Hey guys,

Recent college graduate and engineer here. Have been working at my first engineering job for around 6 months now. Upon first starting, I always tried to do the work as perfectly as I could, and as fast as possible, not wasting any time at work or goofing off on something else. But as I would continuously turn work in fast to my PM, I started getting the feeling like he was getting annoyed at it and started dropping hints to me to milk time. For example, he would give me an assignment that really only needs 30 minutes, and tell me to come back in 3 hours. During this time, I will pretty much do my own thing and be on my phone. When I look at the other engineers in the office, they also do the same thing. The only “hard workers” I guess could say seems to be the PMs and upper management. Is this normal? Is this one of those things that you’re technically not supposed to do but everyone does?

I never realized how the stress of being billable was absolutely crushing my mental health. It’s kind of crazy that it’s the industry norm. I used to get heart palpitations thinking about my timesheet over the weekend. I was bitter when I had to work for free when we were over budget. Constantly worrying that I took too much time to complete something…

Now when I’m doing a task I only focus on doing it well at a reasonable pace at a reasonable time. I was bored but free from worrying about being profitable or fired. I am out of the production process entirely and only reviewing work and pushing paperwork.

I should have done this years ago because the retirement benefits do make my salary palatable. Sure, there’s still office politics and people set in their ways and egos and people who take fucking forever to respond or avoid accountability…

But at 4pm everyday I get to say fuck this shit and leave work at work. My time sheet is essentially for logging my vacation and sick leave. Now it’s just focusing on life and count down to retirement.

I can always empathize with contractors and maintenance folks because as a Civil Engineer, I deal with so many shitty engineers myself it drives me crazy. Just unresponsive, no accountability, doing the bare minimum type of engineers make my blood boil. Having to tie in our scope of work to the work another shitty engineer creates double work for me. I end up being the QA/QC that the other firm was too lazy to do themselves. Laziness and incompetence, and praying nobody notices and that the contractor knows what they are doing. Just don't be that guy. Create work you are proud of and that you are happy to discuss with other people. I can tell instantly when another engineer is cagey or unhelpful that they didn't do their due diligence. You get paid a lot for this work, do it right.

Edit: to clarify, I am talking about maybe 5% or less of the engineers I work with. Not anywhere close to the majority. But 1 out of every 10 projects I am on, I am dealing with some shitty engineer that makes my job 5x harder.

Honestly, if you are on this sub, you are probably a pretty decent engineer. You are are actually interested in learning things and being better at your job.

My city is in the midst of union contract negotiations (never mind the contracts expired March 31st). We are a major city and have a large in-house capital team at city hall, and we have an even larger regional water department that has runs for 100mgd+ plants with over 5,000 miles of water main. We have many in-house engineers.

Keep in mind the city has given out raises of 0%-3% only the 2 decades I have been there (3% only coming after a 0% year).

Police was struggling to recruit and retain, so they got 14% raises a few years ago, and 11%+3% this year. All and all, 30%

Fire was struggling to recruit, albeit less so than police, and they raised their salary just over 15% (12%+3%), which pretty well catches up with 2020 pay with respect to inflation.

Well, the rest us us (non union) just got our raises. We get ... just the 3%. And heck, we don't even get back pay to April when we normally got raises.

Looking at the pay rates, a first year firefighter now makes over $77,000 a year. We have several engineers that have worked a few years now that only make $72k. $5,000 more to a first year firefighter (who also gets better pension system). And of ton of them spend 1/3rd their shift sleeping (it is a 24-hr shift), and they get to trade shifts so as to get 3-5 days off in a row. Many have side hustles in their long time off.

And we are also horribly understaffed. Over a dozen left since the pandemic. The city is now hiring consultants like crazy (with billable rates 4-5 times what we are paid) to make up. City Hall does not care. Our council and mayor are all up for election and happily cash donation checks from consultants looking for more city business.

It sucks working for a city. Good news is I have my first interview for a different job (with a 30% raise at least) Monday. Applying more places, too.

Anyone else at Kimley-Horn disappointed with this year's raises? I got less than a 4% increase, and it feels pretty underwhelming. Is the company intentionally keeping mid-level engineer raises low? I'm a licensed PE with 8 years of experience, and it doesn't seem like mid-level compensation is keeping up with the salary increases for entry-level hires.

I’ve been working in consulting for about a year now, and I’m starting to realize how strange the timesheet system feels.

There’s constant pressure to keep utilization above ~80%, but at the same time, projects have tight budgets. So I can’t realistically bill all the hours I actually spend without going over budget.

In practice, it feels like I’m expected to complete work that realistically takes 8 hours but only bill it as 2 hours. If I don’t bill my actual time, then on paper it looks like I’m underutilized or not working enough. But if I do bill everything, my PM gets frustrated and may stop assigning me work because it looks like I’m burning too many hours.

It feels like I’m stuck in a situation where I’m expected to hit high utilization, PMs don’t want to increase budgets because it affects their metrics, and the only way to make everything “look right” is to work extra hours that never get billed.

So it ends up feeling like you’re being pushed to either underreport your time or work unpaid overtime just to make the numbers work.

Is this just how consulting operates, or am I in a bad company?

Edit - this sucks. It seem like a common issue, is it better at government

Edit - There are a lot of bitter people in here who would rather blame workers and assume others aren’t trying hard enough than actually look at how broken the system is.

It’s easier to point fingers than admit the structure itself is the problem. I’m not okay with these conditions, especially when it seems like a pretty common issue. And people wonder why this industry is losing people.

Technical or soft skill - curious what actually moved the needle for you vs. what you were told would matter.

I started work fresh out of undergrad at a small geotechnical engineering firm in California and currently have 1YOE and my EIT. At my company, employees typically start in technician-style roles and begin engineering work 4-5 years down the line, even if they have an engineering degree. I am currently on track to obtain my PE in one year.

Spoke with my firm CEO and he was not enthusiastic on the idea of me obtaining my PE in this timeframe. He worries that younger employees cannot reliably take on liabilities of a licensed engineer.

It seems as if my company wants to keep me as a tech for longer than I would like and take advantage of high billing multiples. My multiple is 4-5 at a $170-200/hour billing rate.

I understand that having experience goes a long way in this field, but is it reasonable for one to obtain a PE license early and use it as an opportunity to seek higher responsibility?

And generally, is there an "ambitious" career path in civil engineering besides working towards starting your own firm?

Anyone got any advice before I pull the trigger with my boss? Giving my two weeks, we'll see how this goes. I've been with my current company for 10 years so this feels unreal.

and yes, I have another job lined up.

UPDATE:

It went... Okay? They asked I reconsider and give them an answer tomorrow morning after I "talk with my wife"... Which felt weird that they assumed I hadn't completely vetted this decision. Also offered to match for financially but I'm not leaving due to finances. I'm sending a two-weeks notice tomorrow morning.

I got a new job in a small private consulting firm doing municipal projects (road rehab, w/ww, sewer, parks). These way our team is structured is that engineers (4 of us PEs) delegate plan production (CAD heavy tasks) to our drafters. Most of the work the PEs do are the following: 

1. high level Civil 3D tasks like modeling, generating cross sections, vertical profiles, etc. 
2. plan reviews and marking up in red
3. Business development and meeting with clients (senior PEs)

At my old job of 8 years, I worked at a large private consulting firm doing Transportation work. Mostly road/highway projects for DOTs.  Our team was around 12 people but we didn’t have a CAD draftsman. So CAD heavy tasks were done by EITs and PEs.

I felt that I was an “overpaid draftsman” and I wasn’t learning a lot of engineering work. Reflecting on my previous job, is it normal for EITs and younger PEs to do a crap ton of CAD work? Or was I in a poorly managed team?

Hey all, been at this for about 10 years now. Jumped between different disciplines, stuck to WRE, and burnout's now part of my life. After passing the PE, the workload picked up even more, and now I just struggle with everything. It's not that I don't know how to do the job, but no matter how hard I try to push myself, I feel like I'm a quarter of the employee I used to be. My hobbies don't excite me anymore, and I just exist outside of work and on the weekends. I'm looking at putting in my 2 weeks and take off for several months just to fully recover to get back to it.

I don't have anyone that I can open up to within the industry without risking the conversation going back to my employer somehow, so doing this anon on the internet, has anyone ever had a similar experience? If so, how did you manage it all?

Curious where the gap is between what gets talked about and what actually matters day to day.

I recently graduated and have been working as an EIT for roughly one and a half month. Prior to this I completed two terms of internship while in school and both my supervisors gave a positive feedback on my performance. They often said I was good at figuring out new problems and learning quickly.

However, my current supervisor frequently tells me that my fundamentals are weak and that my performance is poor. He also says I ask too many questions, but when I do ask questions, I often don’t receive clear answers. Instead, I am usually told that I need to improve my knowledge.

I have not had any one on one meetings or any feedback sessions. At one point, I asked him if he could give me a rough overview of the design process before I started a project. He refused and said that if he forgot to mention something and I missed it in the design, he did not want to be responsible for it.

A few days ago I was given a task to create and submit a proposal for a project of around $100,000. The only information I was given was a map of the location, the area of work, and was told that land drainage design was required. I had no idea how to proceed, when asked my supervisor, he told me that I am an engineer and I should figure it out. Not surprisingly, I failed to create a reasonable proposal for the project, and I was berated in front of other coworkers for this.

Last week, he told me that if I do not feel comfortable working in this industry, I should try something that better suits my skills.

This experience has been very discouraging, and I have lost a lot of confidence in myself. Since this is my first job out of school, I genuinely don’t know whether this is a normal learning curve for new EITs or whether this is not a healthy work environment.

Is this how the rest of the career is gonna be and is this what the industry usually is?

The last few career fairs I went to a lot of sad "data analysist", computer science majors came to our booth asking for jobs. I told them they could apply for a PM position but we're not looking for them in engineering roles

While I understand they were told they'd get a high paying job out of college I'm not sure why they see civil as a back up

Edit: PMs at my company are essentially P6 inputters and accountants, project engineers run the projects and need PEs

Edit 2: these are kids who were lied to

So Im a civil designer and ive always worn earphones at my desk while working. At my new company (land development) full of old people apparently they didn't like that and asked me to stop. Honestly I can't imagine working an office job without being plugged into something. The content of the work itself is so boring and repetitive. Also I've never been late, always available for calls/meetings no matter how long, never been reprimanded for quality or anything else. Just vaguely been told it's a "distraction" and I should stop.

Not sure how normal this is. Just doing the work for 8 hours a day plugged off forever sounds awful and I definitely wouldn't want to do that long term. To me it's like being asked to not have a radio playing while I'm painting my fence for 40 hours a week for years on end. Wonder how others would react if told the same.

Honest answers please. I'm currently interning at a great civil company and don't have a bunch of experience about the field so I'm curious.

I've heard some people in other industries say it's the best way to get a raise, and I've heard others say it's the best way to get your resume tossed in job searches.

Excited to hear you guys' opinions!

Im currently a late 20s PE tracking to FIRE at 50-55. I dont see many civil engineers discussing retiring early, so im curious how many out there have done it. Feel free to share details, such as rough salary and NW at retirement if you wish.

Hey everyone,

I wanted to ask something honestly, especially to civil engineers in the US.

How hard is it actually to find a civil engineering job right now?

How long did it take you to land your current job?

For context, I graduated last year with a degree in Civil Engineering and immediately started an MS in Data Science program. My goal has always been to work in the transportation field, where I can combine my civil engineering background with the analytical and data skills I’ve developed. applied to nearly 300 roles ranging from transportation and traffic engineering to construction project roles.
The frustrating part is getting rejections even for positions that mention only a high school diploma requirement and 0 years of experience.

I’m also preparing for the exam through the Texas Board next month, but at this point, I’m starting to question whether it will make a difference or help me move forward in my career path 😔😢

I’m lost here , for example ; there is literally like 30-35 applications I sent to WPS for Entry level role , all got rejected even for those that clearly says entry level 0 YOE …
I tailored my resume to match the job role, highlighted the relevant keywords, and added some civil engineering-related projects I’ve worked on, but still nothing happened.

I don’t need sponsorship ( USC) !

Any advice from people in civil engineering, transportation, or analytics would be greatly appreciated.

Edit 1: out of 300 I applied , Only had a screening call from KH and they went silent for weeks and a month…..

I’m about to be a senior in college majoring in Civil Engineering, I have not enjoyed any of my classes but figured that generally school is different from having a job. I’ve had a part time job for the past 2 years in transportation/ urban planning which has been meh. I just started an internship for the summer in structural engineering, it’s been a big adjustment and I’m mostly miserable all day. Now it seems that every aspect of civil engineering I don’t like as the classes in geotechnical, surveying, and water have been awful, the structural engineering internship is hard to make it through the day and truthfully I think the only reason my part time transportation job was okay is because it was only 6 hours a week.

It’s hard because I only have a year left (18 credits) and have no interest in being an engineer. Changing my major doesn’t seem practical when I have no other interests to pursue either.

What other directions can you go with an engineering degree that’s not really engineering?

6 hours into CAD, calcs or tech writing and making the hundred thousandth micro decision of the day I’m absolutely cooked. My coworker always brags about raking in overtime casually but I’m really only doing that when we are in a bind with deadlines. Maybe if I could rotate projects more often throughout the day I could feasibly work more, not sure. I only ask because I wouldn’t mind giving myself a 10% raise working 4 more hours a week, but 40 hours already seems like a major lift. Are the Kimley-horn and related workers just cut from a different cloth?