Tell HN: Unpaid home assignments are not ok

Re:Tell HN: Unpaid home assignments are not ok by ghaff on Friday August 12, 2022 @09:18AM (#32438160)

And if you've been working on proprietary things for those 20 years and don't work on your own open projects at home--as would be considered utterly unremarkable if you were a chemical engineer for example--you wouldn't have a portfolio. Yes, if you're a photographer I'd expect to see a portfolio. But that's not true for basically the majority of technical, scientific, and business fields.

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Re:Tell HN: Unpaid home assignments are not ok by shagie on Friday August 12, 2022 @09:33AM (#32438383)

The chemical engineer has an engineering degree. They are possibly also a professional engineer. To retain the PE license, continuing education is a requirement.

> Chemical engineers must, on average, complete 15 hours of technically focused continuing education courses each year. State requirements vary, and some also require courses on ethics, state engineering laws, or professional behavior. Acceptable formats include online courses, live webinars, seminars, and college courses.

So while the PE doesn't have a personal portfolio, they do have a professional one, the tests that they've passed to reach that and the continuing education completion certificates.

The "do things at home" is a way to get a similar type of value as the PE has for continuing education... but not as any formal way of stating it because software development hasn't come up with a good way to do licensure.

So, for all those other technical, scientific, medical, and yes, business fields (the 'C' part of a CPA) which do have licensure, this is a solved problem.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Tell HN: Unpaid home assignments are not ok by ghaff on Friday August 12, 2022 @09:44AM (#32438539)

I can't speak to chemical engineers specifically although it's my understanding that it's mostly civil engineers (and other engineers who work directly with regulators) who get PEs. I can tell you that as someone with mechanical engineering and material science degrees, it's not at all common for people in those fields to get PEs.

Continuing education is a bit of a joke. So you attend a conference once a year, maybe watch some webinars. In general, PEs mean you've gotten an undergrad degree, passed a couple of GRE-type tests and have worked in the industry for a few years.

[ Parent | on HN ]