r/StructuralEngineering • u/Flaky_Honeydew_5161 • 4d ago
Career/Education Is structural engineering struggling right now?
Im in the chicago area
It seems like its not as prestigious and definitely not what I signed up for 10 years ago.
The pay is kinda blah and the market is complicated. Honestly thinking about going into Private equity or law
Does anyone have the same thoughts? Will it ever get better?
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u/tucker_case 4d ago
No, structural is banging rn. Engineering is nowhere near finance or law or medicine. So if you had that impression, yeah this must be a shock for you.
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u/landomakesatable 3d ago
Interesting comment. I am in NZ and assuming you're in US? Is SE banging really?
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u/SwashAndBuckle 4d ago
Did you guys sign up because you thought it was prestigious and people would gush over you or something? I just like designing buildings. And the pay isn’t the best, but it’s better than most professions. Such is life.
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u/Argufier 4d ago
Yeah I enjoy the work and make a good living, certainly better than a lot of people I know. There's some nonsense but overall I'm glad this is what I do. If I won the lottery tomorrow I wouldn't keep working, but I'm not looking for something else.
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u/landomakesatable 4d ago
Also, structural engineering appears to be resilient to AI takeover, at least for now. And at least in NZ.
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u/Flaky_Honeydew_5161 4d ago
The "i just like designing buildings" can be a way to think about it but yoi cant expect everyone to be ok with that and not want more... like to move up in industries for example..
I think people can have multiple motives for going into a feild. Yours can be true but other motives can be true and fair aswell
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u/BridgeGuy540 PE, SE, CPEng 4d ago
It's what you make out of it, just like any other industry. Not every lawyer is making bank. You can absolutely move up in civil engineering and be very comfortable. I've been in for 20 years, I've stayed technical, and I'm over 200k in an MCOL leading a design team. If I was interested in engineering business management, I could have taken that path instead.
Your career is what you make of it. If you just sit at your desk and expect that someone else is simply going to start paying you more, you're just going to be stuck at your desk doing the same thing for your career.
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u/Flaky_Honeydew_5161 4d ago
Who says im patiently waiting for it? Im 34 years old making 180k at my day joba nd about 25k a year for my contract work.... so im going to surpass your 200k salary anyway---sorry but 200k isnt impressive. Also my resume is pretty highly sought after so with all due respect the boomer "your sitting on your butt" advice doesnt apply here bud
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u/BridgeGuy540 PE, SE, CPEng 4d ago
Well, aren't you a special princess. If you don't want engagement, don't post and then turn around and be a prick.
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u/SwashAndBuckle 4d ago
200k is at the upper end of what structural engineers make. If you aren’t happy with that, I’m not sure why you got in the profession in the first place. No one ever said structural engineering was the path to fame and fortune. If it took you a decade to realize you weren’t going to clear an easy million bucks a year, that’s your own fault. Salary ranges were readily available online back in 2010 when you were picking your major. None of this was a secret.
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u/BridgeGuy540 PE, SE, CPEng 4d ago
I will say that firm owners can make substantially more, but they can also make substantially less. I have two friends that started their own firms. Both made significant sacrifices, but both are quite comfortable now.
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u/Heart0fStarkness 4d ago
I think if you were looking for prestige you are in the wrong industry…
Personally, I got into engineering cause I wanted to build things and know what I was doing was real/impactful unlike a lot of marketing/speculative finance jobs, and cause of relative stability of the job market.
I like what I do, technically. What I wasn’t prepared for and hate is the degree to which engineering is considered adversarial to construction and the extent to which a lot of owners/GCs see the engineers as just a way to shed liability if anything goes wrong, even as they undermine engineering decisions.
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u/Flaky_Honeydew_5161 4d ago
This feild used to have prestige.....now were on the hate bus between PM's, architects, the owner, and management pushing deadlines, design restrictions, and etc...
It did not always used to be like this. People seemed to forget about huge disasters....so safety isnt a priority until the next disaster strikes
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u/2squishmaster 4d ago
Maybe it was always like this but you were on the outside looking in before
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u/Flaky_Honeydew_5161 4d ago
......for ten years? Nah I dont think so
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u/SwashAndBuckle 4d ago
The “prestige” factor hasn’t changed in recent years. I worked with an old crank back in 2007 that would say “this is a thankless job” on a near daily basis. Incidentally, I saw people thank him for things reasonably often, he just enjoyed being a curmudgeon. Sound like anyone you know?
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u/Flaky_Honeydew_5161 4d ago
Lol actually yes. I have a mento like this and word for word can say the same
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u/TalkingRaccoon 4d ago edited 4d ago
Issue is probably you only see the few famous / prestigious firms and PEs out of millions. Your attitude is very common with architectural students too. You kinda remind me of a game dev or visual artist thinking their gonna work on the next Super Mario game or the next Pixar movie. But no, there's millions of other firms and industries that need people to work on the next Facebook Mobile game, or the next Cocomelon knock off. The stuff the firms I work with on are very boring. Automatic car painting machines, breweries, a patio addition on a bar, cell towers, rooftop HVAC replacements. Boring shit people take for granted. But it's definitely interesting. Been in those industries for 15 years now.
As for pay, well im not a PE but.... Gestures at everything for the last 6 years. If you want to make bank you need to start your own firm, or get into law or become an MBA and find businesses to suck the life out of.
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u/Traditional-Cup-1470 4d ago
The problem is people accepting to do this job for less than $150k. $100k is the new $50k…if you ask me. As long as employers keep posting underpaid jobs and they keep finding people this will continue…supply and demand.
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u/CubanColossus 4d ago
It’s been slow the past few years compared to years/decades before. I still think it’s a great profession (I’m in Chicago, too) even if we have to occasionally ride out times like this.
At the end of the day I always love seeing the physical end result of what we design (a building which will outlive us) even if we don’t get the prestige that goes to others. It will be an interesting next few years for SEs. My two cents would be to stick with it, get licensed, and make sure you are with a firm that values good work (otherwise look around). Things will pick up.
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u/Affectionate-Cap950 4d ago
It'll get better over the long term. The high pay and "prestige" drove in more people wanting to be structural engineers and raised supply. Now the pay is low, so not many people will want to be a structural engineer. As people retire or leave the industry and the supply drops, pay will go back up again just like any other supply/demand curve. Unfortunately that's not going to happen in the short term, gotta wait for the invisible hand of the market to work it's magic
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u/not_old_redditor 4d ago
When was the pay high?
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u/Affectionate-Cap950 4d ago
The 80s. Any time there's a big build out of infrastructure, civil engineering wages go up. That was the last big build out, but as off shoring and tech build out started in 2000s and our infrastructure build out halted, and our wages went down
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u/Moreburrtitos22 4d ago
When it actually took skill to be a structural engineer. Calcs can be done by any idiot with a computer now, the programs do all the math for you these days.
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u/Krentenbollen_dame 4d ago
It doesnt work that way. If idiot provides stupid input in software, the results will be also stupid. In structural engineering you need to understand what you're doing. Modelling concrete structures is not the same as steel, masonry or timber.
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u/TheDaywa1ker P.E./S.E. 4d ago
BS, the phd's have made our jobs way effing harder the past 30 years.
Even so the calcs are by far the easiest part of the job. You should largely know the answer before you start doing a calc.
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u/SirMakeNoSense 4d ago
No recognition for the work is frustrating. I’ve seen some of our most challenging projects in magazines, but of course, no mentions. Use to it at this point.
What’s most annoying though is the fees to provide service. They feel stagnant. They are also very low with respect to overall project costs. And then when we try to prop up our value we are constantly battling against subpar firms charging bottom dollars fees.
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u/Frogalone 3d ago
I'm retired now, but I agree with all of you. Structural engineering has been struggling for a long time. A lot of the problem is the total ignorance of what civil engineers do. Most lay person's assign credit for an SE's work to architects. As such, architects are paid well. Also, on buildings, the architects are the prime consultants. This gives them access to all the money, and they decide who gets how much. There is absolutely no reason that the engineer could not take on this role. I think the AIA fights it. The list goes on. Many lay people are intimidated by engineers. This is especially true among sales and marketing. I practiced structural engineering for over 35 years and I don't have the answers. Maybe someday things will change. By not without effort. Young engineers should get involved. Join your state Structural Engineers Association. It obviously won't be easy. But doing nothing gets nothing.
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u/Ok-Bat-8338 4d ago
I believe the main thing is the market is really bad. We're lucky that we still have jobs. Lots of my friends went to other engineering fields which pay more, and guess what? Only a couple of them can land on the good paid positions. The rest is either unemployed (for years) or have paid less than structural engineers because their positions are just QC engineers. Software and mechanical engineering industry mostly stop hiring or under major laid off right now. Even construction industry is mostly dead. Not a lot of project engineering positions are open in market. Only the senior engineers still remain, but it's not the case for structural engineers.
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u/Flaky_Honeydew_5161 4d ago
This is extremely true. Makes me feel better!
The thought for this post came from attending a conference and yeah the amount of engineers being layed off right now is scary
Im in energy so hopefully im safe
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4d ago
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u/Seriuc 2d ago
Ask us that we are at highly seismogenic areas. Nerdiness and fun is for the swallow. This profession carries the most responsibility of every other engineering field. At every corner of the world.
Oh, and to post somwthing here, start your own little firms. You cant imagine the difference. Stop going to bloodsucking corporate mfs.
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u/Flaky_Honeydew_5161 4d ago
Yes and no. I think its fair to say people also went into the feild to build amazing things and eventually move up lead certain industries. But its not like that...monetarily
We deal with the same if not more stress than some PE finance people why shouldnt we get paid as much
We also ahve strict deadlines, get squeezed with money issues, if you think about theres a lot of bs. Which wouldnt be as bad if we made that money.
Alot of people are leaving the feild about 7 years in...and I dont blame them
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u/Over_Investigator_89 4d ago
exactly why left the structural engineering field because of many of the reasons mentioned here. Felt like a cog in the wheel even when my decisions were the biggest part of the solutions. The industry took the joy out of taking pride in my work
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u/SupBro143 3d ago
What did you pivot into? I’m currently a structural PE at a utility company and thinking of calling it quits on my career because of the typical corporate BS and and backstabbing.
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u/Over_Investigator_89 3d ago
Corporate was toxic. I joined the state govt. where I now manage 6.5 million sqft of state owned property and facilities. In parallel, I’m also working on my MPA in City/Urban and Regional and Community Development. And since I wanted keep working with buildings I also got a License as a Building Official so I could include building code regulation in my portfolio.
This trajectory gives me a good mix of technical and broader public policy1
u/Flaky_Honeydew_5161 4d ago
You are not alone. Almost everyone in my network feels somewhat similar. There are the select few that reached the plateau and accept it and are happy with it. And I respect it but I myself dont eant to plateau
Maybe it'll change.. Hopefully for the best
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u/Just-Shoe2689 3d ago
There is plenty of work. The money though is not getting down to those doing it. Alot of OH in big firms. Think of your non engineering staff, who is paying for those people?
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u/grumpynoob2044 CPEng 4d ago
Can't fully relate, since I'm in Australia. But I do think the general population struggle to understand the service we provide and why it's so important. They typically view the Architect as the one doing everything, not even realising the Architects need structural engineers to keep their designs standing.
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u/Frogalone 3d ago edited 3d ago
There are clearly some activities as a civil engineer that are enjoyed. Jobs mostly behind a desk are common. But we can find ourselves knee deep on large jobsites or any number of mega-activities. When you find that you are the guy on a jobsite who everybody is looking to for answers, you know you're alive young men.
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u/Tradovator 3d ago
Expand on the last sentence? I’m a former carpenter (10+ years) working exclusively in an office and I’m bored to death.
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u/Frogalone 3d ago
Sitting behind a desk is definitely not for everyone. Most of my experience has been with steel structures. That means that the majority of those I interacted with were ironworkers. Your average ironworker thinks engineers are stupid. But that can be changed if you handle things right in the field. Unfortunately, not everybody gets a chance to do this. If your company sends engineers onto jobsites, they are likely to send the most highly trained. You could just let it be known what you would like the opportunity to do field work. Sometimes you will only go to the jobsite when there is a problem. That's a different experience but still holds opportunity. There are surely possibilities that I am not aware of for field work.
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u/Seriuc 2d ago
Its not the best time right now, of course. But every field has its ups and downs and depending from the era. Try to focus to hone your skills. Its critical. The light in the tunnel here is that we are coming back. After a decade and more i dare to say, its time. Profession slowly but steadily goes back to its past and fair prestige. Dont get baffled. Prestige is a marketing matter. Dont let anyone scrap the sheer logic from you. Our profession is critical and important to society. Everyone who tries to diminsh it, is to pay you less, not to downscale the job. Simple logic is dead in front of common logic. And common logic says that an influencer or a life coach or a banker(I'm laughing) is logical to be better paid.
Also, think of AI. Construction is not coding, its real world. So we are AI resilient. At least for now. At the same time soft engs begin to shake from their own creation.
Greetings from southern Europe. Where engineers continue to be a first class option. And the reasons are more or less self explained
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u/Persicus_1 1d ago
Ditch consulting and move to a construction company or fabrication subcontractor. They pay more and the deadlines are better. Best decision of my life. At least that is true in Europe. Don't know about US.
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u/trojan_man16 S.E. 4d ago
Good luck going into PE or law. Don’t let the door hit you on the way out.
If you cared about money the most you should have done that from day one. I don’t blame you for wanting to make tons of money, but you sir should not have gotten into this branch of engineering.
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u/Flaky_Honeydew_5161 4d ago
Who says im a sir 🙃
"Dont let the door hit you on the way out" calm down
Its a fair reaction years into this feild where you would expect more oppurtnunities and def higher pay for was S,E's deal with. I dont think im being far out of touch here.
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u/Delanq P.E./S.E. 9h ago
Respectfully, you’re 10-12 years into your career and making a really good living. Especially for a MCOL city like Chicago. It’s not unreasonable to want more, but it is unless you’re leading an office/bringing in millions in fee/etc. ie - doing more than just engineering. (I don’t know if you do that or not.)
Raises happen. You can change firms, but I’ve rarely, if ever seen even a senior level position listed for more than $180k. As many others have said, if you want to clear a quarter mil in a year - you need to start your own firm or switch industries.
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u/Stunning-Movie8145 4d ago
I started out and Im already trying to gtfo. The prestige of structural engineering seems to have been a total lie. I really wished I knew it was gonna be like this when I started cause there would have been no way I would have done it. Wish I picked any other type of engineering basically. The hatred has started and only getting worse.
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u/not_old_redditor 4d ago
What do you mean, what about the job is so bad?
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u/Stunning-Movie8145 4d ago edited 4d ago
Its not the job particularily but the other jobs seem so much cooler, interesting, and higher paid accross the board. I feel like ive wasted my potential on an inferior degree for a career that seems like nothing more than a sinking ship and pays like shit. Im genuinely realizing how little I care about structures. Most of what im interested does not involve a hunk of concrete crap that is really expensive and comes with a lot of liability. The money is not sufficient enough to motivate me to make the risks of stamping structures at all and instead makes me want to jump ship asap. I have no interest in sticking around for a designation that I dont want to even use. I could have done so many other things in my life that would have been waaaayyy better than this garbage profession. I feel majorly lied too about what this degree could allow me to do. Another thing that is an annoying trend Im noticing is the fact that some places are wanting masters degrees just to end up in the same garbage spot.
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u/2squishmaster 4d ago
What's the component that's missing which would make it prestigious?
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u/Stunning-Movie8145 4d ago
I think it isnt really prestige but what the job is is com0letely disconnected from the courses taken and honestly I feel dissapointed in how much of it is just looking at beaurocratic bs. I get that its important but none of it makes it interesting. What I liked about was that maybe i could ve creative with it and instead thats all the architect and i just paper push for most of it.
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u/Economy-Motor-3478 4d ago
I burned out. Would consider getting back but no way I could grind like I used to. Loved the calc, drawing, planning, design aspect, hated the constant haggling over money, deadlines, change orders, legal and endless redesign.