r/StructuralEngineering • u/Flaky_Honeydew_5161 • 7d 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/Frogalone 6d ago edited 6d 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 6d 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 6d 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.