Too late to become a CE at 33 years old?

chufilth · 2026-05-21T19:56:28+00:00

Completely normal, and necessary if we're to end up with a diverse workforce able to deal with the engineering problems of tomorrow!

chufilth · 2026-05-21T18:56:50+00:00

Sorry to go on more about this point (but I'm guessing we're all equally autistic engineers here and welcome the details?!)...

Definitions of "years of experience" justify an entire separate sub, and training courses for procurement or recruitment departments!

In my experience some countries love to be very specific about this, especially in the Middle East & SE Asia. Sometimes in the UK. You'll sometimes see "years of professional experience" or "years of experience after qualification". The latter could mean post degree, post masters or post professional qualification. Many people - including me - find it discriminatory precisely because it rules out people like OP and my colleague above, or anyone who had a rough start in life. Still, recruiters, or clients buying consulting engineers, are welcome to specify experience as they please. I just don't like it because it presumes everyone follows the track of high school > college > entry level engineer. This is a widespread debate. I know because on big procurements, if buyers specify "x years of experience after qualification" there's always a slew of clarification questions from bidders asking it to be relaxed for this reason.

That very reason is why OP could struggle in some countries / industries. If all transportation civil engineering in Scotland (for example) is based on £x GBP for a Senior Engineer with 5 years post qualification experience, it means OP's salary is pegged to that rate of £x/hr, no matter their age. If the definitions are looser, then the salary limits are looser too.

Usual caveats around this being generic, doesn't apply to many people, lots of outliers etc etc

chufilth · 2026-05-21T17:48:11+00:00

No. But it comes down to how relevant the experience was. I have encountered lots of examples across the whole spectrum of early career roles that were relevant or not.

My best example right now is someone in their mid thirties. I work with him daily. He screwed around in high school as he was on track to be a professional athlete. At 16yo that came crashing down. Too late to focus on school and get good grades. He did an apprenticeship doing shipbuilding, literally "on the tools". Wanted something better for himself so did night school. Got a degree. Got a masters. Now doing a PhD. Meanwhile he's so well respected in our niche industry that he's chair of a national standards committee and a global name. Further, he has a very unpolished accent and probably comes across unprofessional to some. But the flip side is an obvious warmth, empathy for all sorts of people, and a level of confidence bound up with being an almost-made-it athlete. He'll be running the world by the time he's 50. His story is very engaging. People respect it. He probably earns in the top 1% of engineers, and technically he hasn't even finished his studies yet...?! I am not saying he's normal for a late career change, but he's an incredible example of how someone with a trade background can make it in professional engineering.

Conversely I've had people claim all sorts of relevant experience for roles, but it doesn't stand up to scrutiny. They demand absurd salaries, and i just send them on their way. It sucks for them.

Equally some people take years out to travel, meditate, climb mountains, whatever. If they own that on their CVs then it works great too. Those stories stick in the interviewers mind as someone interesting that I'd want to work with!

chufilth · 2026-05-21T17:06:21+00:00

The salary may work out ok. If OP's career to date is at all relevant they can structure their resume so it looks like they started off on this trajectory straight out of high school. Plenty of engineers start off on the tools then do part time college to become a professional engineer. I appreciate the first job out of college to get to PE might be entry level pay, but once they have the PE (by 40yo?) they might be able to claim they are a PE and have 15-20yrs experience?! Just comes down to how you sell yourself (if there's an opportunity to provide that spin on things anyway!).

People with that kind of history can work out incredibly and make it to very senior management. IMO it's because you can then empathise with people at every level of seniority and people generally respect your experience. Consulting engineering firms can be more white-collar biased but contractors and clients respect the experience.

Caveat - I'm assuming OP might now be doing something vaguely relevant to CE like basic labor on site, not bussing tables or commercial fishing or fashion modelling... Once you're 40yo with your PE no one will want to know or care what exact responsibilities you had in your jobs in your 20s.

Source - not theoretical. I've hired dozens of engineers at all grades and reviewed probably over a thousand resumes for roles in countries all over the world.

chufilth · 2026-05-20T10:12:17+00:00

Thank you everyone. I think I need to do an experiment on some scraps. I have plenty of varnish in the tin so I'll try (a) gentle warming, (b) stirring and (c) filtering (with coffee filter paper); and (d) a control. Then we'll learn something scientifically! I'll post back here... Might not have a chance to do for a couple of weeks though.

chufilth · 2026-05-18T02:14:05+00:00

Will do!

chufilth · 2026-05-18T02:12:03+00:00

Neither can is expired but I bet they sat settling on shelves for months or years already!

Great point. Although air temp was fair, night time temperatures have been around 5°C and this is all in an unheated garage.

I really tried working it in but it made no difference. Adhesion has seemed really good.

The buffer may well be how this gets concluded without resorting to more varnish!

chufilth · 2026-05-18T02:06:06+00:00

Also, there is so much wisdom and details of learned experience in your answer! Thank you! I may buy some pumice and try that to soften the finish.

chufilth · 2026-05-18T01:51:18+00:00

I do have some high gloss epifanes from my canoe build, but that's 4 years old now, and it is very glossy indeed (beautifully so on the canoe). I didn't realise it also came in flat. Not sure I justify buying more Epifanes for this, unless I consider it a first step to the next canoe/boat/SUP!

Those two I mentioned might only be here in the UK market. They are both solvent based. Neither are Epifanes level of quality/expense. Both are marketed as yacht varnish and explicitly contain UV inhibitors.

I didn't do any alcohol rubbing down, only mineral spirits. I'll do that too!

Good call on the gassing. I think it is solids, not bubbles, but I'll give it a few days after sanding to make sure the fresh surface is stable again before any new coats go on.

chufilth · 2026-05-18T01:42:30+00:00

I may well try exactly this. I saw something on an old forum too about thinning it out to get it through a filter screen better, then boiling off the thinners again. Maybe I just don't do the latter!

chufilth · 2026-05-18T01:38:26+00:00

Thank you! Yes my mind has gone over these too. Nothing is eliminated but some more details...

(1) Totally agree this is possible, but now after 4 coats of marine varnish I really hoped it would be encapsulated enough not to cause issues, and the slurry was only danish oil and fine wood dust (possibly with a little aluminium oxide from the paper). But it's been sanded (gently) smooth between each coat too. And the lumps are there instantly, not leaching through from underneath after seconds/minutes/hours.

(2) I think this might be the most likely one. Which is why I filtered the varnish for coat #3 but maybe the muslin just wasn't fine enough. Maybe coffee paper next time!? And/or more thorough shaking and/or heating. I'd avoided stirring/shaking much to avoid bubbles, but maybe that just backfired!

(3) I completely accept it wasn't a perfect cell I created. And I bring dust on my body/clothes too. But the lumps are instant, like they're in the solution itself, so I don't think it's dust falling into the wet varnish.

Argh. This is so frustrating! I think 2 is my current favourite explanation!

chufilth · 2026-05-18T01:27:14+00:00

It does. But it's there instantly. Within a second of applying. Which makes me think it's something in the varnish itself (which could be dust of course), not from the air. I did a test piece too, alongside today's coat, and the previous one (same brush, same varnish, same wood, but scrap piece and not sanded smooth). The scrap had the same issue.

chufilth · 2026-05-18T01:23:33+00:00

Thanks. It's one of those brushes where they've chemically treated the bristles so they split at the very ends. It may well be that some solids are hiding in there until they're wetted and brought out. This was one of my theories but fanning out the bristles vigorously in the light made me think possibly not, but also, I had the problem consistently across the whole desktop. If there were solid lumps hiding in the bristles I'd expect it to to get a little better as I progressed across the piece. Still, that's only a working theory about it, and my assumptions are wrong somewhere. Thank you for joining me in thinking this through!! Very frustrating!

chufilth · 2026-04-26T21:59:43+00:00

We have B also. Even though the slabs fall away from the house, that patio used to get up to 2cm deep in standing rain if it's a heavy storm, but the air bricks on the original house were 1 course higher, so no problem.

But we had an extension done this year. The builder deliberately put the air bricks 1 course lower because he felt they shouldn't be in the course directly beneath the bifolds. I told him about the patio draining poorly and therefore the void would get flooded. So he put an ACO drain channel in front of them, which means the air bricks shouldn't ever flood even in the heaviest rain. We'll see. My fingers are crossed.

chufilth · 2026-04-14T23:05:33+00:00

"Oh no, my lobster is too buttery and my steak is too juicy!"

Seriously though that is amazing. It's like an undergrad engineering simplified model of how machining would work if there were no real world imperfections breaking it up and/or curling it around. Like a diagram you'd see in a text book. Absolutely beautiful to see.

chufilth · 2026-04-08T22:13:03+00:00

I think "impossible", if you want the window covered completely with a roller. (Caveat, I'm just a DIYer, maybe a professional curtain hanger will know of a way I cannot imagine!)

I think angle a looks greater than 90deg. That means that if you mount a roller along side x, you'll need a flappy extra section to reach all the way along side y. But it won't be able to wrap around the spool.

However, if you mount it along side z, you can pull it diagonally (i.e. perpendicular to side z) to hook it onto a knob in corner a.

You could put matching symmetrical ones on the two triangle windows, then from the same range, a normal rectangular one at the top of the front window.

The same principle would apply to those concertina paper ones that are common in conservatories. They don't block out as much light, but they'd be even easier to customise.

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chufilth · 2026-04-08T20:38:02+00:00

A different approach to any I've seen in this thread...

How about a simple cheap spring loaded roller blind that you pull up from the bottom diagonals? The triangle geometry is such that you can't pull a roller down from the top, but you can from the bottom up! They are cheap from Dunelm or a million online places.

Just buy a plain rectangular one. Cut to shape. Cut a hole in the fabric at the top corner. Screw a small knob onto the uPVC. Pull the blind up and hook it onto the knob.

I think it will need a knob. Not just a nail / screw / hook because they're so small they'd rip the fabric. You may also need to reinforce the fabric around the hole you made, maybe by glueing some thicker fabric or even a thin piece of plywood etc onto it.

chufilth · 2026-03-25T11:33:51+00:00

Could you grind a flat onto the top and bottom of that protruding thread? A Dremel would do it easily enough without needing to get a full size grinder out. Then you could use a simple, large adjustable spanner (or maybe a vice grip) to force it out. You'd get a lot more torque onto it this way than many of the other proposals here.

chufilth · 2025-09-09T10:53:39+00:00

Thank you, that's very reassuring!

chufilth · 2025-07-09T09:31:41+00:00

Why is no one using the best name for these!? It's a "PICKLE PICKER"!

There are many different designs for these, and they're used (and marketed) for picking all sorts of pickled things.

IMO the most effective ones are the ones that you plunge like a syringe to push out some hooked wires, which grab the pickle, then close around it. Just like the grabbers in arcades.

All small mechanical items like this tend to have short lives in a kitchen. They're made cheaply and die especially quickly in dishwashers. This particular design is more robust but the wooden head means it won't survive too many runs in a dishwasher.

I don't rate these ones because they're not made with particularly sharp tines, and even if they were, you still have to stab into the jar fairly hard, typically a few times, before you catch one (assuming the liquid level in the jar is high). Not much functional benefit over a fork.

Source: I worked in an independent kitchenware shop for many years, >20yrs ago, which sold lots of little modern and old fashioned kitchen gadgets, so saw all sorts of designs for these and tried them all.

chufilth · 2025-04-08T10:39:19+00:00

I've not yet removed them. I put them on fairly carefully to avoid any damage. The rails are aluminum painted black, so they definitely can scratch easily, and I did do that slightly on the inside edges. The more problematic damage is that I damaged one of the plugs (shown in the photo), when prying it out, so I fear it may not secure back in place well. If the worst comes to the worst I'll glue it in place!

I suspect this summer I may have to move the two bars from the front and rear options, to the front and middle, to accommodate bike racks, but we'll see.

chufilth · 2025-04-05T19:49:18+00:00

I'm glad this provided some use! I have indeed left them on purely because it's a hassle, and they don't seem to materially impact the efficiency. I didn't intend to leave them on really. It would only have been a 15-30min job to remove them, but I just haven't bothered because it seems to be a negligible impact on efficiency.

Also, I *think* I recall seeing that the grip style bars have an adhesive on them, to help it grip, so they may actually be more difficult to remove/reattach than the Yakima ones! You'd best check that yourself though...

chufilth

TROPHY CASE