Degrees

I have a few degrees and I am not afraid to use them!

I have been in school for many years and I am ready to go back at any time. There is something about good professors who inspire me to go beyond the letter of the book and explore for the pure reason of being the best I can be then pay it forward to others and make a difference.

Getting a degree is sometime something that people do before they figure out their true passion and what is the path they should follow to make the greatest impact in the world.

I am a Civil Engineer and each of the degrees I received helped me take a bigger step forward. For the longest time I dreamed of getting a law degree, and I think I still have that dream in one of the grey folds in my head. In the mean time I am practicing engineering and it is a great profession.

Most civil engineering careers start with a B.S. Degree in Civil Engineering and get to a higher level of complexity and responsibility with an MS Degree also in Civil Engineering. May of my students and mentees ask if they should pursue an MS degree; is it worth it; where will it take me. As superficial as it seems my first answer is always “why not?”. I then go further and discus about the focus of the degree. Is it Traffic and Transportation Engineering, or is it Structural and Bridge Engineering? How about Construction Management? And then I talk about the next step: licensure.

All Civil Engineering jobs (I am not including internships) require a BS Degree.

Of the Traffic and Transportation Engineering jobs 40% require an MS degree.

Of the Structural and Bridge Engineering jobs 80% require an MS in Civil or Structural Engineering Degree.

And of the Construction Management jobs only 15% require and MS Degree.

But all Engineering jobs require licensure. The EIT certificate should be obtained before graduating, or soon after graduation. It is customary to work with a P.E. after obtaining the EIT certificate and recording every project and tasks that you worked on during this time. This becomes the background information for the P.E. licensure process. Obtaining the P.E. license was one of the proudest moments of my life. It was hard to obtain and it feels good every single time I seal my work, or my team’s work. It makes me feel in charge and carrying a full load of responsibility on my shoulders.

Back to you. If there is still a desire to go further with your studies and you want to narrow your field even more, pursuing a doctoral degree is an awesome idea. That is when you learn more about one particular subject, then you tell the world about it in a Dissertation. The funny part about the Dissertation is that you have it beautifully bound and give it to your friends and family as a gift. You even open it once in a while only to find a typo or something that just does not look right. And you call yourself a Doctor and have to live with that one spelling error for the rest of your life.

The things you get to do after the B.S. or M.S. or Ph.D. diploma, and your P.E. Certificate(s) hang on your office wall (home office nowadays), are amazing. You get to make a difference!