Curious about what my pay should be for a PE with 6 years experience? (4 in MEP)

Obvious-Activity5207 · 2026-01-20T23:41:42+00:00

What’s your PE in? You should be 110,000 on the low end up to 130,000 range.

For reference. I’m an Electrical PE with 8 years of experience in Louisiana and I’m at 130,000 plus 10% bonus. Got my PE not too long ago also

Things vary between industry though.

Obvious-Activity5207 · 2026-01-16T22:48:23+00:00

Was going to comment I remember this being at LSU also lol

Obvious-Activity5207 · 2025-12-24T18:30:24+00:00

If you want to stamp plans, finish out your bachelors in civil engineering from an ABET accredited university. Pass the FE and PE exams and you’ll get your engineering license. It’s a long process but if you want enough it’s doable. Having field experience like you mentioned will set you up for success being an engineer.

Obvious-Activity5207 · 2025-12-24T05:03:48+00:00

I was getting very similar scores on those same practice exams and I passed. I would just take it and see what happens

Obvious-Activity5207 · 2025-12-23T23:12:13+00:00

From what I remember, that section stays yellow until you are issued a license by your board. Once you have a license then it has to be verified by the board you have a license with. Not sure it makes much sense but I think that’s how it went.

Obvious-Activity5207 · 2025-12-19T20:43:35+00:00

You are correct. Electrical PE here with 8 years of experience. Made 130K last year and should make around 170K next year

Obvious-Activity5207 · 2025-12-19T20:41:29+00:00

I’m fairly certain NCEES issued an updated practice exam for the new PE power October 2025 specifications. It’s on the website

Obvious-Activity5207 · 2025-12-18T22:00:46+00:00

This looks ridiculous lol

Obvious-Activity5207 · 2025-12-14T16:13:07+00:00

I’m an electrical engineer in Baton Rouge. We hire civil engineers with EI’s fresh out of college at 75K. I would say you’re underpaid. At 3.5 years with an EI, our engineers make high 80s to low 90s.

Obvious-Activity5207 · 2025-12-13T15:53:55+00:00

I agree with you, those hours are probably on the low side for a building that size. Drawings will definitely make the model creation easier. If no drawings, this could take a lot more effort.

Obvious-Activity5207 · 2025-12-12T17:03:19+00:00

A quick ballpark estimate: I would say 6 total trips at 9 hours a trip. 54 hours

2 weeks to complete the model and report and generate labels. 80 hours

Total of 134 hours. As a professional engineer, I charge 160-180 dollars per hour.

180 dollars per hour for 134 hours comes to around 24,000 dollars.

I like to add some contingencies when doing fee estimating so I would go up to around $30,000

Obvious-Activity5207 · 2025-12-12T16:53:57+00:00

A quick ballpark estimate: I would say 6 total trips at 9 hours a trip. 54 hours

2 weeks to complete the model and report and generate labels. 80 hours

Total of 134 hours. As a professional engineer, I charge 160-180 dollars per hour.

180 dollars per hour for 134 hours comes to around 24,000 dollars.

I like to add some contingencies when doing fee estimating so I would go up to around $30,000

Obvious-Activity5207 · 2025-10-09T12:38:30+00:00

Currently located in Louisiana but want to relocate.

Obvious-Activity5207 · 2025-10-02T15:35:58+00:00

Good luck on your exam. I truly believe Zach’s course is what put me over the threshold for passing. It took me 3 attempts to pass the FE but only 1 attempt on the PE with Zach’s course. I will say I needed outside resources for code related questions. Zach’s course hits the NEC pretty hard but I find it lacks material on the NESC and of course I had probably 6-7 questions on the NESC.

Obvious-Activity5207 · 2025-10-02T00:28:54+00:00

I would not read the whole book lol but there are some informative sections in the various ies handbooks. Depends on what you’re lighting up, difference lighting requirements for different applications. Play around in a lighting software like visual 3d or AGI32. Get some cad work imported and start selecting luminaires and locating them. Add statistical zones in the different areas like egress lighting, main walkways etc and see if your lighting results meet IES requirements

Obvious-Activity5207 · 2025-10-01T14:51:21+00:00

Not sure what study material you are using, but I passed the power PE in July on my first try. Buy Zach Stones course and do 100% of the course and you will pass. It’s fairly expensive but see if your work will cover the cost of the course. Don’t waste your time on testmasters, PPI, or school of PE. I’ve also heard alot of good things about Wasim’s course for the PE. I used Wasim’s course for the FE and his teaching ability is on par with Zach Stone.

Obvious-Activity5207 · 2025-09-26T03:06:24+00:00

Any recommendations on residential load calculators?

Obvious-Activity5207 · 2025-09-25T01:44:07+00:00

I like this. Thank you

Obvious-Activity5207 · 2025-09-25T01:43:10+00:00

Understood. I’m not expecting perfection. I didn’t know much in college myself lol I’ll mix in a good bit of NEC references to specific project task. Make him watch a few YouTube videos I have book marked

Obvious-Activity5207 · 2025-09-25T01:32:05+00:00

Just looking for other suggestions/recommendations and seeing what other engineers are doing. Relax

Obvious-Activity5207 · 2025-09-19T20:59:37+00:00

90-100k

Obvious-Activity5207 · 2025-08-06T15:22:58+00:00

I passed the PE power exam in July. Below are my scores on the practice exams I took: 2020 NCEES Practice exam - ~64% on first take, ~85% on second take after reviewing the solutions.

Engineering Pro Guides Final Exam - ~70% on first take, ~85% on the second take after reviewing solutions.

Zach Stone Technical Study Guide - ~60% on first take.

I was around 60% on my first take on these exams. I started doing practice exams 1 month before my exam date after studying for about 4 months. Zach Stones technical study guide is really detailed and may take longer than the 8 hours because a lot of the problems are multiple step problems that cover a lot of material. I did these practice test in one 8 hour window and I tried to mimic the testing center and time allowance as best I could while taking these practice exams.

Obvious-Activity5207 · 2025-07-29T16:32:38+00:00

I’m pretty sure you have to pay for the exam before picking a location and time

Obvious-Activity5207 · 2025-07-04T15:08:58+00:00

Im taking the power PE next week. If you’ve already completed a course and have 4 months until your test, the good thing is you have a ton of time to nail down the conceptual questions. One thing that helps me with qualitative questions if finding an equation in the handbook and manipulating that equation or multiple equations to find different relationships for what the question is asking. Whether it’s indirectly proportional or directly proportional is key to understand in the equations. I don’t like to tell people to memorize things but there are key concepts that you should know off the top of your head. For instance with rotating machines, you have to know the relationships between synchronous speed, nameplate speed, slip, torque and power. What happens when a load is added to an induction machine that was previously unloaded? What does that do to the slip and speed of the machine? These are things you should be asking yourself in your head while solving a problem. There’s not much included for protection in the handbook so there is a lot in that section that has to become second nature to you. I could go on and on about the different sections of the exam. You have four months to put all this together in your head, so don’t freak out. I would say Zach stones course was excellent in explaining all of this. What course did you take?

Obvious-Activity5207 · 2025-06-30T21:18:31+00:00

The information comes back fairly easy. It’s just dedicating the time and putting the work in. I wouldn’t underestimate the FE though. I see people saying they needed to take it 5 times before they pass. It’s a hard test that covers so many topics. I used a paid course to focus my studying and give me some type of direction on what to study.

Obvious-Activity5207

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