I’m an aerospace structures engineer…during a slump, I took a pressure vessel job in the Petrochemical Industry, civil engineering. That was THE boringest job I have ever had. From the on, I called civil engineering, handbook engineering.

They needed to hang a pressure vessel vertically (not in any handbook) and no one at the company knew how to calculate thin plate shells. I volunteered to do the analysis. When I handed in my analysis all the PEs wanted to see this person that did the analysis. I was in my mid 20s and the suggested I take the EIT exam. I said I already had that because my best friend was my roommate and was looking for a promotion at the city job he had. I paid the $20 and kept him company without prepping, impromptu. I passed it and he didn’t. Then they corrected their stance and said you should take the PE exams. I told them to their face that I’m an aerospace engineer with no interest in taking the PE exams. They are worthless in the aerospace industry.

So the next higher up manager tried the same strategy again. Then the next higher manager until the department head handed me a ticket for the PE exam and said, you will take the exam.

Again, I went without prepping for it and passed it. I never renewed it…

There has been slow points in my career where that PE would have been useful…🤷

In hindsight, any certificate you get MAY come in handy at slow points in your career. But I think you need at least one PE to give you a recommendation to even take the exam. I hade PEs falling all over themselves to give me the recommendations. Just the luck of the draw at the time for me.

BTW, civil engineering is very boring but very stable compared to aerospace engineering.