Life on the Rails

[Savonarola]

(I do hope they change my title.  In Ontario (maybe all of Canada) you can only call yourself an engineer if you are a licensed professional engineer.  Even though I am a professional engineer, in order to avoid a two-tier job titles everyone on my team is a Network and Telecommunications Designer.)

It's the same in Quebec.  You need to be a member of the "Ordre des ingénieurs du Québec" to be referred to as an engineer.  Unsure about other provinces if it's as regulated as that.

I don't think you actually have to be a member of the Order of the Engineer in Ontario; although most professional engineers I've met from there are.  (Canada, for those of you playing along at home, has a much stronger tradition of professional engineering than the United States, complete with a Ritual of the Calling of an Engineer.

[Barrister]

(I do hope they change my title.  In Ontario (maybe all of Canada) you can only call yourself an engineer if you are a licensed professional engineer.  Even though I am a professional engineer, in order to avoid a two-tier job titles everyone on my team is a Network and Telecommunications Designer.)

It's the same in Quebec.  You need to be a member of the "Ordre des ingénieurs du Québec" to be referred to as an engineer.  Unsure about other provinces if it's as regulated as that.

I don't think you actually have to be a member of the Order of the Engineer in Ontario; although most professional engineers I've met from there are.  (Canada, for those of you playing along at home, has a much stronger tradition of professional engineering than the United States, complete with a Ritual of the Calling of an Engineer.

Interesting - I didn't know the whole iron ring ceremony was a Canadian-only thing.

[Savonarola]

Interesting - I didn't know the whole iron ring ceremony was a Canadian-only thing.

There is an organization in the United States called "The Order of the Engineer" which is derived from the Canadian organization and does have its own oath and steel rings; but I've never met anyone who was a member in my professional life.  (It's more likely that you'd be a member of the National Society of Professional Engineers here.)  At my university there was an Order of the Engineer student group, but they were exclusively civil engineers.  I'm not sure why that was.

[Valmy]

I am a member of the Order of the Engineer. I wear my ring and everything.

But all I did was go to a ceremony in my last year at UT. I didn't get a secret handshake and there are no meetings or anything.

[viper37]

I didn't get a secret handshake and there are no meetings or anything.

Disappointing.

[Barrister]

I am a member of the Order of the Engineer. I wear my ring and everything.

But all I did was go to a ceremony in my last year at UT. I didn't get a secret handshake and there are no meetings or anything.

From engineer friends in Canada I think that's about it - there's a ceremony once you graduate and you get a ring.  I don't think there's any ongoing meetings.

I do have to say - my Call to the Bar ceremony was one of the more meaningful things I've ever done in my life.  It's right up there with my wedding or the birth of my children.

or at least - my Alberta call to the bar ceremony.  It's an individual process - your principal "applies" for you to become a member of the bar, it's done in court in front of a judge, your family and friends are present.

My Yukon call to the bar "ceremony" was just signing a book.  I mean the book went back to the Gold Rush so it was sort of cool that way, but not really the same.

[Valmy]

I just think that if you are a member of an organization called "The Order of the <thing>" it should be more grandiose. Like we should be having shadowy meetings where we conspire to advance the greater secret agenda of engineering.

But nope.

[Barrister]

I just think that if you are a member of an organization called "The Order of the <thing>" it should be more grandiose. Like we should be having shadowy meetings where we conspire to advance the greater secret agenda of engineering.

But nope.

And I think that when you get "called to the bar" there should be some fucking liquor involved.

But nope.

At least we get cool robes to wear.

[Iormlund]

In Spain it used to be that any holder of a 3-year engineering degree could apply to the College of Engineers and sign projects.

After Bolonia you require a special Masters to do it. Which is basically a way for unis to defraud students. An overwhelming majority of engineers will never put their signature on a project.