Most companies seem to view the license as an additional expense or as investing the holder with more skill than is required for engineering positions today. That is why licensure in this country has not become the norm. Any maintenance technician can be promoted to engineer, while a paralegal or nurse making a similar jump in the legal or medical profession would be in violation of the law. It seems reasonable to me that any firm offering manufactured goods for sale to the public should have at least one registered engineer on staff to take responsibility for engineering decisions, just as a registered engineer must stamp drawings used in the construction industry. Surely, it is just as dangerous for Ford to produce cars designed by technicians as it would be for the structure of a skyscraper to be designed by an experienced draftsman.
Organizations routinely employ company attorneys and sometimes even have doctors on staff.
Until we, as a group of professionals, decide that we will control the practice of our profession, we will continue to be selected, treated, and discarded like pieces of machinery. I submit that corporate America prefers young, inexperienced engineers, who will not challenge management fads. The current climate does not encourage registration, and won't until engineers become independent consultants. Only then will engineering be recognized as a profession. However, I would like to comment on it.