My long road to becoming a licensed Professional Engineer

I studied Civil Engineering at the University of Brighton having been born and bred in Brighton. As is standard in the UK I graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in three years.

While I was at university I met and fell in love with an American who lived in Florida (her name is Martina by the way). Since I was a little more easy-going than her I made the trek to the US rather than the other way around so I now found myself, recently graduated, living in the States.

Work permit and green card issues aside I finally got a job working as a Civil Engineer with Black & Veatch. It wasn’t long before I started investigating what needed to be done to become a professional engineer in Florida. After all, in order to get anywhere in your career it’s somewhat expected/required (as is becoming Chartered in the UK).

As I have a foreign degree the Florida Board of Professional Engineers makes you get your education evaluated, which as I recall, cost about $250. It required getting my university and even my A-level exam boards to send transcripts of all my results directly to the evaluator (they cannot come through you). Several weeks later, I got a letter from them describing all the courses I had taken and how they compare to an ABET degree, which requires 32 credit hours in higher mathematics and basic sciences, 48 credit hours in engineering science and engineering design, and 16 hours in humanities and social sciences.

The burden of communication

The burden of communication is on the communicator

For me, communication is an art and I completely agree that if you want to be understood, it is your duty to clearly and effectively communicate your intent to your audience. As an introvert, this isn’t as easy for me, but a solid grasp on spelling, grammar and your lexicon certainly makes it much easier.

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Muse!

Martina treated me for my birthday and bought me tickets for Muse. She was originally supposed to come, but since she was pregnant, we decided it wasn’t the best idea for her to come.

It was the best concert of my life. Absolutely fantastic. The band themselves are incredible live, and then the sound, effects, energy, lighting and lasers just made for an unforgettable experience.