Finding the Right Job

Professional membership and its benefits

How can you make yourself a more attractive candidate in the engineering job market? Andrew Ramsay explores why joining a professional institution can brighten your career prospects.

You’re about to complete your engineering degree and half a dozen employers are interested in you. But you’ve also got a student loan to pay off, so why waste scarce money on joining a club you may never use?

Here’s why. You have invested a big chunk of your intellectual development in a subject that is not only stimulating and rewarding, but could also be vital to the future of mankind. But be warned – nobody owes you a living, nor is anyone committed to your development as a professional. You risk being exploited as cheap technical labour while your knowledge of advanced technology ebbs away and your talent for problem-solving goes unused.

Membership of an engineering institution licensed by the Engineering Council UK (ECUK) is a first step towards securing your professional standing. Registration with ECUK requires the assistance of one of the licensed institutions, and will lead to Chartered Engineer (CEng) or Incorporated Engineer (IEng) status.

First you need to check whether your degree provides you with a fast-track path to membership as a graduate and, if appropriate, allows initial registration with ECUK. If your degree only takes you part-way towards completion of registration, you need to know what else is required. Only an ECUK licensed engineering institution can tell you this.

Secondly, in order to get to know the issues, technologies and employment prospects in your chosen discipline, you will need to read an appropriate magazine and maintain at least a passing interest in related web-based discussions. Each of the institutions we recognise (license) publishes magazines in hard copy and on the web, with material written for the practitioner, which is full of useful detail and contacts. They are a vital means of staying up to date with developments. Thirdly, you need to persuade your employer to provide you with a range of work experiences in your early years. It is surprising how easy it is to become trapped in an interesting but narrow niche. The world moves on and one day you will be replaced by a cheaper young graduate and your own prospects will be limited.

Without broad work-based experience you will find that as you move up the promotion ladder it becomes progressively harder to gain the basic understanding of the components of your industry, without making significant sacrifices in terms of time or salary to obtain the relevant experiences. These early experiences can be drawn on repeatedly in shaping your confidence as a designer, marketer and perhaps eventually in the boardroom, conference room, or at the negotiating table – wherever your career leads.

A licensed institution will give you detailed advice on what you need to experience, who can provide it, how to exploit it and, best of all, a reason to demand it from your employer. Let’s face it – no employer wants to be seen blocking the career of a new graduate.

As evidence of employing registered engineering professionals is a frequent requirement for the award of contracts, both in the UK and internationally, it is hardly surprising that those with CEng or IEng status generally find it easier than non-registrants to gain promotion or a new job. In fact, many employers place such high importance on registration that they are happy to pay the fees on their employees’ behalf.

There are also financial benefits to be reaped from professional registration. For instance, the Engineering and Technology Board’s (ETB’s) 2007 survey of registrants shows that average salaries for Chartered Engineers start to significantly diverge from average salaries for non-Chartered mechanical and electrical engineers from an early age, becoming around 40% higher by age 45.

Of course, licensed engineering institution membership provides many more benefits – not all of which are immediate. They all provide advice and support services. Some have club facilities and most have job pages or career-finder services. The conferences, meetings and seminars they organise, many of them free to attend, open up opportunities to meet and network with professionals in your field. And some institutions run graduate and student groups – a good way to make friends and keep in touch with others in your new discipline.

For more information, please complete the enquiry form on the ECUK website: http://www.engc.org.uk/registration/RegistrationEnquiry.aspx and we’ll put you in touch with the institution which is right for you.

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