LIMCO Engineering

Tag: professional engineering

  • Is Engineering Still a Viable Profession?

    Is Engineering Still a Viable Profession?

    Reflections from Courtney Currie, P.E.

    After more than three decades in the field, Courtney Currie, P.E., has seen engineering evolve in ways few professions have. With 35 years of experience spanning Jamaica, the wider Caribbean, and the United States, his journey offers both a historical lens and a practical perspective on one pressing question: is engineering still a viable profession today?

    A Career Built Through Change

    Currie’s early years in engineering coincided with a period of rapid technological transition. He recalls returning to his field office at General Electric in Columbia, Maryland, early in his career and being handed a laptop, an uncommon tool at the time. Up until then, his most trusted companion had been an HP48S calculator, which carried him through his studies at Howard University.

    That early laptop was modest by today’s standards, with limited storage and processing power. Yet it introduced a meaningful convenience. Field manuals were now stored on CD-ROM. Instead of flipping through printed volumes, engineers could quickly access information digitally, an early sign of how technology would reshape the profession.

    Currie had already begun adapting to this shift during his senior year at Howard University, when the School of Engineering introduced a modern computer lab. These early exposures laid the foundation for a career that would continuously evolve alongside technological advancement.

    Engineering Under Pressure

    One defining moment in Currie’s career came during his time at General Electric, where he was among the first engineers trained on the EPIC system, an add-on for switchgear that allowed protective devices to communicate in real time with centralized control systems like SCADA.

    While commissioning an EPIC system at an oil refinery in New Jersey, a breaker unexpectedly tripped, cutting power to an active section of the plant. Within minutes, engineers flooded the electrical room. Amid the urgency, Currie remained composed. Drawing on both his technical expertise and practical experience, he restored power within five minutes.

    Moments like these highlight a critical truth about engineering. Beyond theory, it demands calm decision-making, adaptability, and confidence under pressure.

    Learning Beyond Your Discipline

    Engineering, as Currie emphasizes, is fundamentally about problem-solving. One example stands out. A client once requested specifications for a reverse osmosis water treatment plant, well outside Currie’s specialization as an electrical engineer.

    Despite initially pointing out the gap in expertise, he was met with a simple challenge. “But you’re an engineer, aren’t you?”

    Over the next two days, long before the convenience of modern search engines, Currie immersed himself in the subject. By the end, he had developed a working understanding of reverse osmosis, enabling him to design the system, perform the calculations, and deliver a complete specification.

    This experience underscores a defining trait of successful engineers. They learn quickly, apply fundamentals, and solve problems beyond narrowly defined roles.

    A Shift in the Profession

    However, the profession has not remained unchanged. Currie has observed a gradual shift in how engineering is perceived and practiced.

    In earlier decades, experience was one of the most valuable assets an engineer could possess. Career advancement was closely tied to years of hands-on work and accumulated knowledge. Currie notes that while he was always competent, it was not until around age 50, with over 24 years of experience, that he felt truly confident in his decision-making approach.

    Today, that emphasis on experience appears to be diminishing. Many engineering graduates are pursuing advanced degrees in business or finance, seeking career mobility outside traditional engineering roles. As a result, innovation and technical depth often take a back seat to business strategy and financial performance.

    At the same time, the profession has become increasingly shaped by new labels and buzzwords. Titles like robotics engineer have emerged, often repackaging traditional disciplines such as electrical and mechanical engineering into more marketable terms. While not inherently problematic, this shift can blur understanding and undervalue foundational engineering principles.

    The Impact of Economic Shifts

    Broader economic changes have also played a role. During the height of its manufacturing dominance, the United States relied heavily on engineering talent, with specialization driving productivity and output.

    However, the transition from manufacturing to a service-based economy, particularly in financial services, altered this landscape. Engineers who once thrived in industrial environments often found fewer opportunities to apply their expertise in the evolving economy.

    Currie believes this shift significantly contributed to the profession losing some of its appeal, especially in the United States. Despite a population of over 350 million, there were fewer than one million licensed engineers in the country as of 2022, a statistic that reflects both the profession’s exclusivity and its reduced prominence.

    So, Is Engineering Still Viable?

    Despite these challenges, Currie’s conclusion is clear. Engineering remains not only viable but essential.

    There is an undeniable paradox at play. While the profession may seem to have lost some of its traditional prestige, the demand for engineers, both globally and domestically, continues to grow. Infrastructure development, technological innovation, energy systems, and emerging industries all rely on engineering expertise.

    Yet seasoned professionals often find themselves navigating a landscape shaped by HR trends, keyword-driven job descriptions, and shifting expectations that do not always align with real-world practice.

    Still, the core of engineering endures. It is a discipline rooted in problem-solving, innovation, and the practical application of knowledge to improve lives and systems.

    Final Thoughts

    Engineering may look different today than it did 35 years ago, but its foundation remains unchanged. As Courtney Currie’s career demonstrates, success in this field requires more than technical knowledge. It demands adaptability, continuous learning, and the confidence that only experience can bring.

    In a world driven by constant change, one thing remains certain. Engineering is not fading, it is evolving. And for those willing to grow with it, it continues to be a deeply viable and rewarding profession.

  • Substantiating the Value of Engineering

    Substantiating the Value of Engineering

    Engineers are having great difficulty substantiating the value of proposed fees to potential clients. With more than thirty-four years in the business, I still face each request for a fee proposal with a certain amount of trepidation.  The million-dollar question is, will the client accept the proposal? This trepidation is born out of the fact that I may be forced to convince beyond a shadow of a doubt that the proposed service is value for money

    Tertiary engineering education did not adequately prepare me for this reality, as my first few positions as an engineering graduate were far removed from business.  Would anyone readily question GE about their value for money?  After all, GE’s tag line was “We bring Good Things to Life”.  Goodyear Jamaica was the sole tyre manufacturer and, as such, could set the price of its tyres, leaving consumers with no choice but to purchase its brand or those it offered.  The Caribbean Cement Company was void of competition, leaving consumers with no choice.  The practising consulting engineer, on the other hand, has to work diligently to obtain confirmation of an accepted proposal.

    I have practised my craft in several jurisdictions, and the reality I faced in each was the same.  Multi-lateral agencies such as the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank and the Caribbean Development Bank all have a healthy respect for the practice of engineering and the value an engineer brings to the projects they fund in the public sector.

    The private sector, on the other hand, presents a different scenario, particularly in jurisdictions where professional regulation is not strictly enforced.  Jamaica, for example, has an Engineering Registration Act, the Professional Engineers Registration Act 1987.  The Republic of Trinidad & Tobago also has similar registration legislation; however, the enforcement in both jurisdictions is nothing compared to the requirements in Florida.  The Registration Board in Trinidad encourages citizens to use a Registered Engineer for construction design or works, but its legislation does not effectively prevent non-registered engineers from practising.  The local authority does not insist on signed and sealed design documentation.  In Jamaica, it is slightly different, as the Registration Board can prevent unlicensed engineers from practising.  The problem is that local authorities do not require mandatory signed and sealed construction design documentation.  This does not apply in Florida, where the signing and sealing of design documentation is stringently enforced.  Registration Boards in defined jurisdictions are mandated to ensure public safety from subpar engineering designs and works.

    Furthermore, apart from public safety issues, engineers add value, which is one of the most important intangible assets. The homeowner, whose cut-stone retaining wall failed the moment it was backfilled, placed his trust in his construction workers, without a design executed and supervised by an engineer. This is just one such avoidable and costly catastrophe.  The operator at the water treatment plant whose plant suffered a total shutdown due to a ground-fault failure event, because the electrical protective devices were not properly coordinated by an engineer, is yet another example.  The business owner, who had decided to expand his operation and belatedly discovered that the cost of the electrical infrastructure needed to support this expansion is unaffordable, as the earlier electrical distribution system was not designed by an engineer but rather installed by an electrician, lacking expansion capacity.  Engineers bring value by ensuring designs have sufficient capacity for current and future needs. Thus, the failure to use design professionals can be costly.

    The number one barrier to accepting the necessity of engineering consultancy is the fee. Clients usually focus on the magnitude of the fee proposal rather than the tasks outlined in it. A client’s first reaction to an engineering fee proposal, many times, is “This is expensive!”  However, on careful analysis, it becomes clear that the cost of using engineering services, as a percentage of the project construction cost, is a mere 4%.  The logical question that an engineer hopes a client would then ask is: “Can I afford NOT to use this professional input?”

    Variations can and will occur on construction projects, whether or not there is a professional engineering input.  However, the variations are significantly more costly to the client when incomplete designs are used in the absence of the required engineering services.  As a consequence, clients are left with the only option of paying significant premiums during construction through variations.

    Engaging consulting engineers from project conception through implementation delivers the best value for money.