampton, UK. (heh..anak dia kat dalam Mesia je)

• Dunia...i repeat..DUNIA kini kekurangan Electrical Engineer. Haha. Electrical engineer tahu sape? yg amik POwer System, yg amik Power Electronics, Electrical Machines. Ha..tu la Electrical Engineer. Nowdays..ramai yg dah minat pegi ke Electronics Engineering, communication, computer. Yela..coz nowdays orang nampak like maju n etc2. Actually my dad said that his lecturer masa 30 years ago pn said "UK is shortage of electrical engineer". Haha. Bayangkan 30 tahun dahulu dah cakap.
  
• Kalo student UTP sendiri perasan, lecturer power kita pn ade yg dari India. Orang US, UK cmana? Lecturer korang bangsa ape?
  
• Yeah..i must say that Electrical Engineer ni skop dia tak begitu nampak luas la kan. Banyak potensi bekerja pun kat TNB n consultant engineering pnye firm. So that is the reason why people tak go to Electrical sangat walaupun rumors kata Electric ni lagi mudah dari Electronics..haha..(ke mmg betul? - My dad asked me: "sape yg ckp?". Weh..sape eh ckp?)
• But..hehe. But..if you wanna be a Professional Engineer..nak ade title IR. Here's the secret:
• Kalau amik major Electrical, still leh apply for Electronics Engineer pnye PE. U still can get a PE la if u major in Power System, Power Electronics, then you go out in the industry and work as an electronic engineer, kirenye leh la lagi apply for PE in Electronics Engineering
• TAPI..kalau amik major in Electronics Engineering, pastu kuar2, tetibe keje Electrical pnye background, then u are not qualified to apply as a PE Electrical Engineer. Pahamkah? Nak apply jadi PE in Electronics Engineerig pun not qualified gak sebab working experience in Electrical Engineering. Tapi kalo nak gak apply as an Electrical PE, kene amik extra courses ke ape tah..so kinda long way lagi la.
• Kirenye kalo korang benar2 interested nak jadi IR, work in the background what have u taken.
• The reason of the secret above is, Electronics Engineering setakat ini dikatakan adalah sub kepada Electrical Engineering. Belum independant lagi. Tataula if future Electronics Engineer nak berjuang utk asingkan Electric n Electronics.
• Oh ye..ni 1 lagi: Your transcript determine whether u're an Electrical..OR an Electronics Engineer. U know what i mean la kan? Eventho kita pnye nama course is Electrical n Electronics Engineering, but the subjects we're gonna take masa final year nanti will determine what PE can we apply in future. So buatlah pemilihan sblm final year nih. Nak ke mana.

3. Why bother applying a PE n have the IR title?

• Well..kalo ade title PE, in future it will be a good benchmark la if you've got your own company ke kan. Or..if the company you're working with, got lot's of IR people in it, people will tend to recognize u more la than companies yg tak banyak qualified PE eventho diaorg buat keje professional giler
• The function of a PE is to approve works related to engineers in their field la. Like if in building, need a EE PE to approve that the building is safe in terms of electric. The chop la penting tuh. Hehe.
• It's a worldwide standard pun kan? Everywhere in the whole world ade PE which means if u go worldwide one day, and your name has an IR infront of it, so orang akan nampak "oh..he's a qualified professional engineer". Yakin tu lebih sket la kan?

OKes~~

I think that is sufficient enough for me to share here. The reason sharing this is coz i think..(or am i wrong?), that most of us dunno yet bout this. There are few important things that we as a student must be aware of it which is if we wanna apply PE nanti, apply base on our degree that matches our working experience. Or else, would be a bigger problem. 2nd is, when we grad n work nanti, keep aalllllllllllllllll our documents or at least ade something to be as a reference masa nak apply PE nnt.

Me: Nak apply ke eh IR nih? Hehe. Haven't made my mind yet. Oh yeah~ and my interest in communcation (electronics engineering) has been affected from what my dad told. (ni kang jap lagi ade orang lain ckp lain..affected lagi..haha..biaselah student kan..) But still ade lagi interest in communication..so..we'll see lah cmana nnt final year subjects nak amik ape.

All the best engineers and future engineers!! N everyone oso la. Nnt kecik ati yg tak amik engineers tuh~ hehe.

Wassalam