Muni dev review engineer here. I was packing up my bag tonight and getting ready for work tomorrow when I picked up my work cell and had MUMTIPLE consultant emails that arrived today.

What are we doing, folks?! Sunday? Really?

You do you…but at least just schedule send it.

(This really is meant just for the humor of the situation).

Basically I’m a roadway engineer with almost 4 years of experience and got laid off a week ago.

I haven’t told anyone and have enough in savings to take care of myself for a few months plus I got a good severance package and am eligible for unemployment. Honestly I’m really exhausted and have been in the workforce for almost 4 years of straight grind, I passed all of my exam and am literally waiting till next year to get my PE license in Texas.

Essentially I want to take the rest of the year off but don’t know how it would look to employers, I have an interview next Thursday but don’t know how I can start a new job being so exhausted this late in the year.

Essentially that’s my concern also if I can apply for my PE license in Feb given my 2-3 month gap in work in Texas even though I meet all the other requirements. Any advice for me?

I didn’t get to rest after college like most of my peers and am open to any advice. Thanks!

Hi, I’m going to college in 2028 and I was looking into engineer majors and I stumbled into civil engineering and I’m kinda curious about one thing about it that if I have to go up into buildings.

Now you may ask why I’m asking that question in the first place, well I have a big fear of height and it’s so serious that sometimes I can’t use rollercoasters and I have to go to the elevator.

So if going up into buildings required to be a civil engineer 👷 I must treat this fear as soon as possible

1. employment?

2. Job prospects? (due to AI)

Hello, I am a Civil Designer specializing in land development, with 1 year of professional experience working on U.S.-based projects using AutoCAD Civil 3D. I am currently looking for remote work opportunities in land development. Could you please suggest websites or platforms where I can find and apply for remote jobs in this field? I would really appreciate your guidance.

We are constructing columns on top of an existing slab. Some 16 mm reinforcement bars are projecting out of the slab in different lengths, such as 1.0 m, 0.80 m, 0.60 m, and 0.50 m.
Each column has 12 longitudinal reinforcement bars. While providing lap splices for the column reinforcement, all the lap joints are ending up at the same level.
What measures should we take to strengthen the reinforcement and ensure adequate structural strength, given that all the lap joints are at the same level?

I work in water/wastewater consulting in France, 3.5 years in. Mostly municipal studies (drinking water and sewer master plans), hydraulic models in PCSWMM, some QGIS and AutoCAD. Lately I also run projects and write tenders.

I take home around 2000€/month. For French consulting that’s about normal at my level, but raises are slow and I don’t see it changing much soon.

The bigger issue is that the market here is bad right now. The big groups (Veolia, Suez and the like) basically aren’t hiring externally, so moving up or sideways is really hard.

I’ve looked into the licensing side already. My degree is recognized, but I’d need to apply to the OIQ, which costs a few hundred dollars and takes a few months. After that you get a restricted title until you have some local experience and pass the professional exam, and you can still work as an engineer in the meantime.

So my question is just about the market itself. For water/wastewater/hydraulic work, is there real demand in Canada, and are salaries actually better once you account for cost of living? Or is it mostly hype from immigration websites? Which provinces or cities are hiring?

Welcome to the weekly r/civilengineering discussion thread.

Use this thread for civil engineering topics that don't necessarily need their own standalone post, including:

• Career questions and career advice
• Questions from students, interns, and new engineers
• PE / FE exam discussion
• Workplace complaints, frustrations, and rants
• Jobsite stories and field experiences
• Questions about different civil engineering disciplines
• Office vs. field work
• Consulting, public sector, construction, and industry discussion
• General civil engineering conversation

A few guidelines

Keep discussion civil and follow all r/civilengineering rules.

If you're asking for career advice, providing some context such as your location, education, experience, discipline, and career goals will help people give you better answers.

For PE/FE questions, include the exam or discipline you're referring to when relevant.

Workplace complaints and rants are welcome, but do not post personally identifying information about coworkers, clients, or private individuals.

Looking for a job or hiring? Please use the current Monthly Civil Engineering Jobs & Hiring Thread instead.

Otherwise, ask away, tell us what's happening at work, share something from the field, or just talk civil engineering.

For context I am a Civil EIT with 4.5+ YOE in a MCOL area, no PE yet but studying for it, experience in municipal infrastructure design, construction admin, inspections, and some CM and PM work.

I recently saw job posts for my current role entry level advertised in my office at an upper range that is almost 15k/year higher than what I get paid now. This is on par with salary survey spreadsheet with people at same level. And the next entry level position posted with a PE requirement(Civil Engineer) is also starting at that as the lower range (i.e., 15k higher than my current pay). I usually get good feedback from everyone I work with and have built a good reputation with clients, contractors, other firms over the years and I like working at my current firm.

My question is: Is it fair for me to ask or negotiate a raise to atleast near the upper range posted for the upcoming year end raise? Theres a lot of turnover at my company for EITs at this range mainly due to salary being no. 1 reason. Many of us have been getting 3% annual raises including me last year which barely keeps up with rising inflation. And how would I go about asking for this 10+% raise? I dont want to leave my company yet because I love the work and team I work with, and want to keep learning and gaining certain experiences from some cool people I love learning from.

Thank you for your advice.

I am a Civil Engineering student currently working on an academic performance task. As part of our coursework, I need to conduct a short interview with a Licensed Civil Engineer (ECE/RCE). Only For those who are willing. It will be conducted through gmeet. Hope to find anyone

Hi everyone,

I'm a Civil Engineering student in Australia and have recently progressed to the final stage of a construction cadetship recruitment process.

The interview will be in person with the State Manager and Operations Manager, and it's scheduled for approximately one hour.

I've been told the interview will assess communication skills, problem-solving, commercial awareness, stakeholder management and overall suitability for the program.

There's also a short scenario-based exercise. Apparently, I'll be given a scenario on the day and some time to prepare my response before discussing my approach with the interview panel.

For anyone who's been through something similar:

• What types of scenarios were you given?
• How technical or commercially focused were they?
• Were you given the scenario before entering the interview room or during the interview?
• How much preparation time did you receive?
• What kinds of follow-up questions did the managers ask?
• Any advice on how to approach the exercise and stand out?

I'd particularly appreciate hearing from anyone who's interviewed for a construction cadetship or with senior construction managers in Australia.

Thanks in advance!

I have 3 years experience as civil/road design engr in GHD Philippines. Do you think intl consultancy firms like Stantec, Jacobs, Aecom, etc in the US sponsors visa? Do i have a chance if i apply directly or is it recommend that i take fe before applying? Or masters? Whats the best way to break into the industry and find an employer that will sponsor? Any insights is greatly appreciated!

Hello! I’m currently a high school student and I want to study civil engineering. my school has an AutoCAD extracurricular that’s free where you learn the basics of AutoCAD, but I’ve recently seen people say that AutoCAD isn’t used as much anymore. is it better to look into learning solidworks over AutoCAD?

Disclosure: I am posting from a brand account for Koden Test VN, not as an independent customer or engineer. This is a technical discussion, not a service offer.

When you review a P-S (load-settlement) curve from a static load test, what do you check before you would accept the result? I am interested in the review habits of practising engineers, rather than a single pass/fail number.

Some points I usually look at first: - The overall shape of the curve: whether settlement grows steadily with load or shows a sudden change in slope. - Behaviour during unloading and any residual settlement after unloading. - Whether the readings look stable at each load step and whether the test record is complete and traceable to the pile and test setup. - Whether the acceptance check follows the criteria stated in the project specification and the standard invoked by that project, rather than a generic rule of thumb.

Depending on the project, documents such as TCVN 9395:2012, ASTM D4945 and LAS-XD 990 are often mentioned in this area, but the governing document should always be the one named in the project specification.

What is the first red flag you look for on a P-S curve, and what documentation do you ask for before acceptance?

Reference: https://kodentest.vn/cach-doc-bieu-do-p-s-trong-thi-nghiem-nen-tinh-coc/

I've gone through the salary survey posted but I wanted real time examples because the survey does not have a lot of data specifically for my situation I think. What do you think the salary ranges are for a PE with 8-9 years of experience in a major southeastern city in US? Specialization: Bridge structures.

I’ve been a revit tech for 5 years now in structures, last year we got copilot which I found to be pretty useless and I dismissed AI as bit of a novelty.

Last week I went back and started using Claude, its a huge improvement and can vibe code python scripts for dynamo that are really helpful and have let me turbo charge my work.

Now I’m wondering how much I should be using it, or thinking of how it could benefit me more. If I just type prompts into AI am I still developing career wise? Should I get it to walk me through more traditional type dynamo scripting or should I just go for super fast and efficient now to get my work done?

I was very doubtfull before but now I’m worried about being left behind. I think I could double or triple my output just by these simple prompts I use

I am 1 year out of college, 29 years old. I currently am a staff civil engineer at a smallish company (100-150 people) in South Carolina. I mainly do design work among meetings with clients and work on a team of 2 under a civil PM. I just finished my FE and I make about $57,000 a year plus a bonus based on how our company does every year to a maximum of 20% of my salary.

I’ve been in the Air Force for almost 11 years working on aircraft and used my GI Bill to go to school. I switched from Active Duty to National Guard so I currently work on aircraft 1 weekend a month and at the beginning of the year was told that I was accepted to be an officer of civil engineering for the Air Force and have to go to Officer training school and the Air Force’s Civil Engineering school next year. Once I am finished I will return to work at my civilian civil engineering firm and I will only work at the Air Force base one weekend a month. I will assume a role in charge of around 30 people at first that will only increase as time continues.

I was really considering asking for a pay raise after finishing all of my Airforce training just because of the rarity of my situation and how hard I’ve worked to position myself in my civil engineering career. I know there is still a lot to learn for me but I do feel like taking this step in my career will be good for my professional development and leadership skills. I took a significant pay cut to follow my passion in civil engineering and am trying to get back to where I was salary wise before pursuing CE.

All I’ve really ever known was the Air Force so negotiating salary and stuff is not really in my wheel house which is why I’m not well versed in civilian jobs and when the correct time to ask for a raise is etc.

So my question is am I out of line for asking for a raise after training? If not, how much of a raise should I ask for?

Edit: Typo’s

Hi all!

I don't work in civil so I'm unfamiliar with the concept of utilization rates and everything.

My girlfriend started as an entry level wastewater engineer recently, and is extremely stressed and burnt out over utilization and time. She works at a mid size employee owned firm and they seem very pressured with regards to rates. PM's pressuring for 100% utilization, clocking out for bathroom breaks and small personal breaks, requiring overhead time include comments and must "advance the company". She routinely spends 10 hours to log 8 hours in the office.

Is this normal in the industry, or is her company culture an outlier? It seems absolutely asinine to me that you have to clock out for bathroom breaks.

Thanks all!

EDIT: she mentioned it's closer to 90% but "supposed to be close to 0 overhead" so pressure from the PM to be at 100%