I have been MIET on and off over the years. The application process for CEng does seem a bit daunting. A few of my colleagues who are registered were on Graduate Schemes with larger corporations straight out of university. These seem to have a more clear path and development plan in place. I have recently started filling in the Career manager and UK-Spec self assessment. Post university I have about 9 years work experience with the last four years being contract work as consultant CQV Engineer on large scale Pharma CapEx projects.

I feel like a lot of my development as an engineer was during the early years of my career and I kinda of missed the window for applying; when all the achievements and development were still fresh in my head. Career wise I think I am coasting moving from contract to contract and slowly increasing hourly rate. It seems for CEng the expectation is you need to be in lead roles. My accountability diagram has me at the bottom reporting into clients project managers. 

On a side note a lot of the older consultants I work with are CEng registered but its not something they even talk about or put on signatures. Its usually right at the bottom of their Linkedin. But I am sure it comes up when negotiating rates.

Can I even apply for CEng based on my BEng(H) EEE and MSc EEE both being marked as CEng(Requires Further Learning)? Does MBA count on the further learning?

I have reached out to two local professional registration advisors from the IET website with no response. 

Hi Leo,

Really sorry that you've had no response from PRA's, I'd suggest you drop a note to rssu@theiet.org to see if they can help you find one. Because a PRA will be able to help you here, the process is much easier than it appears.

To give general answers to your questions (always dangerous to be specific without knowing the whole story!):

Leo S said:

I feel like a lot of my development as an engineer was during the early years of my career and I kinda of missed the window for applying; when all the achievements and development were still fresh in my head.

CEng is more about your professional approach, and it's likely that that's only improved as you've progressed. It is NOT a technical knowledge exam. Ok, you do need need to show that in your career you have taken technical responsibility for work, and for some engineers who've moved from technical roles to more project management roles this can involve digging back a bit into the career, but a PRA can help with this. But as a very general rule usually the later in your career you apply the easier it is.

Leo S said:

Career wise I think I am coasting moving from contract to contract and slowly increasing hourly rate.

Fine, as long are you are doing work which is showing a level of technical responsibility. Again a PRA can help explain what this means.

Leo S said:

It seems for CEng the expectation is you need to be in lead roles. My accountability diagram has me at the bottom reporting into clients project managers. 

True for many CEngs! You DO NOT NEED TO HAVE ANY STAFF WORKING FOR YOU TO BE CENG. What you need to be showing is technical leadership, that you take responsibility for your decisions, see that they are applied appropriately by clients and other staff, take in feedback and adjust your decisions appropriately, etc etc.

I help many applicants who work in consultancy / contracting roles (I work in such a role myself). You may be working for the client in a line management sense, but chances are that as far as technical responsibility goes there will be aspects where you are higher up the diagram than they are - you are making the decision, they are implementing it (after all, that's what they're employing you for). And for CEng that's what's important. So when advising such applicants I advise them to draw the diagram the other way up, the client is below them as far as technical responsibility goes (of course that also needs to be explained and justified in the application).

Leo S said:

On a side note a lot of the older consultants I work with are CEng registered but its not something they even talk about or put on signatures. Its usually right at the bottom of their Linkedin. But I am sure it comes up when negotiating rates.

And most particularly on bids for work. In our consultancy we've just been reformatting our corporate standard for the CVs we use when bidding for work, and we had to explain to the marketing team that in the UK (at least in our industry field) it was our professional registration and memberships that needed to go at the top, not our academic qualifications which are often pretty irrelevant.  

Leo S said:

Can I even apply for CEng based on my BEng(H) EEE and MSc EEE both being marked as CEng(Requires Further Learning)? Does MBA count on the further learning?

You can successfully apply for CEng with an HNC! There are NO ACADEMIC REQUIREMENTS for CEng. Your qualifications are far more than most applicants have. Now, of course if an applicant does e.g. apply with an HNC the assessors will look for evidence of gaining additional knowledge that allows them to solve complex problems which they've not been trained to solve, but typically that comes through work experience and mentoring.

The only really crucial question is whether at some point in your career you have taken technical responsibility and accountability for either novel technology or for technology in complex or high risk situations, but again this is what you'll find a PRA will explore the most with you. 

Sorry about the CAPITALS, it's not personal, these are just those points which we do find we need to say rather a lot as they are very common myths, which are frustrating as they hold many people back...so just highlit for the benefit of all readers! (And only slightly because we do get a bit frustrated that we still have to say these...) And as the table you posted shows, it doesn't help that "official" information often seems to reinforce these myths. 

Hope that helps, and hope you can find a PRA (I would offer but I'm already swamped with applications at the moment),

Good luck,

Andy

Thank you Andy for the detailed response. I will reach out to rssu@theiet.org to try and find a PRA. Can you take one more  please.

Hi Leo, I've dropped you a PM.

If my IEng application faces another setback in 22 weeks, may I have the foresight to reserve your expertise in advance? 

If my IEng application faces another setback in 22 weeks, may I have the foresight to reserve your expertise in advance? 

I've dropped you a pm too! (sorry for the delay...)