Degreed Engineers brag about ABET accreditation, then wonder why nothing about their jobs feels protected. ABET audits syllabi, not careers. It inspects capstone rubrics and faculty CVs. It does not police titles in industry, it does not limit program seats, it does not lobby to restrict who does mechanical work inside corporations. Medicine and law fuse accreditation to licensure and scope of practice, so the pipeline narrows on purpose. Engineering hands you an accredited diploma, then sends you into a market that treats you like a replaceable cost.
The problem is bigger than campus. ABET accredits far beyond the United States. That includes massive producer countries where graduating classes dwarf the output of American programs. Your “gold seal” is not a moat, it is a universal stamp that expands the pool everywhere, then invites everyone to the same party. Managers chase lower costs, and your bargaining power sinks.
ABET also accredits non-engineering programs, including mechanical engineering technology at the bachelor and associate levels, often inside the very same institutions that confer mechanical engineering degrees. Employers blur the distinction because their needs are practical: prints, GD&T, ERP, testing, schedule. The technician looks useful on day one. You can guess who gets hired when a team is trying to hit a deadline, see Reason 10.
The result is predictable. Universities keep growing enrollment, because tuition is revenue and accreditation signals legitimacy. Employers avoid training, then demand experience. Entry-level requires three to five years doing the job already, see Reason 12. Wages flatten under a permanent surplus of candidates. When supply rises, your leverage falls, and no guild shows up to say otherwise.
If ABET behaved like a guild, it would tie accreditation to workforce outcomes, limit the pipeline where demand is weak, and enforce scope of practice in the private sector. It does none of that. It checks whether your heat transfer class had measurable learning outcomes, then it walks away. You are left to compete with everyone who has that same stamp, including graduates produced at a scale your market cannot absorb, see Reason 1.
Mechanical engineering feels “open.” In practice, it is unprotected. Your credential certifies that your program existed. It does not certify that your job will.
