General Life Update
Nothing major - just wanted to update everyone of what we've been up to.
I apologize for being uncommunicative recently, but I was waiting on news from a potential new job before I wrote again (which I didn't get and which dragged on for months). I had applied to be the manager of our engineering leadership development program at BAE this past December. I didn't get the spot, but I impressed everyone that interviewed me, and they asked me to apply for the same job at our plant in Nashua, NH. So I was up there a couple weeks ago, and once again, they told me that I had 'excellent qualifications' but they choose another candidate. I'm sick of coming in second place. :) Oh well - no huge loss. I'm not actively looking to leave my current job; I still like the work., but I wouldn't have minded a change. So basically, this past paragraph is a long way of saying that my job is the same as it has been.
Kat's graduating in a couple of weeks, and is currently looking for work. There's not much in the x-ray tech area around Binghamton at the moment. She has an interview coming up in Ithaca, and she applied at a place a little north of Scranton, but hasn't heard from them, yet. It'll be nice once we have a second income and don't have to pay school costs anymore.
I'm still studying for the PE exam. I'm scheduled to take it in October, although I haven't actually been approved by the NY state board, yet. I had to fill out a huge application listing my experience and job duties, which had to be signed by my manager. Then, a board of professional engineers reviews my application and determines whether I have enough engineering experience to qualify to take the exam. I think I do, but I'm not sure where the threshold is set. I should hear back from them in the next couple weeks. There are two actual exams, the PE and FE. Some of you may have taken the FE (Fundamentals of Engineering) exam right after college - you don't need experience to take it. I did not take it, however, so I need to pass that as well. The FE is an 8-hour multiple choice exam in which the morning session covers all disciplines of engineering, with a heavy emphasis on EE, ME, Math, and Chemistry (for some odd reason). The afternoon session can either be a more in-depth exam of all disciplines or a discipline specific exam. I'll be taking the EE-specific portion. There is no set percentage required to pass - it varies slightly from year to year - but the average seems to be around 60-65% from the combined scores of the morning and afternoon sessions. I think I should be able to achieve that without an issue. I'll know in the next month or so, once I start taking some practice exams. The PE has essentially the same format as the FE, except it's discipline specific, so the morning session is general questions in EE, and the afternoon session has questions in a specialty of EE (computer engineering, control theory, antennas, or power). Being a power supply design, I think my choice is pretty easy. While what I do for my job will help, the power section is geared more towards transmission lines, power substations, 3-phase power, etc. It's more about power distribution than power supply design. The average passing grade for the PE tends to be around 70% and about half of the people fail it the first time around. I'm not quite sure why I'm taking the exam - it doesn't really help me in my job. I think I just want to prove that I can do it. Plus, I'll get a suffix for my name, and that's just cool.
Other random tidbits: we have an xbox 360, so if anyone else has one, send me your gamertag. We're taking a cruise in September to the Caribbean. Kat's never been on a cruise before. I'll be in State College this coming Wed-Fri for engineering design projects. At some point over the summer, we're going to do a barbeque/poker tournament weekend - we'll let everyone know when once we figure out the date.
I think that's about it, or at least, all I can think of at the moment. We'll see everyone in June at Ari and Becky's place.
I apologize for being uncommunicative recently, but I was waiting on news from a potential new job before I wrote again (which I didn't get and which dragged on for months). I had applied to be the manager of our engineering leadership development program at BAE this past December. I didn't get the spot, but I impressed everyone that interviewed me, and they asked me to apply for the same job at our plant in Nashua, NH. So I was up there a couple weeks ago, and once again, they told me that I had 'excellent qualifications' but they choose another candidate. I'm sick of coming in second place. :) Oh well - no huge loss. I'm not actively looking to leave my current job; I still like the work., but I wouldn't have minded a change. So basically, this past paragraph is a long way of saying that my job is the same as it has been.
Kat's graduating in a couple of weeks, and is currently looking for work. There's not much in the x-ray tech area around Binghamton at the moment. She has an interview coming up in Ithaca, and she applied at a place a little north of Scranton, but hasn't heard from them, yet. It'll be nice once we have a second income and don't have to pay school costs anymore.
I'm still studying for the PE exam. I'm scheduled to take it in October, although I haven't actually been approved by the NY state board, yet. I had to fill out a huge application listing my experience and job duties, which had to be signed by my manager. Then, a board of professional engineers reviews my application and determines whether I have enough engineering experience to qualify to take the exam. I think I do, but I'm not sure where the threshold is set. I should hear back from them in the next couple weeks. There are two actual exams, the PE and FE. Some of you may have taken the FE (Fundamentals of Engineering) exam right after college - you don't need experience to take it. I did not take it, however, so I need to pass that as well. The FE is an 8-hour multiple choice exam in which the morning session covers all disciplines of engineering, with a heavy emphasis on EE, ME, Math, and Chemistry (for some odd reason). The afternoon session can either be a more in-depth exam of all disciplines or a discipline specific exam. I'll be taking the EE-specific portion. There is no set percentage required to pass - it varies slightly from year to year - but the average seems to be around 60-65% from the combined scores of the morning and afternoon sessions. I think I should be able to achieve that without an issue. I'll know in the next month or so, once I start taking some practice exams. The PE has essentially the same format as the FE, except it's discipline specific, so the morning session is general questions in EE, and the afternoon session has questions in a specialty of EE (computer engineering, control theory, antennas, or power). Being a power supply design, I think my choice is pretty easy. While what I do for my job will help, the power section is geared more towards transmission lines, power substations, 3-phase power, etc. It's more about power distribution than power supply design. The average passing grade for the PE tends to be around 70% and about half of the people fail it the first time around. I'm not quite sure why I'm taking the exam - it doesn't really help me in my job. I think I just want to prove that I can do it. Plus, I'll get a suffix for my name, and that's just cool.
Other random tidbits: we have an xbox 360, so if anyone else has one, send me your gamertag. We're taking a cruise in September to the Caribbean. Kat's never been on a cruise before. I'll be in State College this coming Wed-Fri for engineering design projects. At some point over the summer, we're going to do a barbeque/poker tournament weekend - we'll let everyone know when once we figure out the date.
I think that's about it, or at least, all I can think of at the moment. We'll see everyone in June at Ari and Becky's place.
posted by Flettz at
10:45 PM
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