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Man Fined $500 for Crime of Writing 'I Am an Engineer' in an Email to the Gov't

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Re: Man Fined $500 for Crime of Writing 'I Am an Engineer' in an Email to the Gov't

#21
post #5

The chart he created shows he has more engineering skills than the beaurcrats running the Oregon Sate Boards. Another example of government employees being incompentant. Here's one quick example of cities shortening yellow lights for profits.[1] 1. https://www.motorists.org/blog/6-cities-that-were-caught-sho...

* bureaucrats

* State

* incompetent

Re: Man Fined $500 for Crime of Writing 'I Am an Engineer' in an Email to the Gov't

#22
post #4

would you not have to be paid to "practice"

I would argue that payment is not necessarily a requirement. If someone opens a free clinic, should they be allowed to practice medicine without a licence, because it is not really 'practice'?

Re: Man Fined $500 for Crime of Writing 'I Am an Engineer' in an Email to the Gov't

#23
post #16
post #3

Honest curiosity: is it fraud (in the US) to claim that you are a member of a profession that you are not? (I am not saying that is what he intended to do here). For example, if someone owes me money, is it illegal for me to send them a letter, in which I purport to be a lawyer?

There are several facts that affect whether the consequence of claiming to have a professional qualification is regulatory or criminal (being two branches of "illegal"), including (but not limited to), in no particular order: 1. Who you send it to 2. The purpose of the communication 3. The consequences of the communication 4. Whether it is inter- or intra-state 5. What profession it is There are other questions that…

To simplify this: Any title which is protected and governed by law makes it illegal for you to claim the title without being licensed to do so. "Engineer" is one of those titles. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regulation_and_licensure_in_en...

Re: Man Fined $500 for Crime of Writing 'I Am an Engineer' in an Email to the Gov't

#24
post #3

Honest curiosity: is it fraud (in the US) to claim that you are a member of a profession that you are not? (I am not saying that is what he intended to do here). For example, if someone owes me money, is it illegal for me to send them a letter, in which I purport to be a lawyer?

Whether or not you're allowed to call yourself an engineer varies from state to state - as a very rough rule it's more likely to be regulated on the East coast than the West (Oregon excepted as we see here)

Re: Man Fined $500 for Crime of Writing 'I Am an Engineer' in an Email to the Gov't

#26
post #8

Oregon could make a killing fining students practicing engineering in college. Way to pass up a revenue stream.

Is it a violation of a law to write "engineer" on a resume? It's part of my title at both of my jobs - did my employer violate a law by giving a title to someone without a license?

What a crazy world we've created for ourselves.

Re: Man Fined $500 for Crime of Writing 'I Am an Engineer' in an Email to the Gov't

#28
post #3

Honest curiosity: is it fraud (in the US) to claim that you are a member of a profession that you are not? (I am not saying that is what he intended to do here). For example, if someone owes me money, is it illegal for me to send them a letter, in which I purport to be a lawyer?

There are a number of professions in the US where yes, this is somewhat regulated. I can think of a few:

1. Medical doctors 2. Certified Public Accountants 3. Lawyers 4. Professional Engineers 5. Realtors

Many other professions and certifying agencies will claim that a certification is necessary to practice, and that you should pay them for the privilege, but these are some of the few that are legally protected.

You need a "Professional Engineer" certificate from the NSPE to sign off on certain documents. But note that these certain documents are only used in certain fields, like civil engineering. This certification is not required to be (or to claim to be) a software engineer, electronics engineer, mechanical engineer, product engineer, chemical engineer, etc. For example, I've taken many engineering courses, I have a bachelor's of science in engineering degree, and I practice engineering day-to-day without being a professional engineer. In college, perhaps 5% of my graduating class took the PE exam? And now, few of my coworkers, customers, or suppliers are professional engineers - The two individuals that I can think of transferred into the domain out of civil engineering.

The electronics engineer in the article mistakenly stumbled into the territory of civil engineers who are very, very protective of their licensure, and they overreacted IMO. I don't dispute that if he'd claimed to be an NSPE-licensed Professional Engineer, and signed off on documents which are legally required to be approved by a PE, that he'd be deserving of the punishments associated with this fraud (which are much steeper than $500). But the NSPE does not own the generic term "engineer".

Re: Man Fined $500 for Crime of Writing 'I Am an Engineer' in an Email to the Gov't

#29
post #3

Honest curiosity: is it fraud (in the US) to claim that you are a member of a profession that you are not? (I am not saying that is what he intended to do here). For example, if someone owes me money, is it illegal for me to send them a letter, in which I purport to be a lawyer?

[deleted]

Re: Man Fined $500 for Crime of Writing 'I Am an Engineer' in an Email to the Gov't

#30
post #10

I run up against this sometimes in Canada. I studied "Software Engineering" and have a bachelors degree from Australia. I am a member of the Australian Institute of Engineers (accredited degree). If I say something like "I am a Software Engineer" when I work in Canada, any other Engineers will get all prickly and go on about how that's not a recognized kind of Engineer, and it's illegal to say-so, blah blah. Even if…

There's also several specialties relating to software that are similarly lacking "real engineer" status, such as QA engineering, site reliability engineering and security testing engineering.
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