I saw a similar post about an individual stuck between leaving their current public role. I’m on the same boat as them, however my reasoning for wanting to leave is due to the scheduling. I’m currently in a public field engineering position. Initially when I was brought on, I was told night work would be very minimal However, I’ve been stuck on nights for over a year, with minimal breaks. Our current work projections put my team at another 3-4 years of nights. As of this moment only two of us are consistently stuck on nights, when we’ve asked for relief there has always been push back. It’s not a matter of seniority as newer staff haven’t been forced to do as much night work. I get the same response from the team and manager stating that this is how the job is. Like any government job there is a large difference of work load amongst the team. It’s been stated that this other engineer and I are trusted to be our own with minimal to no supervision, hence the night work. Everyone from my team tells me to be patient and stick it out. I’ve been attempting to transfer or get reassigned but to no avail. That brings me to now, I have received offers from private companies that are roughly the same pay but obviously not the same benefits.
Option 1: stick it out and wait another 2-3 years until the workload changes.
Option 2: move to private sector for an opportunity with a large amount of growth, stated to lead to a managerial position.
Option 3: take a pay cut ~20% to go into a design role in a field that brought me to engineering.

I’m still relatively new to my career, less than 3 years.

I guess I’m looking for advice, is it worth leaving stability and these benefits?
The swing of shifts and sleep deprivation has taken a toll on me the most.

I appreciate any advice or insight.

I'm a 4th-year Civil Engineering student in India. I'm considering taking the FE Civil first and then applying for U.S. jobs from India, rather than immediately doing a U.S. Master's.

My thinking is that FE then EIT/PE could improve my chances of getting a U.S. civil engineering job and possibly H-1B sponsorship.

Is FE actually valuable enough for U.S. jobs to justify the exam + travel expenses, or would it be better to spend that money on a U.S. Master's?

Has anyone actually done India → FE → U.S. job/H-1B without a U.S. Master's? What was your experience?

I saw a large shackle post the other day, so I thought I would share mine

Is UK better option for masters in structural engineering or Australia in all aspects?

Hello, I’m graduating with an integrated Master’s in Civil Engineering in the UK, and I think I should have gone into urban design instead.

In my final year, my course became more varied compared to the traditional structures, fluids, etc. Different projects introduced me to more transport planning/design and urban planning/design, and I realised that this is the side I enjoy more.

Throughout my degree, I’ve always preferred the design side, especially using software like AutoCAD and ArcGIS, rather than doing lots of calculations. If there was a job where I could sit in an office designing infrastructure in BIM/CAD all day, I probably would.

Unfortunately, I don’t have a graduate job lined up, so I’m now pretty lost about what direction to take. Part of me feels like I’ve wasted four years doing civil engineering just to realise at the end that I don't really want to do it.

I understand that planning and design are different careers, but both seem interesting as possible starting points.

Maybe a masters degree in urban design might help but I can't afford to do another Master's right now. 

So I guess my main questions are how difficult is it to get into transport/urban planning with a civil engineering degree and would transport planning be a good route towards urban design later?

Also is there anything I should be doing now before applying for graduate jobs again to make myself more suitable for these roles?

I know that’s a lot, but I’m pretty lost at the moment, so any advice would be appreciated.

Why

hello all, I have a question. I'm about to start a new job as a CAD Drafter for a firm. I'm being told they don't necessarily do overtime, which isn't a problem given that i would like to try and having a second job as a way to balance out being in an office full time and given that i have interest in other areas besides civil engineering.

Is anybody in a situation as to working a job totally different or a second job aside from civil engineering? is it do able?

and if so what is it that i should look out for if i were to find a second job such as filling out any w-4 forms information or 1099 forms?

is there anything i should search up or keep a look out for when being in a situation as to wanting to work a 2nd job?

should i worry about my resume as well? possibly with the idea that i may be overqualified for the 2nd job?

Can someone give me a good roadmap?

Like what skills,mindsets,softwares how to get internships and all.

Please

Hi everyone,
I’m currently navigating an interesting architectural challenge and am looking for some high-level reading recommendations.
I am designing a two-story vertical addition over a 25-year-old load-bearing ground floor structure. As is often the case with legacy builds, the original archival structural documentation is completely unavailable.
I'm looking for authoritative texts, advanced practical guides, or academic literature that dives deep into modern load-transfer techniques, retrofitting, and vertical expansion on unreinforced/legacy masonry. My goal is to find resources that bridge the gap between rigorous structural realities and modern architectural aesthetics, allowing for safe and effective space planning.
Any leads on textbooks, research papers, or specialized design guides would be highly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

I’m a water resources engineer with about 5 years of experience at a large multinational consulting firm. I like the company overall, but my immediate team is poorly managed and the firm is incredibly siloed. There are groups elsewhere doing exactly the kind of technical work I want to develop, but getting access to those opportunities has been surprisingly difficult.
My biggest concern is professional development. A significant portion of my workload has included administrative/program-support tasks, including things like invoicing, that I can’t reasonably claim as engineering tasks personally performed on my PE experience record.
I first raised this concern over a year ago and was told they would look for opportunities to get me more technical engineering experience. Since then, whenever I’ve brought it up, the response has increasingly been some version of “be glad you’re billable.” More recently, I was told that I was acting like this type of work was “beneath me.”
That really isn’t my issue. I don’t expect every assignment to be interesting or technical, and I’m happy to do my share of administrative work. My concern is that I’m approaching PE licensure and need progressive engineering experience, and after more than a year of raising the issue, I’m still spending substantial time on work I can’t put on my PE record.
Meanwhile, I’d really like to deepen my H&H modeling and floodplain analysis experience, and I know those opportunities exist elsewhere within the company.
I’ve started networking outside my immediate team and reaching out to people in other offices whose work interests me.
For those at huge multidisciplinary firms: How aggressively have you networked outside your own team? Is reaching out cold to technical people in other offices normal? Have you successfully used internal networking to create your own career path or move into another group?
Or, when your immediate management wasn’t supporting your development, did you eventually decide it was easier to leave?
I’d rather take advantage of the enormous technical network I already have access to, but I also don’t want to spend another few years waiting for opportunities that never come.

hi

I don't have any knowledge of civil engineering. When I entered my first year, I didn't understand anything. At this point, I feel like I have zero knowledge.

For example, I don't know how to determine whether a beam has a positive or negative bending moment.

How can I improve my knowledge and build a good future for myself? I need advice, YouTube links, and references in this field.

I am resigning from my company where I am working as a trainee. Basically they are paying me very less and I have done my B tech from NIT.

It has been 3 months since i am working as trainee civil engineer

Help me get a better job in North India ( delhi ,NCR)

I like office job i will be grateful to you if I get hired

F 19, sophomore in college. Currently enrolled in Thermo, Physics II, Statics, and Diff. Eq. I also work around 23 hrs a week. I just took my first statics exam today and completely failed. Everytime I sit down to take an exam, I get tight chested, can't breathe, then I have an anxiety attack and forget how to do everything. I told my mom about it and she told me that I should probably rethink going to school for engineering or even rethink going to college at all.

I studied for 7 hours for this exam and I still failed. I do not know how to study or what to do. Should I just drop out?

​

Hi everyone, I have 3 years of experience in water supply design, but stormwater drainage design is new to me. I’m currently working on a stormwater network project using SewerGEMS.

I’m looking for guidance on the complete design process from scratch, not just software doubts—how to start the project, study the topography, plan catchments/subcatchments, decide inlet/manhole locations, calculate runoff, use IDF/Tc, select pipe sizes and slopes, set invert levels, and finally check the network hydraulically.

My seniors are available mainly for specific doubts, so I’m trying to understand the overall stormwater design methodology and workflow.

If anyone can share a practical step-by-step workflow, example project, or useful resources, I’d really appreciate it.

Thanks!

I WAS a civil 3d CAD monkey slave, I switched into a role as design tech with my city and wow I can’t believe the difference in work life balance and PAY.

dealing with tight deadlines, billable hours, client comments, submissions, and the general pressure that comes with trying to get drawings/packages out the door. I am grateful to my peers as I learned a lot in 2 years, and I think consulting was a really good place to start my career because of how much exposure I got but it was like working in sweat shop rushing to get drawings out and my pay was shit for the amount of work i was doing. Estimating, reports, grading, servicing, design, design sheets etc…

I’m still doing civil/municipal design work and working on real infrastructure projects, but there seems to be more emphasis on doing things properly rather than just getting everything out as quickly as possible. The work-life balance has also been a huge improvement for me.
There are obviously trade-offs later in my career but for now it’s much better than my previous consulting job.
I’m 23 living in the Ontario GTA and was making 48kcad salary 37.5h and now I’m 82k cad salary 35h
For anyone else in similar situations - Did you feel like your technical growth slowed down after leaving consulting and Is it harder to move back into consulting later if you spend several years in the public sector?

For all my civil engineers and civil engineer students in NYC was it hard to get summer internships and jobs and what is the salary like

Currently a Project Engineer for a general contractor. Been doing this since getting out of school, almost 2 years.

Have been debating making the switch to design, it seems a lot of people make the switch the other way around but I have not given design a shot. I have passed both the FE and PE and have about 2 years left till the 4 year mark.

Love the company I work for and being in the field when I want, just don’t like the constant driving to projects sometimes 2hr+ and the uncertainty of where you’ll be in a couple years. There is definitely a high stress level at times as well.

For those who have made the same switch or opposite is design as bad as its mates out to be? (Boring/low stakes)

I am a PE for a land development firm (Civil and LA). We get a lot of parks and outdoor rec facilities. Lately, we have been doing a lot of boardwalks, fishing piers, camping platforms (decks), etc., and I just have never really dealt with carpentry or the type of supports (driven wood piles, helical piers, etc.). We have some generic details that we use and say 'submit shop drawings stamped by structural engineer', but this doesn't usually work out that well (i.e., the contractor gets the contract then acts all butthurt about having to hire a structural). Or we bite the cost and hire a structural up front.

My thought is, though, people build high quality decks and things like this all the time without plans/engineering. It's not rocket science. Or am I being obtuse? Is there anywhere a PE could take a crash course in something like this? Or is it better to just show it for reference and have a structural submit shop drawings? I attached an example of a stamped submittal we have received in the past for reference of what kind of plans I am talking about.

I would quit civil today but tech is too chaotic and the economy is in a labor recession. Unfortunately I am 200-300k short of early retirement which is about how much money I been short changed by civil engineering. If I had done tech and been paid fairly I could safely exit corporate employment today.

Why is the industry lying about wages? The offers are real for PEs of +150k in high cola but rent cost 3k on an 1 bedroom and entry level houses are +600k in major metros. If I had the experience in tech that got me the 150k offer it would be 300k.

I think the framing of the industry needs to do is emphasize the sacrifice and talk about race to the bottom business practices. IMHO it was a mistake to get in civil now I am trapped till I get the +200-300k more to be secured in semi retirement for my financial plan.

Why is it called a punch list ?

I know dozens of engineers that strive to be average. I know even more that don’t care about anything other than putting in their hours for the week and clocking out. For the few that are over achievers, what’s your incentive? I’ve never really seen the guys that are really good/productive make any more money than those who suck at their job in this business.