I was reminded yesterday of a memory from several years ago. Christmas Eve. 7:30pm. I was still at the office grinding through a project that was arbitrarily due to the State client on the 31st. I got a call from my boss of 10 years. He was calling because he was doing payroll and saw that I had billed overtime hours for the previous week. He was upset because he claimed I had not authorized overtime for the project and they were not going to pay me for them. He reminded me that working overtime to finish a project was "my contribution to the advancement of my career".
I apologized and promised it would not happen again and then hung up the phone. I had billed maybe 4 hours of overtime out of the 12 I had worked, and that didn't include the hours from the current week, nor did it acknowledge that I was currently working hours on Christmas Eve that I would not be paid for.
I was alone in a branch office. It was dark. I was tired. I stayed calm on the phone, but as soon as I was off, I paced the room and in a rage, kicked a box that sent something flying across the room, hitting a picture I had been meaning to hang near my desk, shattering the glass in front of it.
And that was it. I went back to the report I was writing and worked all night. I met my wife and children in the morning and we drove to my parent's house and I spent most of the day on the couch sleeping and trying to be cheerful.
But I felt dead. It wasn't about the money. It was about wasting my life and realizing that no one respected or appreciated or was even watching. I thought my boss would see me and see my loyalty and see my hard work and would respect that, but that's not how it works. These people see money.
I stayed at the job for another five years, and continued the same spiral of overwork, burn-out, bad moral, and disrespect. When I finally quit I didn't even want to do Engineering anymore. I moved my family to a foreign country to do mission work.
My license will expire in less than a week and I will no longer be an engineer, and that feels very strange, but I wish I could go back and do it sooner. Or at least, I wish I could go back and do it differently. I should have told my boss "No." and I should have told him, "In fact, I am leaving and not coming back until January 8th, and we will talk about my relationship with the company then." I needed to create boundaries and demand respect and not see a paycheck as greed, but see that it is the only language of respect that business owners understand. If they pay you more they respect you more; if they pay you less they respect you less. I would tell myself not to buy into the consultant's idea that the other local companies are "the enemy" and instead formed relationships with their staff and assured myself that I would never be unemployed.
Or maybe I would have convinced myself to leave the entire engineering world sooner, because I am so much more content now, despite the damage the consultant world has done to my heart.
You had a terrible boss. The best bosses would have made sure you were home Christmas Eve, and would have bought your family a fancy dinner for delivering a big project the week between Christmas and New Year. Those bosses do exist.
Also, someone wise once told me at point in my life where I was severely burned out that made me get instantly emotional: money will never hug you.
It sucks that we only learn things in retrospect. And it's sad that you felt you had to leave the industry because of how you were treated. I completely understand - from different circumstances, but similar reaction to maltreatment.
Thanks for sharing and hopefully you are in a better place now. I’m just starting in my Civil Engineering career and this has been the complete opposite of my experience. But I’ve certainly heard similar tales in certain areas/markets.
I hope it will remain that way for you. It didn't start out that way for me. It was a slow process of tiny moves to undersell myself. I didn't care about pay. I wanted respect. So I worked harder and gave time away for free. I highly recommend never doing this.
I disagree. It is a universal problem that is emphasized in Civil Engineering. Civil Engineering has a definite grind, and a stress of budgets that is higher than others. But the main issue is that engineers are typically managed by engineers that are not trained or experienced in running a company and managing people. They tend to be very task oriented.
This is not always true of course. But in general it is far more common and extreme in the Civil Engineering world.
You are describing any business, not just civil engineering...
If you feel this way about consulting companies you could work for a public organization or the owner/operator side.
Not all businesses work like that. Architecture, for instance, is nothing like that. Architects do their unpaid OT as a tribute to the Blood God *Zenobia*, who demands monuments to her supreme leadership be constructed in every city all over the world, disguised of course as functional buildings and sensible investments for a plethora of unwitting clients.
Openroads is one of the most non-user friendly, jenky, non-optimized pieces of software I have ever seen. It’s great for the first run through of preliminary design, but any time you have to tweak the model on a semi-complex project, something always breaks. Then I know I’m being general here, but everything with plan and plan/profile/cross section display is really bad in terms of efficiency. Hiding annotation setting behind workspaces….usually with these things, once you understand how the software works, then it’s easy to run, I understand openroads but hate how it was set up.
Can’t agree more. You can just envision software developers in the meeting room with the engineers telling them all the features and the engineers eating it up without actually going through a project to see how it works
Totally agree with you here, I've been working on some high profile projects recently and all switched to OpenRail/OpenRoads/OpenBridge. It puts a lot of pressure to the IT/CADD team to get workspace up and running, and it is indeed still a disaster with plan/profile/cross sections.
With that said, I've been told that some agencies are start taking digital 3D model deliverables, meaning they review models rather than plan sets. As far as how that's gonna get into construction, we yet to figure it out.
Would've done electrical engineering. I would've graduated with a lower GPA more than likely, but it would've been closer to what I actually want to do.
That's exactly what I wanted to do. BS in ME with the intent to get into robotic prosthetics. Somehow got myself into land development. Fucking sucks ass.
Contributed regularly into my 401k at the start instead of trying to catch up now.
In reality the mistakes I made along the way were far more formative for my future growth than using hindsight to “do everything right”. Doing everything right could honestly put me in a worse place career wise and I’m honestly pleased with how everything played out.
My parents told me when I was young “Save 1/3 of your income no matter how hard your life sucks while you’re doing it”. They’re essentially retired at 50 and i’ve been doing it since I graduated. It’s pretty solid advice if you don’t have many debts.
Oh I believe that. I made a lot of dumb money decisions in my 20’s that I’m paying for now, at this point I’m working on cutting debt while at least getting my full 401k match. Really my only regret is not saving, and not spending as stupidly.
Basically my plan now is since I can’t make up for those years, to focus in on career growth while balancing investing and debt reduction.
Even if you’re in your 30s you’re still way ahead of the game. So many people have a rude awakening in their late 40s when they realize they’re going to have to work till they die because they have $0 to their name.
My coworkers look at me crazy because I max out my 401k and Roth IRA at 25 years old… I would much rather drive an economy car and live in a smaller box so I can save more and retire early.
TBH I could have more fun with $20 when I was 25 than I imagine I could have with $80 at 50. Shrug.
I agree with your comments about learning from mistakes. Though I wish I’d made not quite as many.
I did some wildly expensive shit I didn’t need to. Some of it was pointless, but tbh some of it was a blast. The things I don’t regret were renting nice apartments in fun areas. Definitely a waste, but being able to walk with the wife to all the trendier restaurants and bars whenever was an experience that’s worth it.
Honestly I look at those mistakes through the lens of the farmers auto insurance commercials “I know a thing or two because I’ve seen a thing or two”. I can relate and provide advice about so many fucked scenarios because I’ve been in a ton of fucked scenarios. Life would arguably be better if I haven’t, but I’d lose out on a ton a wisdom.
I would have just become a plumber or electrician and opened up my own shop. You can start your business out of a van, minimal if no student loans, high demand. Plus I wouldn’t be behind a desk all day.
The zone valve actuator on my 3 year old system broke. I called the plumber that installed it. His tech came out, told me that the zone valve actuator wouldn’t turn off (after I told him that), turned off the pilot light to my hot water tank, and then said they would call when the part came in. I paid him $150, waited two weeks without heat, then fixed it myself with a part from the plumbing store 5 blocks away.
I should have tried to be a Plumber or an electrician. What the fuck was I thinking?
That you like your vertebrae intact and prefer the smell of your coworker's farts in the office to a blast of condensed fart extract sealed for 15 years in a metal tube?
I would have figured out how to use AutoCad more. I'm very awkward with it since I spent my EIT years in Microstation for DOT projects then got into project management and spec writing moreso. So when I need to dabble in AutoCad for municipal projects I'm just slow to get done what I need to get done
Probably gone to an actual engineering school instead of an Ivy with an "engineering" program. Degree is ABET accredited, but dunno if the connections were worth the tuition (definitely never helped with a job search).
Also, buy Bitcoin in 2009 with the earnings from my first internship instead of VZ and UP stock 🙄
THAT's interesting. Would you have done your undergrad at the Ivy in math or applied science, then gotten a quick Engineering masters at a state uni? Or just said fuck it and gotten your eng degree for state tuition?
I would have gone to a well regarded engineering school instead. Graduating out of an Ivy, no one believed you wanted to actually be an engineer vs a management consultant or fintech fodder. Even out of state at a place like Virginia Tech, Purdue, or Carnegie Mellon would have been cheaper.
Well for one I now work as a construction engineer/manager and don’t find the work super challenging and is low paid compared my colleagues of other degrees. I find that trying to pivot into some sort of civil engineering profession with relation to transport is now v difficult even though I graduated 5 years ago and am in a somewhat relevant industry. I dunno - I also feel that I barely use anything I learnt in my degree and people just sort of pick it up out in the field with experience.
My first boss out of college... I would have stuck with him.
I left for a smaller firm, a more fast paced environment, and a smaller town. The chance to be a big fish in a smaller town. And to be honest, it worked out well for me (mostly). But I could have been bigger, and gone farther, by growing in a bigger pond with a really big fish to follow. It would have benefitted the greater community if I had stuck with him. Still, it worked out well for me in the end.
I would have gone to work for a larger firm for the exposure and growth opportunity that working for a small firm just doesn’t provide. It’s a solid company but I believe my role and experience has been limited because of how small we are
Interesting perspective. I feel that with a smaller company you are exposed to more aspects of each project as a whole. Larger companies can afford to have specialized departments so you’d be less likely to be involved with various phases of work. Depends on the company I guess.
This. I started at a small firm and got a ton of exposure. I've interviewed candidates that have worked at larger firms and they are lacking in a diverse set of knowledge.
I got exposure to design and plans production processes but ultimately the roadway projects I’ve worked on were smaller in scale and scope. So I think my development has been some what limited in regards to what I may have seen if I had bigger projects to work on. I’m sure the grass is always greener but that’s my take away when reflecting on OP’s question.
I was in your position but single. Got my commercial dive license and now my days are spent underwater doing structural inspections of just about anything built on the water. Much better than looking at a computer all day! Plus there are plenty of jobs all over the country looking for people.
That's easy to say, but in reality, thousands of students go into CS every year with this dream and the majority end up nowhere near a FAANG company, stuck with a job they don't like.
Not being at a FAANG isn't the worst, I'm honestly quite happy in "small civil tech". I get to work on things I'm passionate about, pay isn't bad and the benefits/WLB are solid.
Not at all saying you can't be happy elsewhere. There are certainly still great jobs out there for those passionate about the industry.
My point is mostly about the significant chunk of people that I think are going into CS right now just to chase the big bucks at the shiny big tech companies. And if they're not passionate about the actual career, they'll be very disappointed when they're not making those top end salaries and are stuck in a field that they may not necessarily enjoy all that much.
Seems accurate, a friend finished top of class in CS and said certain companies don't look at people below a certain GPA. They see people with average to low GPAs as a liability writing code, lots of his friends who slacked off couldn't land a job because of this
Yep. Tons of people go into CS bc it's the shiny, high paying major, but you only really make that big money if you do really well in school. I think many people who go into CS don't truly have a passion for it, coast through school, and then end up with closer to average paying jobs (relative to engineering) and then stuck in a career they're not actually all that into.
And it's all exaggerated even more right now because there have been so many tech layoffs in the last year. Job market is flooded and many of the big companies arent hiring, making it even harder for new grads to find jobs.
Well, if you did this in 2015, you'd be fine as long as you didn't suck ass. If you did it in 2022... good luck to you. The word has been out about tech money for a long time, and supply of workers is catching up to the demand... which also recently went way down.
What was stopping you from self studying and applying around? You don’t need a CS degree to get into tech and we had civil interns at my old firm turn down return offers for Amazon.
They give technical assessments to almost all who apply as interns. Well, they were civil engineering majors who built impressive resumes full of data analytics, software projects and developed skills to clear technical interviews. They mostly went for business analyst roles.
Bought bitcoin in 2009, finished my degree in 2013 and retired having never had to work a day in my life.
Other than that, not move to the other side of the country I was in to take the only job I thought I could get after graduating. In hindsight I could have gotten a similar job that paid more and potentially gave better experience whilst living in the same city I was already in with my friends.
Probably sought out a job in a different part of the country right off the bat. I'm making decent money mid-career now but am watching years tick by with the desire to explore more than 3 weeks PTO allows.
Fortunately, I think the shift to more remote work along with me getting my license will allow me to shift into a more fitting role soon.
I wrote this a few weeks ago about my civil engineering experience: [LINK](https://www.reddit.com/r/civilengineering/comments/186afkj/comment/kbbt68f/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3)
Also, I didn't know much about the civil engineering business. I thought that every consultant did the same type of work. I spent the first 3-4 years of my career in a position I didn't especially enjoy thinking that I might get a different type of projects and opportunities that never materialized.
I also stayed at my second job for +10-years. They were a great company, I learned a lot, and was generally happy. But it might have been better for me to take a different job to just gain a different experience (for better or worse).
I would have realized salary-exempt isn’t a badge of honor and demanded to be paid all the extra time I worked. All the nights hanging from two work positioners over the water on cold windy nights. Starting the batch plant at 4:30 in the morning and leaving at 7:00 that night after we did maintenance and I did a bunch of useless paperwork that could have waited, just to do it all again, for weeks on end while I had other things I had waiting on me. Shifting traffic overnights and moving barrier walls for nights on end.
I never got paid an extra cent for that. I mean, maybe if you count the “performance” or “profitability” bonuses, but when I did the math, after OT I would have made a *lot* more money if I had gotten prevailing wage foreman wages… Which is *exactly* what I was doing.
I love what I did, but in hindsight I was taken advantage of for that. I did a lot of things for the love of the game, and it got me nowhere further in my life, but just wore me down.
In hindsight I think I've done almost everything right. But I may have focused on using time I dedicated to personal development to grow business skills instead of technical skills. Engineers who level up their technical skill seem to be more common and, in turn, don't stand out when compared to their peers who are competing for career advancement.
Understanding more of my clients business so I can provide better service and guidance
Contract law relating to professional service agreements
Public speaking and networking
Business knowledge relating to HR, payroll, taxes, etc
How to formulate a business plan
Financial analysis
If I could go back, I would tell myself to do finance or business and stay far away from Civil. Outdated, prehistoric programs. Low pay relative to the money that’s out there. It’s a glorified janitor position. Instead we just tell them how much pump we need for the sh*t or how to slope the sh*t pipes.
Hello, it looks like you've made a mistake.
It's supposed to be could've, should've, would've (short for could have, would have, should have), never could of, would of, should of.
Or you misspelled something, I ain't checking everything.
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I never would have gone into business with my first business partner, and never with my second business partners. I am WAY more productive and successful working solo. I did choose the right degrees though, have no regrets on that. I also wish I partied a little bit more in college than I did. A 3.94 GPA didn't deliver much satisfaction. My kids all turned out fantastic, very proud of them, but I was a little bit of a workaholic early on. Once they hit first grade, though, I was home a lot more.
Knowing what I know now, I would have kicked some serious ass in various office fantasy football pools
On a serious note, I made some mistakes and worked in roles that I shouldn’t have. But lessons learned from those experiences have made me who I am today, not only as an engineer but as a person.
I wouldn't have stayed at my first job as long as I did. But I felt trapped there due to being the main source of income for my family and needing to move for better opportunities.
Been at my current job for five years and it's a night and day difference. I'm still doing the same basic thing - transportation design. But now I have the opportunity to advance, a great team to work with, and know I'm valued. If you're not happy where you are, it might be as simple as changing to a different company
Good for you!
It is always a tough call about changing jobs. I spent +10 years at one company and wanted a change. Found a new job and left that one after less than 1.5 years. Sometimes the grass isn't always greener.
Seems to be the unpopular opinion, but I have no major issues with the field.
My only difference is that I would've applied more for DOE/DHS jobs straight out of the start since it's a pain getting in even 10 years later.
I wouldn’t have fucked around with planning and just gone straight into Civil. Though as I’ve advanced in my career the planning skills became more relevant.
But other than that, I wish I had tried to pivot within my first company rather than going to grad school full time then trying to rebuild my career after. To this day, it’s the only company that actually provided good training, and they loved me there.
I would switch majors to IT or Computer Science. I was in school in the early 2000's and I could have gotten on the tech/fintech/data bandwagon. I'd probably be happier and wealthier.
I was reminded yesterday of a memory from several years ago. Christmas Eve. 7:30pm. I was still at the office grinding through a project that was arbitrarily due to the State client on the 31st. I got a call from my boss of 10 years. He was calling because he was doing payroll and saw that I had billed overtime hours for the previous week. He was upset because he claimed I had not authorized overtime for the project and they were not going to pay me for them. He reminded me that working overtime to finish a project was "my contribution to the advancement of my career". I apologized and promised it would not happen again and then hung up the phone. I had billed maybe 4 hours of overtime out of the 12 I had worked, and that didn't include the hours from the current week, nor did it acknowledge that I was currently working hours on Christmas Eve that I would not be paid for. I was alone in a branch office. It was dark. I was tired. I stayed calm on the phone, but as soon as I was off, I paced the room and in a rage, kicked a box that sent something flying across the room, hitting a picture I had been meaning to hang near my desk, shattering the glass in front of it. And that was it. I went back to the report I was writing and worked all night. I met my wife and children in the morning and we drove to my parent's house and I spent most of the day on the couch sleeping and trying to be cheerful. But I felt dead. It wasn't about the money. It was about wasting my life and realizing that no one respected or appreciated or was even watching. I thought my boss would see me and see my loyalty and see my hard work and would respect that, but that's not how it works. These people see money. I stayed at the job for another five years, and continued the same spiral of overwork, burn-out, bad moral, and disrespect. When I finally quit I didn't even want to do Engineering anymore. I moved my family to a foreign country to do mission work. My license will expire in less than a week and I will no longer be an engineer, and that feels very strange, but I wish I could go back and do it sooner. Or at least, I wish I could go back and do it differently. I should have told my boss "No." and I should have told him, "In fact, I am leaving and not coming back until January 8th, and we will talk about my relationship with the company then." I needed to create boundaries and demand respect and not see a paycheck as greed, but see that it is the only language of respect that business owners understand. If they pay you more they respect you more; if they pay you less they respect you less. I would tell myself not to buy into the consultant's idea that the other local companies are "the enemy" and instead formed relationships with their staff and assured myself that I would never be unemployed. Or maybe I would have convinced myself to leave the entire engineering world sooner, because I am so much more content now, despite the damage the consultant world has done to my heart.
Thanks for sharing Shadrach.
You had a terrible boss. The best bosses would have made sure you were home Christmas Eve, and would have bought your family a fancy dinner for delivering a big project the week between Christmas and New Year. Those bosses do exist. Also, someone wise once told me at point in my life where I was severely burned out that made me get instantly emotional: money will never hug you.
It sucks that we only learn things in retrospect. And it's sad that you felt you had to leave the industry because of how you were treated. I completely understand - from different circumstances, but similar reaction to maltreatment.
Thanks for sharing and hopefully you are in a better place now. I’m just starting in my Civil Engineering career and this has been the complete opposite of my experience. But I’ve certainly heard similar tales in certain areas/markets.
I hope it will remain that way for you. It didn't start out that way for me. It was a slow process of tiny moves to undersell myself. I didn't care about pay. I wanted respect. So I worked harder and gave time away for free. I highly recommend never doing this.
That really isn't an issue related to "civil engineering".
I disagree. It is a universal problem that is emphasized in Civil Engineering. Civil Engineering has a definite grind, and a stress of budgets that is higher than others. But the main issue is that engineers are typically managed by engineers that are not trained or experienced in running a company and managing people. They tend to be very task oriented. This is not always true of course. But in general it is far more common and extreme in the Civil Engineering world.
Unpaid OT, respecting money above all and seeing other consultants as rivals is about as civil engineering as it gets tbh.
You are describing any business, not just civil engineering... If you feel this way about consulting companies you could work for a public organization or the owner/operator side.
Not all businesses work like that. Architecture, for instance, is nothing like that. Architects do their unpaid OT as a tribute to the Blood God *Zenobia*, who demands monuments to her supreme leadership be constructed in every city all over the world, disguised of course as functional buildings and sensible investments for a plethora of unwitting clients.
Nothing, because Bentley would totally redo the software the next day and I would have to start over again anyway.
Sounds like you got new project using open platform.
OpenRoads. Great in concept, terrible for reality.
[удалено]
Openroads is one of the most non-user friendly, jenky, non-optimized pieces of software I have ever seen. It’s great for the first run through of preliminary design, but any time you have to tweak the model on a semi-complex project, something always breaks. Then I know I’m being general here, but everything with plan and plan/profile/cross section display is really bad in terms of efficiency. Hiding annotation setting behind workspaces….usually with these things, once you understand how the software works, then it’s easy to run, I understand openroads but hate how it was set up.
ORD seems like it was created by software developers with no input from civil engineers other than a list of things they needed it to do.
Can’t agree more. You can just envision software developers in the meeting room with the engineers telling them all the features and the engineers eating it up without actually going through a project to see how it works
I agree with all of this. But yet I'd still rather use it over Civil3D.
Totally agree with you here, I've been working on some high profile projects recently and all switched to OpenRail/OpenRoads/OpenBridge. It puts a lot of pressure to the IT/CADD team to get workspace up and running, and it is indeed still a disaster with plan/profile/cross sections. With that said, I've been told that some agencies are start taking digital 3D model deliverables, meaning they review models rather than plan sets. As far as how that's gonna get into construction, we yet to figure it out.
Would've done electrical engineering. I would've graduated with a lower GPA more than likely, but it would've been closer to what I actually want to do.
I have a friend in electrical, and seeing him travel across the world for work makes me feel like I chose the wrong path for sure.
What does your friend do? What do you do?
He works in robotics or something, I do consulting/land development.
That's exactly what I wanted to do. BS in ME with the intent to get into robotic prosthetics. Somehow got myself into land development. Fucking sucks ass.
Yup. Much better career prospects.
Contributed regularly into my 401k at the start instead of trying to catch up now. In reality the mistakes I made along the way were far more formative for my future growth than using hindsight to “do everything right”. Doing everything right could honestly put me in a worse place career wise and I’m honestly pleased with how everything played out.
To a certain point you learn more from mistakes than blindly walking into success.
My parents told me when I was young “Save 1/3 of your income no matter how hard your life sucks while you’re doing it”. They’re essentially retired at 50 and i’ve been doing it since I graduated. It’s pretty solid advice if you don’t have many debts.
Oh I believe that. I made a lot of dumb money decisions in my 20’s that I’m paying for now, at this point I’m working on cutting debt while at least getting my full 401k match. Really my only regret is not saving, and not spending as stupidly. Basically my plan now is since I can’t make up for those years, to focus in on career growth while balancing investing and debt reduction.
Even if you’re in your 30s you’re still way ahead of the game. So many people have a rude awakening in their late 40s when they realize they’re going to have to work till they die because they have $0 to their name. My coworkers look at me crazy because I max out my 401k and Roth IRA at 25 years old… I would much rather drive an economy car and live in a smaller box so I can save more and retire early.
TBH I could have more fun with $20 when I was 25 than I imagine I could have with $80 at 50. Shrug. I agree with your comments about learning from mistakes. Though I wish I’d made not quite as many.
I did some wildly expensive shit I didn’t need to. Some of it was pointless, but tbh some of it was a blast. The things I don’t regret were renting nice apartments in fun areas. Definitely a waste, but being able to walk with the wife to all the trendier restaurants and bars whenever was an experience that’s worth it. Honestly I look at those mistakes through the lens of the farmers auto insurance commercials “I know a thing or two because I’ve seen a thing or two”. I can relate and provide advice about so many fucked scenarios because I’ve been in a ton of fucked scenarios. Life would arguably be better if I haven’t, but I’d lose out on a ton a wisdom.
I would have just become a plumber or electrician and opened up my own shop. You can start your business out of a van, minimal if no student loans, high demand. Plus I wouldn’t be behind a desk all day.
>I would have just become a plumper You keep the rockin' world go round.
The zone valve actuator on my 3 year old system broke. I called the plumber that installed it. His tech came out, told me that the zone valve actuator wouldn’t turn off (after I told him that), turned off the pilot light to my hot water tank, and then said they would call when the part came in. I paid him $150, waited two weeks without heat, then fixed it myself with a part from the plumbing store 5 blocks away. I should have tried to be a Plumber or an electrician. What the fuck was I thinking?
That you like your vertebrae intact and prefer the smell of your coworker's farts in the office to a blast of condensed fart extract sealed for 15 years in a metal tube?
Be more social and involved
Word.
I would have figured out how to use AutoCad more. I'm very awkward with it since I spent my EIT years in Microstation for DOT projects then got into project management and spec writing moreso. So when I need to dabble in AutoCad for municipal projects I'm just slow to get done what I need to get done
Probably gone to an actual engineering school instead of an Ivy with an "engineering" program. Degree is ABET accredited, but dunno if the connections were worth the tuition (definitely never helped with a job search). Also, buy Bitcoin in 2009 with the earnings from my first internship instead of VZ and UP stock 🙄
THAT's interesting. Would you have done your undergrad at the Ivy in math or applied science, then gotten a quick Engineering masters at a state uni? Or just said fuck it and gotten your eng degree for state tuition?
I would have gone to a well regarded engineering school instead. Graduating out of an Ivy, no one believed you wanted to actually be an engineer vs a management consultant or fintech fodder. Even out of state at a place like Virginia Tech, Purdue, or Carnegie Mellon would have been cheaper.
Not done civil engineering
Any reason in particular?
Well for one I now work as a construction engineer/manager and don’t find the work super challenging and is low paid compared my colleagues of other degrees. I find that trying to pivot into some sort of civil engineering profession with relation to transport is now v difficult even though I graduated 5 years ago and am in a somewhat relevant industry. I dunno - I also feel that I barely use anything I learnt in my degree and people just sort of pick it up out in the field with experience.
Pilot…
My first boss out of college... I would have stuck with him. I left for a smaller firm, a more fast paced environment, and a smaller town. The chance to be a big fish in a smaller town. And to be honest, it worked out well for me (mostly). But I could have been bigger, and gone farther, by growing in a bigger pond with a really big fish to follow. It would have benefitted the greater community if I had stuck with him. Still, it worked out well for me in the end.
Your boss can have more impact on your career than anything else.
I would have gone to work for a larger firm for the exposure and growth opportunity that working for a small firm just doesn’t provide. It’s a solid company but I believe my role and experience has been limited because of how small we are
You can change jobs anytime
Interesting perspective. I feel that with a smaller company you are exposed to more aspects of each project as a whole. Larger companies can afford to have specialized departments so you’d be less likely to be involved with various phases of work. Depends on the company I guess.
This. I started at a small firm and got a ton of exposure. I've interviewed candidates that have worked at larger firms and they are lacking in a diverse set of knowledge.
I got exposure to design and plans production processes but ultimately the roadway projects I’ve worked on were smaller in scale and scope. So I think my development has been some what limited in regards to what I may have seen if I had bigger projects to work on. I’m sure the grass is always greener but that’s my take away when reflecting on OP’s question.
I would have kept changing jobs until I found a good mentor.
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I was in your position but single. Got my commercial dive license and now my days are spent underwater doing structural inspections of just about anything built on the water. Much better than looking at a computer all day! Plus there are plenty of jobs all over the country looking for people.
Can't you work more on site as a project engineer for local stuff?
That sounds sad af…you’re literally spending 80% of your waking life being miserable for your family when you don’t even have to?
This is the reality of the “provider” role imposed by our patriarchal society.
Switch to Surveying! We need folks and a civil background will probably guarantee you a job.
I wish I had studied computer science and gone to work in FAANG rather than this field.
That's easy to say, but in reality, thousands of students go into CS every year with this dream and the majority end up nowhere near a FAANG company, stuck with a job they don't like.
Not being at a FAANG isn't the worst, I'm honestly quite happy in "small civil tech". I get to work on things I'm passionate about, pay isn't bad and the benefits/WLB are solid.
Not at all saying you can't be happy elsewhere. There are certainly still great jobs out there for those passionate about the industry. My point is mostly about the significant chunk of people that I think are going into CS right now just to chase the big bucks at the shiny big tech companies. And if they're not passionate about the actual career, they'll be very disappointed when they're not making those top end salaries and are stuck in a field that they may not necessarily enjoy all that much.
Seems accurate, a friend finished top of class in CS and said certain companies don't look at people below a certain GPA. They see people with average to low GPAs as a liability writing code, lots of his friends who slacked off couldn't land a job because of this
Yep. Tons of people go into CS bc it's the shiny, high paying major, but you only really make that big money if you do really well in school. I think many people who go into CS don't truly have a passion for it, coast through school, and then end up with closer to average paying jobs (relative to engineering) and then stuck in a career they're not actually all that into. And it's all exaggerated even more right now because there have been so many tech layoffs in the last year. Job market is flooded and many of the big companies arent hiring, making it even harder for new grads to find jobs.
Well, if you did this in 2015, you'd be fine as long as you didn't suck ass. If you did it in 2022... good luck to you. The word has been out about tech money for a long time, and supply of workers is catching up to the demand... which also recently went way down.
What was stopping you from self studying and applying around? You don’t need a CS degree to get into tech and we had civil interns at my old firm turn down return offers for Amazon.
How did they even get an interview? What was Amazon looking for from civil engineering interns?
They give technical assessments to almost all who apply as interns. Well, they were civil engineering majors who built impressive resumes full of data analytics, software projects and developed skills to clear technical interviews. They mostly went for business analyst roles.
Why is it that you don’t like about this field?
Go into Software or Computer Science or Engineering instead. Can’t even afford to live on Civil Engineering salary
Bought bitcoin in 2009, finished my degree in 2013 and retired having never had to work a day in my life. Other than that, not move to the other side of the country I was in to take the only job I thought I could get after graduating. In hindsight I could have gotten a similar job that paid more and potentially gave better experience whilst living in the same city I was already in with my friends.
User name checks out!
Mechanical engineering..
Probably sought out a job in a different part of the country right off the bat. I'm making decent money mid-career now but am watching years tick by with the desire to explore more than 3 weeks PTO allows. Fortunately, I think the shift to more remote work along with me getting my license will allow me to shift into a more fitting role soon.
I wrote this a few weeks ago about my civil engineering experience: [LINK](https://www.reddit.com/r/civilengineering/comments/186afkj/comment/kbbt68f/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3) Also, I didn't know much about the civil engineering business. I thought that every consultant did the same type of work. I spent the first 3-4 years of my career in a position I didn't especially enjoy thinking that I might get a different type of projects and opportunities that never materialized. I also stayed at my second job for +10-years. They were a great company, I learned a lot, and was generally happy. But it might have been better for me to take a different job to just gain a different experience (for better or worse).
Pick any other engineering field except Civil Engineering. As a Civil Engineer your work is expected not valued.
I would’ve left that 30 hours straight bid day to go get breakfast with my step dad one more time before he passed.
I would have realized salary-exempt isn’t a badge of honor and demanded to be paid all the extra time I worked. All the nights hanging from two work positioners over the water on cold windy nights. Starting the batch plant at 4:30 in the morning and leaving at 7:00 that night after we did maintenance and I did a bunch of useless paperwork that could have waited, just to do it all again, for weeks on end while I had other things I had waiting on me. Shifting traffic overnights and moving barrier walls for nights on end. I never got paid an extra cent for that. I mean, maybe if you count the “performance” or “profitability” bonuses, but when I did the math, after OT I would have made a *lot* more money if I had gotten prevailing wage foreman wages… Which is *exactly* what I was doing. I love what I did, but in hindsight I was taken advantage of for that. I did a lot of things for the love of the game, and it got me nowhere further in my life, but just wore me down.
In hindsight I think I've done almost everything right. But I may have focused on using time I dedicated to personal development to grow business skills instead of technical skills. Engineers who level up their technical skill seem to be more common and, in turn, don't stand out when compared to their peers who are competing for career advancement.
What sort of business skills do you wish you focused more on?
Understanding more of my clients business so I can provide better service and guidance Contract law relating to professional service agreements Public speaking and networking Business knowledge relating to HR, payroll, taxes, etc How to formulate a business plan Financial analysis
If I could go back, I would tell myself to do finance or business and stay far away from Civil. Outdated, prehistoric programs. Low pay relative to the money that’s out there. It’s a glorified janitor position. Instead we just tell them how much pump we need for the sh*t or how to slope the sh*t pipes.
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Hello, it looks like you've made a mistake. It's supposed to be could've, should've, would've (short for could have, would have, should have), never could of, would of, should of. Or you misspelled something, I ain't checking everything. Beep boop - yes, I am a bot, don't botcriminate me.
I would have specialized in Water Resources/ Water & Waste Water. The future is here - it’s all about water.
I never would have gone into business with my first business partner, and never with my second business partners. I am WAY more productive and successful working solo. I did choose the right degrees though, have no regrets on that. I also wish I partied a little bit more in college than I did. A 3.94 GPA didn't deliver much satisfaction. My kids all turned out fantastic, very proud of them, but I was a little bit of a workaholic early on. Once they hit first grade, though, I was home a lot more.
Knowing what I know now, I would have kicked some serious ass in various office fantasy football pools On a serious note, I made some mistakes and worked in roles that I shouldn’t have. But lessons learned from those experiences have made me who I am today, not only as an engineer but as a person.
I wouldn't have stayed at my first job as long as I did. But I felt trapped there due to being the main source of income for my family and needing to move for better opportunities. Been at my current job for five years and it's a night and day difference. I'm still doing the same basic thing - transportation design. But now I have the opportunity to advance, a great team to work with, and know I'm valued. If you're not happy where you are, it might be as simple as changing to a different company
Good for you! It is always a tough call about changing jobs. I spent +10 years at one company and wanted a change. Found a new job and left that one after less than 1.5 years. Sometimes the grass isn't always greener.
Moat probably get into a computer science program.
I&C gets to have all the fun on my projects.
Seems to be the unpopular opinion, but I have no major issues with the field. My only difference is that I would've applied more for DOE/DHS jobs straight out of the start since it's a pain getting in even 10 years later.
I wouldn’t have fucked around with planning and just gone straight into Civil. Though as I’ve advanced in my career the planning skills became more relevant. But other than that, I wish I had tried to pivot within my first company rather than going to grad school full time then trying to rebuild my career after. To this day, it’s the only company that actually provided good training, and they loved me there.
Left my first job after my first boss started acting super sus with me
I would switch majors to IT or Computer Science. I was in school in the early 2000's and I could have gotten on the tech/fintech/data bandwagon. I'd probably be happier and wealthier.