Going Pro: A Guide to Professional Engineer Licensing in Montana

Steps for getting your PE license in Montana

Application with DLI

A board supervises professional licensing for the State of Montana under the Montana Department of Labor & Industry. They require the following items for your licensure application and refer to them as conditions:

• Educational transcripts
• Engineer Intern Certification
• Engineering experience
• Five letters of reference
• Ethics Questionnaire
• Passing of the PE Examination under NCEES

To begin your PE application, log into your account with the Montana Department of Labor & Industry. You will already have an account if you have an Engineer Intern license in Montana.

The Professional Engineer application is relatively short and straightforward. There is a distinction between applying for a license by comity or by exam. Comity is the recognition of one state’s licensing laws by another state. You can apply by comity if you already are licensed in another state or jurisdiction. Another distinction is applying with or without an NCEES Record. An NCEES Record is a verified collection of your documentation, such as transcripts, character references, etc., commonly required for licensure. Establishing an NCEES record can be an easy and fast way to submit your documents if you plan to apply for licensure in multiple states. As an engineer intern taking the PE Exam for the first time, I applied for licensure by exam without an NCEES record.

There is an attachments section when you first set up the application. You can add attachments now or wait until the application is “open” to attach anything. Find your open application under “Print, Update, or Renew your License.” Once you pay the fee and open the application, you have one year to submit all attachments.

Gather Conditions

To meet the following conditions, you must upload the appropriate documentation to your application as an attachment. You can check the status of your conditions anytime by logging in, selecting your application, and checking the “MET” or “NOT MET” status on each condition listed below. Once all conditions (except for the NCEES PE Exam) are submitted and reviewed by the Board, you will receive a letter via email approving you to sit for the Principals and Practice of Engineering Exam.

Requirement	Description
	Transcripts and EI Certification If you received your EI certification in Montana, your transcripts and proof of passing the FE Exam should automatically be copied from your EI application.
	Engineering Experience You can count sub-professional (college internships) and pre-professional (with a college degree) to make up the required four years of experience. All of your experience must be completed under the supervision of a professional engineer, but you do not need to be certified as an EI for it to count. Up to one year of sub-professional experience can be credited and is valued at half-time. For example, if you had a three-month internship, only 1.5 months would count towards the four-year requirement. A Master’s Degree or Doctorate in engineering can account for one or two years, respectively, of pre-professional experience. There are specific sheets to fill out and attach to your application. Find these sheets under the Montana Board of Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors' forms tab on the website.
	Letters of Reference You’re asked to provide a list of five references to affirm your character and professional competence. Three of your references must be licensed professional engineers. I suggest asking each reference if they are willing to complete a reference form on your behalf before submitting the list. Forward each person a reference form to complete and send directly to the board. Your online application will periodically be reviewed and updated with the reference forms that have been received.
	Ethics Questionnaire Shortly after opening your application, an ethics quiz titled “Professional Engineer Jurisprudence Exam” will appear on your dashboard. There are 13 questions on the engineering ethics quiz, which can all be answered from the Administrative Rules of Montana (ARM). You can also preview the quiz questions by looking at the PDF version of the quiz, or complete the PDF version and add it as an attachment. The PDF is located under the forms tab on the Montana Board of Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors website.

Register and Schedule Exam

Exam registration is completed through MyNCEES. Again, if you have an Engineer Intern license in Montana, you will have taken and passed the Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) Exam and already have a MyNCEES account. You must register and pay for the exam of your choice before you can schedule it.

If you complete registration directly after receiving the approval letter, your NCEES Dashboard might show the exam as “pending board approval.” You will get an email from NCEES when they verify your board approval. Your exam registration should change from pending to authorized. My email came within 24 hours.

Study

Mentally prepare yourself for getting back into the grind of studying again. Try to set a schedule that works for you and stick to it. Are you more productive in your office without distractions? Come in an hour early and set up to study at your desk or an empty conference room. Not a morning person? Set up a workspace at home to focus for an hour or two before bed. Struggling to get motivated? Sign yourself up for an exam prep class to hold you accountable. The schedule that worked best for me included an hour or two after work most weekdays, then a solid 4- or 5-hour study day on Saturday or Sunday at the local library or a coffee shop.

Many people recommend studying for three months before your scheduled exam date. For civil engineering exams, don’t forget to brush up on general topics such as project planning, cost estimating, and conceptual questions, as those will show up for all disciplines.

Take Exam

Exam day will come before you know it. Be sure to review the NCEES Examinee Guide well before your exam so you can understand what to expect. The guide outlines the check-in procedure, exam format, scheduled and unscheduled breaks, and what things you can or can’t bring into the testing center with you.

Provide Proof of Passing

You will receive an email from NCEES when your results are posted on your dashboard. Typically, results are released the Wednesday after the Mon-Sat testing week. In other words, if you take the exam on a Wednesday, you must wait exactly seven days for your results.

Pass rates for the Civil PE Exams range from 50-70%. If you don’t pass your first exam, you are not alone. You have three opportunities per year if you need to retake the exam. Your next attempt has to occur in a different “testing window,” which resets every three months. More information on testing opportunities is available in the NCEES Examinee Guide.

Once you see that you passed your exam, you can download a Result Notice from your NCEES dashboard. Upload this PDF as an attachment to your PE License application. NCEES also sends official results to the state twice a month. It may take a few weeks for this transaction to occur before your license is issued.

Celebrate!

Don’t forget to celebrate this milestone in your career. The hard work you put into studying pays off, and having your free time back will feel great.

Once you get your license, make sure to send a copy to your supervisor, the HR department, the IT department, and anyone else who may need it. These folks can help you replace your business cards, update your email signature, and order your PE seal stamp.

Supporting Career Growth

Morrison-Maierle covers the cost of the license application, exam registration, and a limited amount of study material for all employee-owners pursuing their professional license. If you’d like to be part of a 100% employee-owned company that supports you in professional development, collaboration, and growing your career, check out our open positions.