​REFERENCE UPDATES
Along with the topic reorganization, the referenced standards have shifted too. Every reference standard has a code edition update. NFPA 12 and NFPA 25 were removed, and NFPA 855 is a new edition to the P.E. Exam references.

There's an entire side of the industry that would probably lament that FPEs may never brush up against NFPA 25, including as part of the P.E. Exam efforts, but the modernization effort seems to be shifting to more modern challenges (introduction of NFPA 855) and away from less-common FPE applications (Carbon Dioxide Systems & ITM).

The full new exam specification can be found on NCEES's website here: ncees.org/exams/pe-exam/fire-protection/

OPPORTUNITY
If we're looking at this glass-half-full, this is a welcome change for many in the industry. Aligning closer to today's challenges and less on fundamentals has been an ask from many people for a long time. 

Is there a missed opportunity in not skipping straight to 2025 and 2026 standard editions? Certainly (I think), though I'm sure that'll come in time.

With shifts to the computer-based exam, we've seen pass rates temporarily rise. We'll likely know the pass rates for this April 2026's results in July. As with anything, it's hard to feel like a guinea pig in trying out the first iteration of any change, but historically those who have first passed through the wall have tended to score well; so my glass-half-full suggestion would be if you feel ready to study and take the exam, don't hesitate just because of some new nuance to the exam.

MEYERFIRE UNIVERSITY UPDATES
We've already put together our internal plans for updating all of our University content to reflect the new exam specification. It'll be implemented on a rolling basis, with all the new University content to be done before the bulk of the 2027 PE Exam study season in January. If you're studying in the fall you'll likely notice many updates already incorporated.

PE PREP GUIDE, 9TH EDITION
Because of the major update to the exam specification and new references, we're also working on a new edition to the popular PE Prep Guide. It'll be published as soon as it's complete, which will likely be this fall. All questions, study schedule, weighting, and programmatic advice need to be brought up to the new exam specification.

If we want to get an early start, will studying from an older edition suffice in the meantime? Of course! There is far more overlap from past exams than there are differences. Studying more, and earlier, never hurts. 

Any questions, let us know! Hope you have a great rest of your week.

​- Joe

In fact, I was starting out kind of ahead! I spent some summers working at my Mom’s fire sprinkler contracting business that my grandfather started, but I would still consider myself to be starting off at square one. I knew what NFPA 13 was and could name some of the major pieces of equipment, but I certainly didn’t know what a building code was, and I probably couldn’t tell you the actual difference between a butterfly valve and an OS&Y valve. I recognize that it was quite a privilege to have family members in the business, and I definitely called my Mom for help a few times in those first few years. “Mom, they’re telling me they need a fire pump, are they just trying to bully me, or is that real?” (In hindsight, yeah, it probably could have used a fire pump.)

It was at the first job where I learned that I really like the codes. It feels like a treasure hunt for me, I like following the pathways and understanding what the code says, what they meant to say, and how things change over time. Love that stuff. Looking back, that makes sense! I’ve always loved puzzles, and NYTimes crossword and games are part of my daily routine. Figuring stuff out and getting to a final answer are things I’ve always enjoyed. 

At my next few jobs, I specialized in data centers, and I liked that I could be good at something. That’s where I really felt like I started to stand out, it was like a double specialty, both fire protection and mission-critical designs. Then I took a brief stint working for a government contractor. But then I got right back into mission-critical consulting and ended up managing a team at my last job.
 
THE CAREER FABRIC
Looking back at my (almost) 20 years in the industry, the pathway hasn’t really been a straight line, and if you spend some time talking to people in fire protection, you’ll learn that hardly anyone’s path is a straight line.  Managing a team also taught me that lesson; I encountered people from all different pathways that somehow ended up at similar spots, and I got to see people develop into engineers first-hand.

There’s no one way to do things, and over the years you pull in parts from different people, projects, and places to create the fabric of your career.
​
Your career isn’t a ladder, it’s a tapestry. 

There are project lessons that teach you something and always stick with you. Did I make that fire pump mistake again? Yes, absolutely, but I didn’t make it a third time. There is something to learn and carry with you in every situation.

Even my brief stint at a government contractor, I spent most of my time writing a fire protection manual instead of design work. But a lot of the way that business was conducted was through letters, and being amid people who really understood fire protection, and those who didn’t. That was a hidden gift of boring paperwork and bureaucracy. It taught me a lot about technical writing and presenting information for groups of people with varying knowledge of your subject matter.

Writing precisely the right thing, no more, no less, is really hard! The wrong number can result in a change order, and a missing word could be a safety failure. I write some detailed technical reports, and they have to be appropriate for different audiences. Enough detail for people who are looking for thorough answers, but broad and basic enough for people who don’t have time to get into the weeds. But the practice I had in that job forced me to be better, and the skills I learned stay with me.

I was once interviewing an intern with two coworkers and she asked us about our favorite projects. One said a project where he got to design the best systems, and the second named a project where the client listened to him. And me, I said the one where everything went wrong. Seriously, I picked up the project shortly after joining the company, after DD, and the design was missing so much. Some of it basic, and some of it was very specific AHJ requirements. It seemed like one thing after another, changes to our drawings, constant calls to walk through technical situations, and several technical memos and opinions to justify design decisions. But bit by bit we worked through it, and at the end of the day, that was the job I learned the most from, so it ended up being my favorite. I was pretty proud of how much ground was made up from when I started to where I ended up.

You take the things with you, make the best of the situation you’re in. And by “making the best of it” I don’t mean as a consolation prize, but seizing the opportunity that’s in front of you.

NAVIGATING THE SNAGS AND SPEED BUMPS
How do we do that? A lot of our jobs and careers are outside of our control. There will be rips or snags in the fabric. You won’t know when you move across the country for your first job that there will be a nationwide economic crisis. (Yikes, that was fun.) You can’t control if the small business you joined gets bought by a much larger company. But learning adaptability is a skill.

Recessions are more than just annoying, but slowdowns are a good time to take your time, enjoy the quiet, and squeeze as much as you can out of the role you’re in. It’s no secret that private equity is infiltrating a lot of sectors. Acquisitions are more than just annoying, but they’re a good opportunity to take advantage of corporate structure. When your company gets bought, it’s easy to feel like a number, but that’s a good time to master the business side of engineering. 

When you look around and consider the people who you encounter that you deem to be successful, the common denominator is usually that they’ve found what they’re good at and they’ve made the best of the opportunities available to them and the situations they’re in. Things are constantly changing around us, whether it’s our company, technology, or codes. If we spend time learning our own strengths and weaknesses, that helps us make the most out of our experience.

I always tell people to squeeze as much as they can out of the position they’re in. If their company offers training or will reimburse for coursework or licensing prep courses, take advantage of it!

MAMA BEAR ADVICE
After all that contemplating, the career advice that didn’t end up in the course ended up here. If I had to give three pieces of advice it would be:

1. Don’t panic at the pivots. It’s hard in the moment (ask me how I know), but learn some good breathwork and consider how you can make the best of it. You can’t control your reaction, but you can control your response.
2. Your company, the economy, and the code will change. How you learn from it and choose to incorporate it into your career tapestry is what’s important. 
3. Every job (even the bad ones) gives you a tool for your toolbelt.

 
Have you had any unraveling or frays in your career that ended up being your biggest lesson?

​

HIRING COMPANIES EXIST
As I know now, companies are hiring. They’re looking for talent.

But - they can’t be at every career fair. They don’t always recruit consistently. Many don’t have the systems to find the students.

Both sides exist - they just don’t easily connect. There’s a massive disconnect.

Fire protection is a great field. Real demand. Real opportunity. Unfilled jobs. Long-term impact.

But the path to it isn’t obvious.

What seems like charting our own course is actually the most common path.

85% of fire protection designers and engineers in consulting firms didn’t have a fire protection degree going in. The industry is a melting pot of people from many different backgrounds.

THE STUDENT CONNECTOR
Being on the other side now, our fix is pretty simple. We’re calling it the Student Connector.

If you’re a student, and you’re even a little interested in fire protection, the industry wants to know!

Consultants, contractors and agencies often right in your neighborhood don’t know you exist.

How it works:
- You share a few details about yourself (school, degree, what you’re seeking)
- We make that visible to vetted fire protection organizations actively looking for talent
- Employers can see who’s interested – especially in their area
​

I can’t scroll by without trying to spot the errors.

Why bother? Why do I care so much?

​At first, it was just about accuracy. Someone on the internet was wrong! About something I know about! 

Now it’s become kind of a sick sport. I’m not on a crusade against AI. I certainly use it as a tool in my work life; AI is the best proofreader around! What bothers me is when AI slop is presented as helpful material, yet it’s riddled with errors.

What is that teaching anyone?
 
UNOBVIOUS ERROR
It should not come as news to anyone that AI struggles with accuracy.  I’m not proud to say I’ve gotten frustrated with a computer that gets commodity classification or nuanced (copyrighted) code interpretations wrong. Remember the “Will Smith eating spaghetti” videos that used to circulate as proof that AI wasn’t quite there yet? They were easy to laugh at because the mistakes were so obvious.

Now the errors aren’t so noticeable.

The hands have five fingers, the spaghetti looks real, and I find myself wondering if Will Smith recorded a video to troll us. The mistakes are getting much harder to spot. 

AI is not the villain; it’s just a tool that people use to present their ideas. People said the same things about Photoshop, the internet, and computers. I wasn’t around, but maybe they said the same thing about the typewriter! Tools are there to help the person wielding them.

But here is the point: we are our work. Our output reflects us.

When the materials are targeted to be basic or fundamental, the audience may only have a vague background of the content; they can’t simultaneously learn and error check.

So how do they know what’s accurate within an AI diagram, and what’s incorrect?

And when errors are pointed out, it really grates on me when the response is, “Ignore those details! Just take the main point.”  When people are learning something new, how are they supposed to know what’s correct and what’s AI hallucinations? The wrong conclusions may stick, and they’re just trying to learn!
 
CALLING IT OUT
This is not new, even though AI is.

I’m sure we have all sat through a presentation where it was clear the speaker wasn’t prepared, or a webinar where someone slipped up and said the wrong thing. If you’re sitting in that room, either in real life or virtually, how do you handle that?

Theoretically, the speaker would be receptive to constructive criticism in the right environment. Scrutiny makes content better. To me, it’s the same thing as commenting on AI slop, but is that really the best strategy?

Is that helping anyone?
 
WE ARE WHAT WE 𝚂̶𝙿̶𝙴̶𝚆̶  POST
Just like in engineering, when we affix an engineering seal to a drawing, set of calculations, or a report, it doesn’t mean we personally drew every line, or wrote every word, but it does mean we’re responsible for the output. And we are required to stand behind it once it’s out in the world.

There are formal processes for formal documents, like responding to permit comments and RFI’s. But informally, or when there are no processes, we still have to stand behind our work. Whether it’s stamped or posted, we own what we put into the world. It reflects us.

I won’t equate an infographic with an engineering report, but if you post it, share it, or stamp it, it’s yours. You can’t blame ChatGPT any more than you’d blame a drafter or an intern. And it’s also respectful of your audience’s time. If it’s truly not worth your time to put together, why should we expect someone else’s time to read it? If you’re willing to put your name on it, you’re responsible for it. Whether you typed it or prompted it.
 
DEALING WITH IMPERFECTION
Now, I’m not perfect. We’re not perfect. None of us is. Mistakes are an assumed part of the process, that’s why there are built-in checks and layers to construction. Because this stuff is that important. We’re dealing with life safety, and often of an unaware public.

And I assure you, we at MeyerFire certainly make mistakes too. Turns out it’s really hard to produce mistake-free content, no matter how many eyes are put on it. And we truly (truly truly) appreciate the superfans who challenge us when something isn’t correct, so we can fix it for the next learner.

At the time of this writing, we have six outstanding PE practice questions and two videos that need correction on our site.

As engineers, we won’t hit perfection, but responding to mistakes says a lot about how we operate. Just ask my 11-year-old daughter, who gave me the death stare when she was rehearsing her upcoming presentation, and I pointed out that Italy actually uses Euros instead of dollars. Or my husband, who is probably sick of me reviewing his materials. Or me! Who has definitely flubbed a few lines in recordings for my courses.

TAKING THE HIT
So often in the consulting culture, we’ll say we don’t have time for QA/QC or time to train the new hires, we’re barely keeping up with our workload. Quality work takes time, and we all know there’s a noticeable difference in our work when we’re prepared versus when we’re unprepared. But scrutiny makes content better. Ultimately, I’d rather take a friendly edit from my peers, my family, or my boss than a comment from a stranger. But I have to be ready for both if I’m truly owning my output.

​I would often tell my team that when you’re reviewing a submittal, you can tell a lot by how the information is presented. The same goes for a set of drawings. If you see mistakes on the small stuff or very obvious errors, you start peeling back the layers and find mistakes everywhere. On the other hand, if you can tell someone took pride and care with how the information is presented, that likely follows through with the care and attention taken with the technical aspects, not just the visuals.  
 
HOW TO ADDRESS IT?

So, what is the correct way to call out errors?

We know how to do it with permit submittals or submittal reviews, but how would you address an error in an in-person training? What about a webinar? And bad AI on LinkedIn? Is it a public correction or a private message? Or, silence.

Does it even matter? When we work in life safety, I think it does. I’ll stand on that hill.

We are our work output. And it’s important to stand behind our work, whatever it is. Especially in construction and life safety, the details matter, and affixing our engineering stamp to work means a high level of professional accountability.

If you’re willing to put your name on it, it’s your responsibility. AI doesn’t change any of that, it’s just made it easier to forget.

A man is walking through the woods and sees a lumberjack working hard to cut a tree. The lumberjack is exhausted, sweating, and has been sawing for hours with little progress.

The man asks, “How long have you been cutting that tree?”

Lumberjack replies, “Five hours – and I’m exhausted!”

The man looks at the saw and says, “Why don’t you take a break and sharpen your saw?”

The Lumberjack responds, “I can’t, I’m too busy cutting!”
 
There are different versions of the parable; you may have heard it before. Yet today, more than ever, our work lives are too busy to spend time helping ourselves out.

OUR CRITICAL ASSET
Our most critical asset is time. It’s a massive limitation, and yet we are all given the same amount each week.

What I’d like to beg you to consider is investing your time in your future. Not in a “work hard today so you don’t have to tomorrow,” or even “go make as much money as you possibly can,” that seemed to be an undertone in our parents’ and their parents’ generations.

I’m talking about investing time in order to get more time back.
 
THINKING LINEARLY
Our brains evolved to survive in environments where change was mostly linear and local. Survival was based on gradual change, local change, and physical outcomes. We’re wired to be extremely good at pattern recognition, cause-and-effect thinking, and short-term projections.

Not long-term exponential returns or compounding benefits.

To be fully candid, it’s a topic I can’t wrap my head around. Not in a self-deprecating way, but in a "I see it but struggle to accept it" kind of way. I can see it on paper. I can map it out. I can see investment in concept, but every projection I write or spreadsheet I drag out, my inner gut simply cannot accept that future path to be true. It’s as if once the trajectory starts to curve, I reject it as being far too sunny and optimistic.

So if you look at compounding returns as a magical theory of futurists – I can appreciate that because my inner gut agrees with you.

That said, it’s time to think of your most precious resource as a very important investment.

If you’re busy – overloaded – more stressed than you want to be – or working with smaller margins than you want to be – then you need to invest in getting back your own time.

Metaphorically, it’s time to stop sawing the tree and time to spend even just a fraction of your time sharpening your own blade.

The funny thing is that I actually just came from the future with the future you, and the one thing you kept saying was “PLEASE TELL ME TO FREE UP MY TIME! IT’S CRAZYLAND OUT HERE.”

So I’m doing the only responsible thing I can think to do and tell you now – it’s time to sharpen your blade.

How can we invest time in our own methods when we don’t have any time? How can we invest time when we don’t have any of it? I’m already working 50 hours a week!

A few tips that have worked for me.

TIP #1: JUST START
First, start. Start with just 15 minutes a week. You have to start a snowball by rolling just a little bit of snow. You can’t eat an elephant without taking the first bite. Any progress is better than no progress.

TIP #2: START SMALL
Second, start small. Don’t shoot for that report template that will take a week and has been on your to-do list for three years. Don’t. Start small, exceptionally small. That one detail that you have to change, and it irks you on every project. That one paragraph you have to hunt down and paste into emails every few weeks. That one prompt you can’t easily find and have to go look up. Start small with easy wins.

TIP #3: DO IT FIRST
Third, do it first. Your week will have fires you’ll have to put out. You’ll have meetings. You’ll have your workload. If you save this “sharpen the tool” effort until Friday afternoon, it will never happen. You know that to be true. If you want it done, do it first. Before anything else. Remember, we’re only starting with 15 minutes a week. Do it before you even open up your email in the morning.

TIP #4: GRAB THE LOW-HANGING FRUIT
Attack the lowest-hanging fruit. The analogy is obvious – the lowest-hanging fruit is the easiest fruit to grab. Start there. Start with small, quick and easy wins to regain even small chunks of time.

TIP #5: REINVEST YOUR TIME SAVINGS
Then finally, reinvest your time. At first, your time savings are extremely small. That’s how compounding works. Your 15-minute time investment that first week should only save you a minute of work in your next. Maybe, maybe you earn a minute back… fine. Add that minute to your 15 from week 1, and now you’ve got 16 minutes to reinvest into sharpening your saw. Update your templates. Update your library. Save down your process. Make a checklist. Save down a good prompt. Organize.

I’ll talk more about methods next week, but these investments are all about you building your own tools that help you work more smoothly and smartly going forward.

After Week 2?

Same thing, maybe you earn a minute more of your time back. In fact, weeks into recharging your life, we’re still talking about very, very small time returns.

​If you gain back just 10% of your invested time as future time savings… it actually accrues exceptionally slowly. Here’s what investing 15 minutes at the start of your week looks like, represented at scale:​Nothing amazing happens, even weeks in. That’s very commonly the frustration I think we’ve all experienced at one time or another. What little time we spend improving our own workflows, we get so little time back, and then we get busy and give up.

If we’re going to break through to what the other side can look like, it’s a longer-play. Prioritize earning your time back first, work with small wins, and roll that time savings forward.
​

It’s easy to project – run the numbers and make the assumptions you’d find realistic. My feedback here is that early on, we’ll hardly see the results. It’s only down the road, as each of these little changes compounds, that we’ll start to see the results.
 
When I first went into business for myself, I found that working hard on improving any one thing never showed up with quick results. It was always about six months later when I’d think, “Oh, that’s a lot easier now,” or “That’s not a problem anymore.” The returns were never immediate.
​
And I think that’s generally a healthier mindset looking forward. If we want to change any one thing six months from now, we have to push hard at that thing now.

We work our way into getting 1-hour a week back. Then, it’s 2. Then it’s more, and more, and more. All the while having just as good (if not better) output than we’d had before, yet having more time. Better, more consistent processes. Better quality work. Less stress.

I’m talking in concept. It very well sounds more philosophical and theoretical than real-world boots on the ground realism. But anyone who knows me well or has worked with me in the past ten years knows this is very much a real thing – a real way to operate. Have a worklife and workflow that’s more predictable, lower stress, with more consistent and higher quality work than before.

I’m not asking for your time for something I need. I’m asking for your time for something you need, and we all need. Get your time back, where you’re more in control, doing the best work you’ve ever done, and living a healthier, less-stressful life through that process.

Next we’ll talk on the objections that we get when trying to live in fantasy-land, but more realistically address how we can best invest our time to earn more of it and our sanity back. Check it out here.
 
​
- Joe

These tools have long been one of the ways we hope to positively contribute to the industry by providing meaningful resources that are relevant to you. I hope you find them helpful.

​- Joe