The Ritual Calling of the Engineer

Although it is a bit goddy for my tastes, I've always liked the Ritual Calling of the Engineer and the Iron Ring that goes with it, which is unusual because I'm certainly not one for ceremony. But I appreciate the serious tone and quiet underlining of the importance of the discipline.<p>I'm not an engineer, but one of my top software dev industry pet peeves: "Software Engineers" who aren't actually engineers. It drives me nuts.

That's a really interesting tradition, Joe — thanks for sharing. As an engineering student in the US, I was unaware of this, but I kind of wish we took part in such a sacrament too. Being an engineer is an honor and truly is something you must be called to do.<p>On a side note, I get really offended when people nonchalantly call themselves engineers. It's a title you have to earn, not one you just can decide to call yourself.

Fascinating. Strikes me as somewhat a parallel to the Hippocratic Oath. Being that engineering often deals with taming huge forces (somebody here referred to a collapsing bridge), and also with the welfare of the public, the argument for a ritual hilighting personal responsibility can definitely be substantiated.

"Here in Canada we take the term fairly seriously (it's copyrighted)."<p>Wow, I can understand a tweet being a creative work and therefore copyrightable, but a <i>single word</i>?

For the non-Canadian-engineers in the audience, the picture is the Iron Ring that is given to all engineering graduates in Canada. It's worn on the pinky of the working hand, the original purpose being that it will smudge as you draw/write and generally serve as a constant reminder of the oath you've taken.<p>I know a couple of people who have stopped wearing it since graduation despite still doing engineering work. It's a little disappointing.

Interestingly, very few Canadian schools still offer _iron_ rings, most of them nowadays are made out of stainless steel.<p>I believe Camp one (i.e. University of Toronto and Ryerson) are the only schools left who offer real _iron_ rings (they're actually often rings returned by people who have retired/passed away, since it is asked that upon retiring from the Engineering profession you return your ring)... I'm not sure it's possible, but if you're a Canadian Engineer I'd highly recommend to drop by the Engineering Alumni office at UofT and getting yourself a real iron ring if you can, they're absolutely amazing.

I don't wear the ring because it has undertones of being a status symbol. "I'm a smart engineer, with a ring to prove it."

Pretty good oath for being a good human being all around ... not just for engineers.

A good antidote to "Work fast and don't be afraid to break things". Even when there's a legitimate business case for sloppy work, somehow it just never sits right.

I just entered the American equivalent, the Order of the Engineer. Our ring is smooth, polished stainless steel and the obligation is not as ponderous (written around 1970 as I recall). I think it's definitely a worthwhile thing.

Nitpick: as the text itself says, but the title doesn't, the name is "The Ritual of the Calling of an Engineer".

Absolutely unreadable dark grey on black. Are you nuts?