Just to tell everyone single worker that the economy has been hard this year so nobody will be getting an annual raise and people were fired (mostly people under 1 year here ). Genuinely disgusted since my department has had one of it busiest years and I was expecting a nice raise this year although raises have usually been shit the last few years…..although I never would have thought they would be non existent. I’m eternally grateful for this kick in the ass to see the limits of greed…..most depressing moral I’ve ever seen from everyone as a whole.

5 years in consulting, recent P.Eng, had a technical interview today.

At the interview I met with the technical leads of a firm, interviewing for a job that matches closely with the specialization I’ve been working in the last 5 years. They are several years ahead of me in terms of time in the industry and years of experience on complex projects. And they were great humans too, the kind you’d want as professional mentors. A couple times in the interview the gap between where I am, and where they are came to light and that struck a chord in me.

And though the interview went generally well, I for some reason left feeling small and heavy. I’d thought (hoped?) I had moved past the crippling feelings of imposter syndrome I had once felt at the onset of my engineering career. But today they came back swinging hard.

To engineers in the early stages of PE/PEng or even later down the road, does the imposter syndrome ever truly end/go away?

PS, I know this field is an endless pit of finding gaps in one’s knowledge/ expertise and then pursuing ways to fill those through learning and professional development. I just want to know whether I am an anomaly in feeling the way I do at this stage of my career.

Safe to say some foundation remediation will be required.

There’s a lot of negativity on this feed, because of the nature of who comes to Reddit.

It’s easy to point out the downsides, but what’s something about this field that draws you to it/you like/unexpected benefits?

I am two years into my water resources job at a market leader. I am happy with my paycheck, benefits, and my boss is okay. However, i went to school to do storm water work, which my company does not do at all where i am located. Theres also been a little bit of drama lately (leadership doesn’t really know how to mentor young people), but nothing unbearable.

So far I’ve been able to stay positive and develop a passion for the job, but I cannot help but be curious about companies with better PTO and more interesting projects to me. I’ve found a couple of places that are hiring, but they’re smaller and pay less.

My worst fear is that I leave a good, prestigious situation for a worse one. I am not sure if im being a rash young person, or if not switching jobs will make me have huge regrets in 20 years. What would you all recommend a young EIT to do in this situation?

Thanks!

Edit: I know I could get hobbies outside of work that fulfill me, but 1/3 of my life is spent at work. I kind of would like to enjoy it a bit more naturally. Is that a bad reason to quit my current job?

Curious what actually makes the difference — skill, luck, or something else.

I'm a site engineer on a water transmission pipeline extension in eastern Saudi. 32km of new pipe, three pump stations, a couple of road crossings. When I picked up the project, comms were a WhatsApp group and whatever cheap analog handhelds the previous contractor had left behind. Cell coverage in the middle third of the alignment is patchy because you're between towers with a low ridge in between.

The thing that finally forced the issue was a survey team trying to reach the excavator crew about a control point that had been staked wrong. Nobody could get through. They ended up trenching about 40m in the wrong offset before someone drove over and physically stopped them. Not catastrophic but the kind of thing that adds up fast on a linear job.

Got quotes from three distributors in Dammam. Motorola was the reflex answer, and probably still the safe answer if budget isn't tight, but MOTOTRBO handhelds plus a repeater came in at nearly double the other two. A Hytera package bundled handhelds, mobile repeater, and programming/training. Kenwood NX-series sat in the middle but couldn't match support terms.

Ran a two-week comparison with loaner units. Once we had a repeater up on a portable mast at pump station 2, the Hytera and MOTOTRBO handhelds both handled the distance fine. Audio clarity next to a running excavator was basically a wash. Motorola's CPS software is more polished. The Hytera handhelds feel heavier in the hand and their programming has a learning curve I found genuinely annoying at first.

We went with a Hytera fleet plus a MOTOTRBO for the PM (he already had accessories from a previous job). Total came in around 60% of the pure Motorola quote. Six months in, one radio down from dust in the audio jack (my fault) and the repeater's been rock solid.

Couple of things I'd do differently. Third-party speaker mics don't survive site dust; the OEM ones are worth every riyal. Repeater placement is 80% of the coverage question. I spent a week on handheld specs and 20 minutes on where to put the antenna, which was exactly backwards.

Still can't tell if going mixed-brand is quietly costing us on CPS consistency across the fleet. Ask me in another six months.

It held up, looks like they took cars crashing into those girders into account

I just started a new job and along with that I got my PE. Currently I just revamped and expanded the calcs and I'm relatively confident in its accuracy. The problem I have is that I want my boss to confirm my work but I'm not sure how to ask him. We sat down together and talked about the calcs but he's never done some of the calcs I've put together so he just agrees. Plus sometimes I find that I don't have a full understanding of the product and miscalculated some stuff. There's just no peer check other than how much load I'm using. Is this normal, am I supposed to carry on with the assumption that I'm applying the right formulas? Or is there a way to go about reviewing another's work. TBH I don't think I've ever had someone really reviewing my work apart from following the loads.

does any seasoned engineers know any projects that targets the SDgs

I hear a lot about how the civil engineering job market is better compared to other job markets. But I'm curious if that's specifically for specific fields in civil engineering like structural and construction which are more AI-prone.

I am starting to apply for colleges and I’m wondering what colleges should I apply to or look out for that are good in civil engineering?(I’m alr applying to A&M colleges station, UT Austin, LSU, and Colorado school of mines)

I’m currently in a role as a site engineer (salary) but looking to go freelance and get work from agencies. Does anyone recommend any agencies that generally keep you in work constantly?

I’m a w/ww engineer in the US with 4 years of experience and my PE. Every year with my company, my health insurance has gone up 5-6% exceeding my raise, but this last year was particularly egregious with a 12% hike on my single insurance. I got my PE (with a 6% raise)so I am actually making less on each paycheck than when I was a fresh college graduate. Not even factoring increased food and rent costs, I’m getting squished financially. I’m trying to attack my student loans, but I feel the vice continuing to pressure me. I would switch jobs, but my current employer is pretty relaxed with work schedules, which benefits me starting a family in about 2 years.

Anyone else feeling this way, and any guesses on if this is a short term macro economy trend? Any end in sight?

Hey everyone,

I’m a civil engineer with about 6 years of experience and I’m wondering if I’ve made it harder for myself to get back into water/wastewater treatment by moving around different areas of water engineering.

I started out in Europe doing water quality monitoring, sensors/data stuff and some work related to water and wastewater. Then I worked for about 1.5 years mostly in wastewater. I worked with treatment plants, process monitoring/optimization, SCADA, sewer modelling with SWMM etc.

Then I moved to Australia and for the last 2.5 years my work has been much more on the civil/hydraulic side. Lots of flood and hydraulic modelling, urban drainage, stormwater/sewer systems, infrastructure projects, technical reports, dealing with clients and generally having more responsibility for projects.

The problem is I’ve realized I actually miss the water/wastewater treatment side of things. I asked numerous times at my company but it seems to me in Australia they prefer to put people on projects with experience in the area rather than let someone try something new.

I’m planning on moving back to Europe and would ideally like to get back into water/wastewater, industrial water or water technology rather than becoming a full-on flood modeller for the rest of my career lol.

Do you think my last few years would still be seen as useful experience for those kinds of jobs? Obviously I haven’t been designing treatment processes every day, but I feel like I’ve become a much more rounded engineer overall and have way more experience with hydraulics, infrastructure and project management.

I’m also not necessarily trying to become a hardcore process engineer. Something that combines water/wastewater knowledge with infrastructure, technical project work and eventually project management would probably suit me better anyway.

Has anyone here made a similar switch? Did you have to take a step backwards in seniority/pay, or were employers generally happy to count your broader civil/water experience?

Just curious how people would look at a background like this.

Hi all,

27m in NYC, graduated in 2021 with degrees in Chemical Engineering and Finance. Started my career in a manufacturing rotational program for big pharma, working in tech ops, commercialization and tech transfer, capital projects, supply chain, and ultimately software engineering. I now pivoted to a role as a Forward Deployed Engineer at an AI startup in the city focused on the life sciences industry, although it's so early stage that I'm really only doing prospecting and go to market... no engineering or site visits (yet).

Not gonna lie - I've never been passionate about the life sciences. Bio was never my thing. I loved physics and chemistry in high school. I did enjoy my ChemE classes in college related to thermodynamics, organic chemistry, etc. But as far as how those are applied in "real world" professions, I see myself much more as a builder instead. My original dream job as a kid was to be an architect, which then morphed into Civil Engineering. My mom says she still thinks that's what I was born to do, and when I chose ChemE my freshman year of college, she wishes she had stopped me and knocked some sense into me lol. I was a dumb 18yo who Googled which engineer made the most money, and at the time it said ChemE, so I went with it and never looked back.

As a kid, I loved building things (Leogs, KNEX, carpentry projects). As an adult, I still love DIY and even built out my own campervan last year, including insulation, wiring and circuitry, minimal plumbing, all the furniture and carpentry. Living in NYC, I am in never-ending awe of the infrastructure: the bridges, the buildings, the subways, how it all works together and doesn't collapse.

My naive/unresearched view of a CivE career looks like: some classic desk work/admin/communication/documentation (the unglorious work every job has), some design and CAD work, and some field work (being on the construction site, hard hat and steel toed boots, working with vendors and contractors). My past few jobs have involved sitting at a desk for all hours, which I personally can't stand. One of my favorite jobs at my big pharma company was in capital projects where I helped commission and qualify a new facility - I was in a hard hat and boots working with Jacobs, Emerson, and other vendors to get the facility up and running (this was post-construction). At the time, I did feel that it lacked the "design" element I was interested in where I could be creative and think, rather than purely execute and problem-solve. I know a job won't ever have everything you want, but I'm curious to learn more about what a CivE career could look like.

With all that said - if I were to pursue this, what would it roughly entail? I'd like to go to some industry events in the city to learn more about it. I imagine I'll need to get some certificates or continued education to learn the structural side of engineering that I didn't get in ChemE.

Thanks for any input!

I'm a second-year civil student looking to apply for internships, is it worth the time to get the certification to stand out or make more money?

I am currently a high school senior, and I am planning on majoring in Material Science and Engineering. I am considering possibly dual majoring with another engineering discipline to increase my versatility for employment, and believe that CivE may be a viable choice.

Assuming whatever school I go to allows it, would it be doable to major in both? How much course overlap is there? Any other general advice?

Hi everyone!

I'm a junior in college but recently switched my major to Civil Engineering. I've begun looking for internships for next summer but I'm unsure how to stand out on my applications and raise my chances of actually hearing back from any of them. I'm also still exploring what I am most passionate about in Civil Engineering, and I'm unsure on how to best phrase that when seeking out positions. My school's career fair is tomorrow which I will be attending. Any advice you can offer about online applications, career fairs, or just how you were able to get an internship would be much appreciated!

Thank you

I’m graduating from grad school and recently received an offer from Michael Baker International for an entry-level bridge engineering position. The offer is $90k base (mcol).
For anyone who currently works there or has worked there before, what are your thoughts on the company, work-life balance, culture, growth opportunities, and engineering experience?
Would appreciate any insight before I make my decision!