Hi everyone,

Thanks for your helpful replies. My main concern is using a protected title without being permitted to and getting into trouble by mistake!

I asked anerkennung-in-deutschland.de for advice and they basically just said yes if I want to use the title I need to apply for recognition of my qualifications. Looking into it in more detail it looks like I have to get German translations of all my documents, so it will take time and money to get this organised. It seems particularly frustrating that if I get EurIng certification that that won't be a quicker way of doing it - the IMechE have a bit of info on this https://nearyou.imeche.org/near-you/Europe/germany/country-information.

I'll see how I get on!

Cheers

Hi everyone,

Thanks for your helpful replies. My main concern is using a protected title without being permitted to and getting into trouble by mistake!

I asked anerkennung-in-deutschland.de for advice and they basically just said yes if I want to use the title I need to apply for recognition of my qualifications. Looking into it in more detail it looks like I have to get German translations of all my documents, so it will take time and money to get this organised. It seems particularly frustrating that if I get EurIng certification that that won't be a quicker way of doing it - the IMechE have a bit of info on this https://nearyou.imeche.org/near-you/Europe/germany/country-information.

I'll see how I get on!

Cheers

That's a very good page on the IMechE website (except unfortunately hasn't been updated since Brexit completion) - it's a great shame that the IET doesn't have one like it!!!!!!

The way I read it is slightly different, what comes across to me is emphasised in these paragraphs:

"For most employers, whether or not a “foreign” engineer has the right to use this title is immaterial. If, as a foreign engineer, you have not sought official approval to use the title, but are employed as an engineer, this indicates that it is not a requirement for your employer.

For most IMechE members working in Germany, either you already have the lawful right to use the title, or it is not required by your employer."

In other words, their advice is that it's your employer's problem, not yours. Which makes perfect sense, it's your employer who are giving you your job title. If you're in employment then you're not calling yourself an engineer, your employer is. Of course it would be very different if you were a freelance engineer / consultant engineer, I'd imagine then that you would need to be very careful. 

Not to say that it's not worth pursuing, particularly if you may want to change employer in Germany or indeed work for a long period there at some point.

As before, do let us know if you find out any more and / or how your application goes. 

Hi Andy,

Actually I will be working as a consultant, freelancer, via my UK company, so this is the main reason I want to get this right.

Cheers

Ah...ok, that makes sense! 

When I work in Canada I very definitely use my job title "Principal Consultant". It proved to be very useful avoiding the dreaded "Engineer" title...it means I can't sign certain documents but also saves me having to retake half of my degree! (Which one of my colleagues, who has a Doctorate, is having to...)