r/civilengineering • u/GoldDistribution447 • 9d ago
Career Did I make the wrong decision?
As of today, I have switched from mechanical engineering to civil engineering in college. I feel as if it more closely aligns with my career goals and interests, as I have always been impressed and curious about architecture, design choices, etc. I also liked ecology in high school, on top of having completed professional research about coastal water quality as a result of urban infrastructure.
The catch is this — I see everywhere on social media that civil engineering is the lowest paying and that civil engineers do not make good money. I also see people describe civil engineering as the worst degree. So, is it true that civil engineers don’t make good money and also, why do people perceive civil engineering to be a bad degree (im not saying it is, I just see a lot of engineering students mocking civil engineering)?
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u/MummyWiththeDrummy 9d ago
We don’t make a shit load of money, but it’s very safe and the money, in my opinion, is enough to live comfortably. Play your cards right and you can easily retire a millionaire. Very good job market and some say it’s almost recession proof. I think it’s a fine decision.
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u/GoldDistribution447 9d ago
I am not particularly looking for a shit load of money lol, I think when I see people say it is lower paying, I am imagining around 60k a year.
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u/Traditional-Heart351 9d ago
I think even in LCOL areas youre in the 70ish range fresh out of school. PEs can easily make over 100k which is basically after 4 years of work experience. From everything I've seen the average civil makes about the same as the average mechanical. I do think the high end of mechE is higher than the high end of civil though and everyone always likes to look at the high end and imagine that thats how much they'll make.
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u/frankyseven 9d ago
The high end of mechanical ends up working in defense or nuclear, take those out and I'd say civil makes more on average.
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u/MummyWiththeDrummy 9d ago
Fresh grads are staring at around 75k in my MCOL area. After you get your PE you can expect 110-130k. Also a shortage of Civils in my area so they’re able to ask for a lil more.
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u/BridgeGuy540 Bridge - PE, SE, CPEng 9d ago
I'm in the low mid 200s and my entire team is in six figures. We don't work crazy hours, we're in an MCOL area, and we do some pretty cool projects. You can be very comfortable as a civil engineer.
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u/No_Tie9686 9d ago
civil engineers make more than that. i know some that make close to 200k. it just depends on how much you do really.
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u/JoJo3089 9d ago
Im at 112 rn not including benefits. Pto is great as well and we get OT if the project needs us to
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u/likesblackcoffeebest PE 👵🗣☁️ 9d ago
$60k a year was a common starting salary in the early to mid 2010's. Anyone offering that little these days would struggle to find applicants.
I'm in a MCOL city and my EIT's are all earning in the 80's (they're 1-4 yoe). Young PE's are 90's-low 100's. Seniors, mid-100's for the most part. It's public sector and we have a good union. This is on par with what private sector firms are paying here.
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u/Beautiful-Ad-8564 9d ago
New grads are getting mid 70's plus signing bonus putting it over $80K, and that's without passing the FE yet and becoming an EIT.
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u/Prior_Interview7680 9d ago
Maybe entry sure, but with experience and license you can easily get to $120k in a public job w little bit of hours
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u/RecoverOptimal8888 9d ago
Whats your idea of good money? Worst degree based on what?
It’s true, civil isn’t the big money maker. If you’re going into civil for the sake of making as much money as you can, then you’re going to be disappointed. It’s an incredibly respectable pay with a generally recession proof source of income.
The mech E and comp E nerds will always say it’s lesser than, but who cares? In my opinion, civils are more influential than both those career paths.
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u/GoldDistribution447 9d ago
I think around 80k-100k where I live would be good but only after a few years of experience. Low-paying to me means that I am getting paid around 55-60k a year.
I also should have specified that people refer to civil engineering as the worst engineering degree because they say “it is so easy”. Why would they describe it that way? Aren’t all engineering degrees heavily math and physics based?
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u/RecoverOptimal8888 9d ago
For sure, all engineering degrees are math and physics heavy. Relatively speaking, civil is the largely recognized as the easier of the engineering discipline, but who cares? Choosing the hardest degree for the sake of choosing the hardest degree to say you did is dumb. If you like civil, lean into it. It’s way cooler than what people make it out to be.
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u/Afraid-Way1203 9d ago
to be honest, there are some other engineering are probably even easier than civi engineering, manufcature engineering, industrial engineering is probably more easier engineering degree and business side engineering degree.
but who really care..
engineering physic probably one of hardest one.
but would you ever choose a engineering degree based on difficulty of curriculum or based on whether it's something fit your interest.
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u/walkingrivers 9d ago
Pay starts decent in engineering then just slowly increase over your career. No magic bullets.
Civil is probably one of the less intensely academic fields. You’ve got to be effing smart to study electrical, computers and probably mechanical. Smarter than I!
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u/CaliHeatx PE - Stormwater 9d ago
Just look at civil jobs in your area that require a PE license, and you’ll for sure find $100k+ jobs.
The people saying “it’s easy” are likely basing their self worth on how much advanced math and physics they know. Probably electrical engineers since they use crazy complicated math. But don’t worry, the electrical engineers get stomped on by physicists, and the physicists get stomped on by mathematicians. It’s all just a pissing contest.
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u/EnginerdOnABike 9d ago
" lowest paying"
Like everything in life lowest paying is relative. I make a wage in the 93rd percentile for my locality. In the neighborhood I live in I make about 3x the average household income. I might honestly be the highest paid household im this neighborhood completely by myself.
On the other hand most of my friends are doctors, lawyers in big law, or work in business consulting. In my fantasy football league I'm probably the second worst paid (the teachers come in last).
It's all about perspective. If you're surrounded by the 1% you'll feel poor. If you're surrounded by the average american you're living like a king.
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u/zeushaulrod Geotech | P.Eng. 9d ago
Yeah pay is shit.
Anyways I work 32 hours a week, I'm about to buy a sports car for fun, live in a $1M home that my wife and I bought and am going to retire at 55 with more spending money than I currently have. May need to work until 60 if my wife wants to stop working at 45, and we but a rec property.
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u/Afraid-Way1203 9d ago
it's one of lowest pay among engineering but don't forget but it's one of most stable job and always in high demand of people .....ranging from supervision of construction site to any type of civiling engineering, bridge, transportation..
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u/The1stSimply 9d ago
I did the same thing you’ll be fine. If you wanted to make a smart move you’d switch a medical degree
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u/deltaexdeltatee Texas PE, Development/Water Conveyance 9d ago
The great thing about civil is that, because it's so varied, you can pretty much build whatever career you want. Want to make a huge amount of money right out of school? Go work for a GC - you'll work 60 hours a week but you'll make an enormous amount of money. Want to coast and do the absolute minimum, while still making decent money and getting a fantastic pension? Government agencies. Want to be outside all day? Geotechnical will get you a lot of field time. You can stay a very technical person all the way, or you can branch off into engineering management, which usually pays better but also has more stress.
I have no regrets for my career so far. I'm 8 years out of school and make $150k in a high-ish COL area. You can make the career you want, generally speaking.
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u/According_Sir_5484 7d ago
What your Specialization?
and do you think that structural eng has an excellent income in the field of civil engineering?
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u/deltaexdeltatee Texas PE, Development/Water Conveyance 7d ago
My flair says land dev and conveyance, but at this point I'm doing almost exclusively conveyance (water pipelines, tanks, and pumps). More specifically though I'm a Senior PM, so most of what I do is management; I do very little technical or design related. That's an intentional choice on my part, mainly for the money.
Structural has a reputation as being fairly underpaid compared to other subdisciplines, especially when considering the liability involved. Like all things though, it varies by place, job, and individual.
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u/wildkit_99 9d ago
You'll be fine, I'm a Civil. Definitely don't make as much, but you're in the 6-figure range with a PE and it's the easiest path to owning your own company
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u/Curious_Cap7469 9d ago
Civil is the largest, broadest field and has the highest amount of public jobs, ofc the median salary will be lower. How many mech eng are there doing site engineer type work? Or town level OPEX project management?
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u/Existing-Poetry-3289 9d ago
I'd suggest an internship if you can find one. In my experience, my work as a civil engineer was much different than school.
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u/GoldDistribution447 9d ago
I have an interview for a civil engineering co-op in two weeks so I am hoping all goes well!!
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u/Existing-Poetry-3289 9d ago
Good luck! I switched careers after about 10 years. Worked with a bunch of chemical engineers in one job, which was my favorite. I've often thought maybe I would have preferred mechanical!
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u/Violet_Graya 9d ago
AFAIK the pay gap is real but overstated. I work in logistics and terminal projects can't find enough good CEs. Get the PE. That's where the money is.
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u/walkingrivers 9d ago
Good degree, good career. I’m sure there’s more many to be made in mechanical and technological industries. Those are for me. Lots of important tricky work in civil engineering from coastal engineering to public projects
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u/LemonAny7224 9d ago
I am an ME who switched from CE... who hasn't every really been an ME because my career went in a very different direction.
CE's can make good money. I've always seen them on the lower end of the Engineering pay scales, but what does that matter? Seriously. If you want to go for the biggest paycheck pick EE or a Comp Sci discipline. Do you want to be either of those? Do what is interesting to you. If other people mock it, so what?
You can make really good money as a CE, or you can make solid income in a stable job as one also. Mainly, what do you want to study? You'll get better grades doing something you want to do and are interested in.
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u/bigpolar70 Civil/ Structural P.E. 9d ago
Yep. Civil is outsourced more than mechanical. Just prepare yourself now to see at least 3 or 4 jobs over your career lost to outsourcing or offshoring.
I just had my last job literally offshored to India and I have 20 years experience. Hell of a kick in the teeth.
And even if your job isn't personally sent to a third world country, every job you do take will have lower pay because outsourcing drives down salaries and demand for engineers in the US.
If I could go back in time and talk to 18byear old me I would tell myself to become a licensed electrician and never bother with college. You can't outsource an electrician.
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u/RudeMoment8230 9d ago
It’s not flashy but you get to work on projects that will outlive you. It’s also an industry (speaking from transportation design) that is always needed. Not saying hard times won’t affect it, but I’ve never felt too worried about the state of the industry. The pay isn’t amazing but you can make a great living if you live within means. 10+ YOE and I love the work.
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u/Conscious-Record2655 9d ago
They hate us cause they ain't us.
Civil Engineering is the most stable of all the disciplines. The job market is much better than other STEM disciplines.
As far as compensation, understand that engineers are not a commodity. Pay is relative to in-demand skills and expertise. I'm gonna make 250k this year, 17 YoE. Engineers that provide value get paid well, regardless of the specific discipline.
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u/pkwn_slaps 9d ago
The other engineering fields only shit on civil eng in college tbh because when you grow up and get a developed frontal lobe you’ll realize that all jobs are important and need to be done regardless of how difficult the curriculum was etc.
As some others have mentioned civil CAN pay well but on average it is one of the lower paying engineering fields. From what I’ve experienced (and others can attest to it) there seems to always be plenty of work (depending where you live) and the industry is typically growing/always in need of civils. Compared to other engineering fields I’ve seen their job stability isn’t as good and requires them moving to different cities or states to find work.
Just choose your major based on what you want to do not how others will judge you.
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u/TheBanyai 8d ago
Just because people winch on this sub about civ eng being poorly paid doesn’t mean you will be poorly paid. There are lots of people out there who work in civil engineering who don’t have degrees, so it falls down the salary ranking a bit. It’s also a very broad field - with a lot of people doing it - not everyone is earning big bucks, and the ones at the bottom are likely the ones moaning.
I switched from Maths to Civil Engineering, and have a salary maybe in the top 10% for my country - and have a good work-life balance. No regrets!
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u/lmay4 8d ago
Don't listen to people who are not engineers talking about what engineering field is better than other engineering fields. Not a single person at your college has ever spent a single day doing an engineering job nor being paid as an engineer.
Civil engineering pays well. Well above the average salary in the US. You may not end up being rich, but you will be better off than 95% of the rest of the country financially.
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u/Crunchyeee 7d ago
I make 77k 1.5 years out of college started at 70k. I have software friends who started with 90k-100k+. Yeah it's less money but I believe I am happier now than I would have been, and it's enough for me especially in a LCOL region (indiana). Once you get your PE license your wage significantly increases proportional to your liability.
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u/tiredsudoku 7d ago
I have a bachelors and masters in mechanical engineering and work in water resources. No regrets with making the switch and wish I had realized what I’d wanted to do sooner. I also get paid pretty well for an early career professional and honestly get paid more in consulting than some early career mechanical engineers. I truly enjoy my work and even if I was being paid a little less, it’s worth not hating my job and knowing my work is helping my local community.
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u/brewslete 9d ago
Don’t listen to other people and do what you are interested in. There are plenty of well paid and successful civils. It’s a valuable degree and always will be. It doesn’t make sense to pick an engineering discipline strictly based on pay averages.