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The Ultimate Guide to Writing Your Experience Record
- By Blake
- On
Part of your application process will be demonstrating to the board that you have had enough of the right experience to become a licensed professional engineer. This is accomplished by writing your Experience Record (ER), also known as an Engagement Record, or Verification of Professional Experience. This document details the progression of engineering experience you have had from your first day on the job until the time of your application. It will describe in technical terms the situations where you have designed or performed analysis to solve an engineering problem.
I have linked to my Experience Record as a reference for you as you read through this article and as you prepare your own. Use it as an example for what to say, how to format it and what the board wants to see. I had no trouble getting approved with this Experience Record and it is inspired by others’ ERs that were easily accepted by the Texas board as well.
The application process, including writing of your Experience Record, is regulated by the board of engineering in each state. They are the ultimate authority for the specific process for your state. You can find a list of state boards here.
1: Preparing to Write Your Experience Record
Before you start writing your Experience Record, you should take a few minutes to understand the requirements that the board will need to see. They have standards for the length of time and the quality of experience needed. Knowing what they expect ahead of time will make the process go more smoothly.
The state board will have the form you are required to use on their website. They will indicate the important information that should be included on each page. Most forms include the experience record component as well as the reference component. Your references will sign off on the appropriate pages of your experience record to verify your experience and will complete the reference portion of the form confidentially.
You will want to discuss your experience in the context of engagements. An engagement is typically defined as a time period for which engineering experience was gained without a significant change of responsibility. This would mean working at one company in one role. A change in employment or position within a company would require you to list the experience as a different engagement.
The experience record portion of the form must be completed in sufficient detail to allow the board to determine that the nature and the extent of the engineering work you are claiming has met their requirements.
1.0.1 Meeting The Time Requirement
Your ER should show your experience from the beginning of your first engineering job until the current date. The date range of the ER should be at least the minimum experience time required by your state in order to submit an application as an engineer. For example, if, based on your education and experience requirements, the state board mandates that you have 8 years of experience before submitting an application, your ER date range should show at least 8 years. If it’s shorter than the required time, it will be rejected by the board.
2: Meeting The Experience Requirement
It’s important to show the progression of experience from your first year to the time of your application. You’ll want to show the board that you progressed in your engineering decision-making and technical abilities as time went on.
A common problem when writing your Experience Record is knowing what experience qualifies. There are a myriad of engineering activities from every discipline that the boards see. Attempting to narrowly define them would be impossible.
The best way to determine if your experience counts as professional-level work is if you can describe your work using the terms “I designed” or “I analyzed”.
As you determine which projects and issues you want to use for your ER, think about whether you designed or analyzed. Depending on the nature of your work, you are likely to have much more of one than the other. Throw out any potential entries that don’t meet this requirement.
Below are some examples of professional-level engineering activities. This is not an exhaustive list. The point is to give you an idea about what is typically considered the right kind of experience for your ER.
- Performing design and/or analysis
- Deciding questions of methods of execution
- Determining suitability of materials without relying upon advice or instructions from your superiors
- Supplying solutions to deficiencies in plans
- Correcting errors in design without first referring them to higher authority for approval, unless that is the normal process for your company or industry.
- Undertaking investigations or carry out assignments which demand resourcefulness and originality
- Conducting field inspections
- Report reviewing
- Start-up reviewing
- Making and checking plans
- Writing specifications
- Directing drafting and computations for engineering design
It’s important to show your level of responsibility increasing over time. You can show sub-professional engineering tasks from the beginning of your career on your ER. You should limit it to one or two entries though. It’s natural for your tasks to be less autonomous when you first begin. The board wants to see where you started and where you are now. Your last entries should show more responsibilities and more complex problem solving. For example, a sample progression may be along this spectrum: drafter, junior engineer, engineering team leader, project engineer, engineering manager, vice-president of engineering, etc. The problems that you use your engineering judgement on to provide solutions for should progress in a similar manner.
3: Listing Past Projects
Take some time to jot down a list of the notable projects you have worked on. You’re looking for engineering challenges or problems you have solved over the course of your career. For now, list the name of the project and a few words to a sentence about what the issue was that you will write about. You will flesh out each project and issue later. Shoot for 6-8 issues which will get you close to the 10-12 pages of quality engineering experience you want the board to see.
It may be difficult to think back several years to dig up project and issues. If you’re having trouble, browse through work documents that you have available. Examples could be project files/archives on the company server, qualifications packages listing past projects, or your company or former company’s website.
An out of the box idea is to listen to some music or visit a place that reminds you of where you were in your life a few years ago. That always seems to help jog my memory and take me back to that time.
4: A Note to Young Engineers
If you’re a young engineer who is reading this article as a look ahead down the road, good for you. Here’s some advice I would give to you:
Start TODAY writing down all of the projects you have worked on or are currently working on!
Every time you encounter a notable engineering problem that you participated in solving, make note of it. Use a notebook, Word document, whatever, just write it down. I like to use Google Docs because I can access it anytime from any computer with an internet connection and is backed up and secured by Google.
What you will end up with is a record of every project you have been on and the problems that you solved for the past four or more years. That is the perfect starting point for crafting your ER. You will thank your past self profusely for being so wise as to write this information down when you did. It beats the hell out of having to rack your brain trying to remember project details from years ago as you stare down the barrel of an application deadline.
5: How To Write Your Experience Record
Now let’s get to the nuts and bolts of writing your Experience Record. Here is a link to my Experience Record to use as a reference.
The first thing you will do is start a Word document, take the list of projects and issues you made, and start fleshing each one out by writing down every relevant detail about them that you can remember. You want to write as if you are telling a story. First, set up the situation, describe the problem, and then detail the process you used to achieve a solution. Use first person active voice to describe your activities, such as “I designed” ,“I performed”, “I calculated”, “I measured”, etc. Remember that although you are writing to a board of PEs, they are likely not in your engineering discipline. Write in descriptive terms as if you were speaking to someone who is unfamiliar with your type of work. Don’t dumb it down or omit technical terms, just use as much information as necessary to describe the problem or situation.
5.1 Tips for Writing Your Experience Record
Here are some additional tips to keep in mind when completing the rough draft of your Experience Record:
- Do not include confidential or proprietary information in your descriptions.
- You want to shoot for 10-12 pages of experience. This should be enough experience to show the board that you are qualified to sit for the exam. The page count will vary based on the amount of space your forms provide. State boards differ on the size of their forms. Use my Experience Record as a guideline for the amount of information to include.
- Even if you are on the eight year plan don’t submit more than 12 pages. Even if you have enough legitimate experience to fill up more than 12 pages, it’s too much. Condense the information into no more than 12 pages max.
- Distinguish work personally performed form group efforts. Show the appropriate time duration in years and months on your Experience Record for the amount of work you performed individually. Time counted as part of the group effort cannot be counted.
- You must show at least one professional engineer (or acceptable) reference for each engineering engagement for minimum experience requirement.
- Detailed description of engineering work.
- Don’t use the the terms “see attached” or “see NCEES record” on your forms. The inclusion of additional documents and/or a resume is not acceptable. These may not be substituted for the completed engagement record portion of the forms. You must detail your engineering experience on the forms provided by your state board.
- Projects do not necessarily have to be identified by name. The description should contain sufficient technical information so that the reviewer can judge the importance of the project and/or its uniqueness.
- If you have similar experience on multiple projects, describe in detail the best one. List the others at the end under the heading “Other projects similar in scope” or similar wording.
- For construction projects, always include the total construction budget for the project as a way of gauging the size of each project. Use the total construction budget and not the fee that your company received. It sounds more impressive that way.
5.2 Cleaning up Your Rough Draft
After completing a rough draft of each project issue, reread each one and rewrite them as you find necessary. Do this at least a day after you write the rough draft. A fresh set of eyes is critical to good writing, so get a good night of sleep first. You’ll want to approach it as if you are a stranger, being mindful to include all information necessary to properly describe the problem and solution. It’s possible that you may have left out some key details that were in your mind but did not make it to paper on your rough draft. It happens all the time.
Clean up the rough draft and recruit a second set of eyes to read them. Then, enlist friends, family, your English professor or anyone skilled in the written word to look over and proofread your ER. Getting a colleague or two to proofread your ER for technical soundness is critical too.
Once you have made those corrections, copy them onto the official forms provided by your state board. This way you’ll have a good idea of how many pages you have in your ER. If you are less than 9-10, think through some additional issues that you can include on your ER.
Check that you included all details and that they are correct. Look at the page numbers, total construction cost numbers for each project, the numbering of each engagement is in sequential order, and that the time claimed for each engagement adds up correctly. You’ll want to make sure that the time adds up to at least the minimum requirement. Check that it doesn’t add up to more than the time you were actually employed there, obviously indicating a math error.
6: Give your Experience Record to your References for Review
Then, the next step is to give your ER to your references for their review. By following the above process, you’ll give them the best looking Experience Record possible. You’ll only inspire confidence in your references if you give them a nice, sharp, great looking ER for them to review and sign off on. They’ll certainly have some comments, but they will look much better if they have already been reviewed.
Finally, after you make the corrections they give you, you’ll have the finished copy to give back to them for their signatures and yours. They will also complete the reference portion of the form, combine it with their signed copy of the ER, place it in an envelope and seal it. They can either give it back to you in a sealed envelope for you to send in to the board, or they can send it directly to the board themselves.
6.1 References
Your references will sign off on each page of your Experience Record that applies to them as evidence to the board that you have gained the proper experience. Ideally your references will be your supervisors or colleagues that you have worked with on the projects listed on your ER. People change jobs and lose contact with those that they worked with previously. The board knows this, so they allow other references to sign off on your ER if the most relevant supervisors are unavailable.
Your references will also have to complete and submit a confidential candidate recommendation. This form will ask your reference to rate and describe your competency, judgement, and moral character. Each reference will complete their individual reference and sent directly to the board, without you touching them or reading them.
7: Who Should Be Your Reference?
The person signing your ER doesn’t always have to be direct supervisor. Some states allow someone to sign as a reference who is simply familiar with your work. This can mean someone who is a step or two up but someone who is knowledgeable about your skills and abilities as an engineer.
Some states allow you to use references who are not PEs. This usually requires the use of additional references. Most states still require that at least one reference be a professional engineer.
No matter what, be sure to choose people that you know well and who you are confident will give you a good recommendation!
Read my Complete Guide to PE Application References for more information.
8: Submitting Experience Records
Submit your Experience Record along with the rest of your application by the application deadline. Be sure to remind your references to get their forms in the mail on time. As mentioned before, you can collect the reference forms from each of your references. They must first secure them by sealing the envelope, signing and/or sealing the back of the envelope with their stamps and taping them across the signature.
Most states have online portals where you can log in to see each requirement of your application and the status of each item.
9: Writing Your Experience Record – The Bottom Line
The purpose writing your Experience Record is to convince the board that you have sufficient experience to be licensed. They are making the determination about whether you are competent enough to be a licensed professional engineer. Give them every opportunity to see that you have a long track record of engineering problem solving. Demonstrate to them your ability to handle more complex problems and analysis over time.
Remember, your state board is the ultimate authority on much of the PE application process. Check in with them for the last word on writing your Experience Record. You can also comment below and I’ll do what I can to help.
19 responses to “The Ultimate Guide to Writing Your Experience Record”
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Hi Blake,
Browsing through your website has been really helpful. I have two questions:
1) You mention in this article that there are Experience Records available on the Texas Board website, but I wasn’t able to find any, do you have a specific link?
2) I have a friend who didn’t finish his degree (we’re from a state where a four year degree isn’t necessary to sit for the PE) do you have any experience in developing a ER for someone without a degree?
Any help would be appreciated!
Hi Steph,
I’m glad the site has been helpful for you! Below is the link where you can find the blank Supplemental Experience Records (SER) (Form EB-13) on the Texas Board website:
https://engineers.texas.gov/downloads.htm
Scroll a little past halfway down the page under the section titled “License Application Forms” and you’ll see links to download it in Word and PDF forms.
You mentioned that you aren’t in Texas, so please be aware that your state may require you to use a different form than the one on the Texas Board website. Let me know if you need help with this. I can help you dig around on your state board’s website.
Your friend who doesn’t have a degree will follow the same process as described in the post when developing his SER. He will want to show an increase in experience from his first few projects through his latest projects and will want to describe his entries in terms of things he designed and/or analyzed. He likely has more than four year’s experience so he will have the benefit of choosing from many projects and experiences. If he takes the time to list them all out, he will surely have a wealth of great entries to include on his Experience Record and should be good to go.
Hi – I just passed my written PE exam but have not submitted my Record of Experience yet. Yesterday I came back from a three day vacation and was fired at the end of the day from the firm I have been working for almost four years. It is small with only 12 engineers. A new partner started about 6 months ago who I was assigned to and he brought large clients. Apparently, he threw me under the bus when the client got upset about the project while I was out. I was in such shock that I just signed what they put in front of me and left. I don’t know how I can finish my pe without the information I have on the projects I did on my work computer, and the company references… much less get a new job. Any advice? Thank you.
Hey Ann, sorry to hear that! The first thing that I’ll say is that you can and will definitely be able to get a new job as well as finish up your Experience Record. Things like this happen all the time, and sometimes it helps to know that you’re not the only one that has experienced something like this.
If I were you, the first thing I would do is sit down and list out all of your past projects and start making notes by memory of what you did on each of them and all the relevant details that you can remember. Are you friends with any of the licensed engineers that you worked under? If so, you may be able to contact them directly and ask that they be a reference for you and sign off on your Experience Record. Being a reference for you is independent of the firm you work for and, politics aside, shouldn’t be a problem. If not, I would look to other licensed engineers that you worked with on these projects from other firms. They can usually serve as references as well. Call your state board or check out their website to be sure.
You can definitely use these past projects on your Experience Record even though you don’t work there anymore. You’ll want to have the name of the project and the total construction amount (not the fee your firm received). In addition to that, your entry will be about the technical details of what the project was about and the role you played in analyzing or designing as discussed in the blog post. You won’t have to be super specific with the details/numbers. Having worked on these projects, you will be sufficiently knowledgeable to create a great entry on your ER. If you are able to use some of your former colleagues for references, they can help fill in some of the details if needed.
Keep your head up Ann, and congrats on passing the PE exam!
Thanks for your response. I am a little concerned about how to come up with a total project construction number. I know what they billed me out per hour. But I am guessing you are referring to the actual construction cost of the entire project…. right? I don’t have that number because only the three partners have that info. I was assigned directly to a partner and so are the other engineers and they are not pe’s either. Just the three partners. I did not work with outside pe’s. Thank you for taking your time to read this.
Yes, I am referring to the total construction cost of the entire project. Depending on the type of work you were doing, that information is often public and can be found from a Google search. You may have to dig around a little bit, but I have found the total construction cost for many of my past projects this way.
Were you planning on using the three partners for your licensed PE references? What state are you in? I can help you look at their licensing laws to figure out the best way to proceed.
Yes I was. California.
Dear Blake,
This is Tareq living in the New York City. I passed FE (Other Discipline) from Hampshire Board and got the Engineer in Training certificate in Jan 10, 2019. Now I’m planning for PE (HVAC & Refrigeration) exam but hesitating with my experience.
I started my engineering career as Production Officer in a Bag Mfg. Factory for 06 months and after that I passed a long career of 10 and half years in a Commercial Vehicle Distributorship in a foreign country. I started there as service engineer and end up by heading the service department as Deputy General Manager. I did lot of technical analysis on engine and transmission failures beside sales and service management development. My supervisor was an engineer with lot of experience but he has no PE license (From foreign country). After coming here at USA, I joined a truck dealership and serving as a Product Support Manager for the last 4 and a half years. Unfortunately, my boss has no engineering degree/ license but he worked for Mitsubishi for long years. I was studying masters in Mechanical Engineering at City College (CCNY) and currently stopped it to sit for the PE exam. I got my Citizenship, here. I am also a student member of ASME and a fellow member of Engineers Institution of the foreign country. I know lot of PE certified engineers of my community who personally know me well.
But, with the experience requirement to be qualified for the exam I am hesitating for my eligibility and now I’m at a loss. I noticed you are helping lot of persons to shape their dream. So, I thought of getting your help for guidance what to do at least to have an opportunity to sit for the exam. Kindly, inform me if you have any queries.
Truly appreciate for your time and kind support.
Sincerely,
Sabeh S Tareq
Hey Tareq,
I would recommend contacting the New York State Board of Professional Engineering. Here is a link to their Contact page: http://www.op.nysed.gov/prof/pels/pecontact.htm. It is ultimately their decision about what counts as proper engineering experience, so I would definitely check with them. I am encouraged by your experience performing technical analysis on engine and transmission failures. Anytime you can describe your engineering experience as “I analyzed” or “I designed”, it usually means it’s good quality experience that the board will often accept. I would focus on that when contacting the board and describing your engineering experience. I had a similar question when I applied, so I called my state board and they cleared it up for me. I am curious why you want to take the HVAC and Refrigeration PE exam. It seems to me that you would be better off taking the Machine Design and Materials PE exam within the mechanical discipline based on your experience. Are you currently working in an HVAC-related field? Hope this helps. Let me know if I can help you further.
Hello,
You web site is really very helpful, so glad that I found it
Would you please extend on the different types of duties that could be considered engineering as well.
For instance, I have done cost estimates, draw plans, sections, as built, performing scheduling/planning, site inspections, managing construction as well as some surveying work.
Also, I have 10 years outside the states and 6 years inside the states, would the experience outside the states count?
Thanks for your help.
Hey Morad! It’s likely that your experience outside the states would be considered by your state’s board, but you would have to ask them to confirm. Most of the tasks you described are not usually considered engineering experience. Typically engineering experience is described using the verbs “designed” or “analyzed”. But if I were you, I’d check with your state board to be sure. When I applied, I asked about some of my prior work experience and, to my surprise, they counted it as engineering experience. The only way to know is to ask them. Hope that helps! Best of luck on your journey and let me know what they say!
Hello sir. I am preparing my application package for the Texas PE Exam. I have just finished writing up all of my SER forms for 15 years of experience! Unfortunately for quite a bit of my experience was under supervisors that were not PEs (especially working for oil and gas companies). How should I go about approaching the PE reference mandate? Should I just have them be a reference anyway? For some projects I used outside engineering firms for some of the work and they always had a PE as the PM. Would using third party firm as reference be ok?
Thanks in advance for your help! God Bless!
I know from experience that the Texas Board is very helpful with these types of questions, so I recommend you call them and explain your situation. I had a somewhat similar experience in that I did not work directly under the supervision of a professional engineer, but the Board told me it would count due to the nature of the work (it was building fire sprinkler design) since I could describe the experience using the words “I designed” or “I analyzed”. It sounds to me that your experience would fit this criteria. Of course I don’t get to make that decision, so I encourage you to call the Board and find out. I wish you the best of luck!
I set up my NCEES record in 2012 for a “just in case” scenario where I might have to transmit my record to another state to get my PE license. I now have a job where I need to get licensed in other states. I logon to NCEES to transmit and learn that I essentially have to start the record process all over.
In my first job I was there part-time prior to graduation and then full-time after graduation. I only worked there for a few months after graduation and moved on to something I found more enjoyable. In my NCEES record it asked for my work experience and they rejected what they had previously accepted in 2012 for my first job. I found old copies of my resume and pulled a few examples from that and put those in my work experience. I resubmitted and NCEES approved and forwarded to my former supervisor. This is where things get confusing for me. I don’t know if my former supervisor is still there. How long should I wait for him to respond? I’ve tried calling the office but no one answers likely due to working from home because of COVID-19.
My memory is a little fuzzy after 20 years (partly due to a TBI) and I am having difficulty recalling specifics about my experience and I am questioning everything I wrote. There are two pieces that are troubling me. One of the things I’m questioning is my job title. I can’t remember if I was a project engineer or project manager. Talking with some of my former co-workers who started about the same time I did we have a common problem. They too are unsure of their titles and putting down engineer, senior project manager, project engineer, and project manager on their applications. I still have my old business card and it does not have a job title just my name and contact info. I’m not sure the company ever really stated what my title was and apparently they didn’t with other people (new hires out of college). Second piece is one job example from an old resume that I do not recall doing. I might remember more if I could talk to my former supervisor. Most of the work we did was in the field by ourselves with some design and drafting in the office. My former supervisor must have signed off on the job title back in 2012 because I’ve not heard anything about it and my record was good to go. If he doesn’t agree with the job title/experience what would I do? Would I resubmit with corrected info as requested or would I even have that option? When I submitted to NCEES for review I was focused on the other jobs I’ve had which is a different area of engineering and bulk of my experience. Thinking on this a little more I’m not sure if I should try to contact NCEES and try to retract that work experience. Thoughts?
Amanda, I would recommend contacting NCEES directly and speaking with someone who can work through some of these specifics with you. That’s your best bet. Generally, I find that these types of difficulties are able to be overcome when you can talk to one of the people at NCEES who can make a decision about this. In the absence of communication with NCEES to get this resolved, I would suggest piecing together your work history as best as you can and omitting the job example in question if possible. As far as job titles, I don’t think that is all that important as long as it is descriptive of your responsibilities at the time. I hope these suggestions are helpful and I wish you the best of luck in getting this resolved and getting licensed in other states!
Thanks for the information Blake, it’s very helpful and well explained.
You’re very welcome. Glad it’s been helpful for you!
I have a question regarding how the Board would prefer me to address experience that I do not have a registered engineer as a PE reference. The SER requirements state that the SER must include every engagement from the date of receipt of my first engineering degree. I have two prior engagements with the following conditions:
1. engagement was performed under direction of a licensed PE who has since retired and let their PE license expire.
2. engagement does not have a licenced or expired PE to reference (international company and no PE’s present)
I do not require the two above engagements to meet the minimum year requirement, but the work does demonstrate completeness and progression since receipt of my first engineering degree.
Should these be included in the SER? If so, should the reference be left blank, or referenced by non-licenced supervisors?
Paul, my apologies for the late response, I missed the notification of your post. If I were you I would include the experiences you mentioned. In most states you can have a licensed engineer review and sign off on experience for which they did not directly supervise you if they have worked with you and are familiar with your work. I would recommend finding a licensed supervisor or industry peer that you have worked with before and have them serve as your reference for these engagements. And you’re right, this experience seems that it would show a progression of experience and responsibility, which is what boards are looking for.