So, you were a bubblehead

strantor (is that SSN 723)? What was your rate/rank at discharge (I was an ETR1 with a 1598 job code - PMES. Served on 2 SSN Sub Tenders)?
Yes sir, I served aboard the USS Oklahoma City SSN 723. I was a FT (for everyone else: that's Fire control Technician - it's got nothing to do with controlling fires; it's the guys who control the firing of missiles/torpedoes).
I was FT3 when I got out (E4)
Would have been an E5 or E6 except I got in trouble a few times.
But as you know, in the submarine force competency is regarded over rank in most cases, and my meager E4 rank did not preclude me filling the middle management shoes of an E6.
I was made Work Center Supervisor and then subsequently masted (punitively demoted) for harboring a fugitive pigeon in my footlocker to E3 and still had E4s and E5s reporting to me.
I've sort of shied away from this thread because I've never really thought of myself as an "Engineer". Rather more of a Technician with an engineering bent.
The key term in this thread is "Engineering
type" so as not to exclude anyone who engineers without the title.
I have looked up the requirements to legally call oneself an Engineer. I had to...
When I took the job I have now, they wanted me to design control systems for them as I had already (as a self employed contractor) shown a keen aptitude in reengineering the failed control systems they had paid contract engineers to design. But the offer letter said "Technician."
I told them that if they expected me to fill the role of an Engineer, I wanted the title. The manager (my boss now) was convinced that you can't put the title Engineer on someone who doesn't have a degree. I had to break out "the book" and show him otherwise.
Here in TX, the law states (paraphrased) that if your job entails offering engineering services to the public or leading the public to believe that your service includes "the work of Engineering", (I.E. "
HI, I'm John, [Electrical Engineer - or - Electrical Technician]. What potentially hazardous-to-the-public system can I design for you today?") then you must be a licensed Professional Engineer. In order to get the license you must have an Engineering degree. HOWEVER, If you are "doing the work of Engineering" in-house, designing products to be sold (thereby not offering the
service of Engineering to the public, but rather a product), then within your company, your title may be Engineer. You may use it on your business cards and email signatures and such. But you may under no circumstance put any stamp on any document which resembles a PE stamp, or introduce yourself to clients in a manner that suggests that your Engineering services are for hire.
So technically, back when I was self employed and doing contract work for this company using the title "Consultant," but actually reengineering things, I was breaking the law (had no idea at the time). But as soon as I was hired on and I took the title Engineer (without a degree) I wasn't anymore. Although I could argue that back before I was hired I was engaged in a lengthy bout of troubleshooting and replacing components one at a time, with corresponding minor incremental programming changes.