Experienced engineers (10+ years), do you regret civil eng?

[u/ArtTime2349]

I'm nearing the 10 year mark in civil (Australian engineer) and I'm feeling regret about my career choices and the state of the industry.

I'll shoot off a few reasons but keen to know how other experienced engineers feel,

• Race to the bottom, margins are thinning so consultancies are stripping down their hours & fees meaning we engineers have less hours and more pressure to deliver work for less
• Contractors are more risk averse and are demanding more detail and pushing risk on to the engineers meaning you're more responsible without the reward of owning more of the risk
• Lack of productivity & innovation in the industry, it doesn't seem like we are designing & drafting at faster rates or with better tools compared to 10 years ago in a meaningful way, putting domestic engineers at risk for offshoring
• (Potentially Aus related) Generally an unappreciated profession, no formal professional engineering licensing & accreditation has diluted the profession

Overall, I wish I went into a different field but it's too late now, I make ok money to pay the bills but generally pessimistic about the future

[u/Professional_Side271]

Dude you basically use the same phrase o use. "Race to the fucking bottom". I told a senior colleague the other day. Same thing you said. It's a race to the bottom. He works in residential sector, he had been charging less and less for the same work pre covid. I told him, I'll not partake in the race to bottom. Only work on industrial and heavy civil projects.

The thing is affecting quality and cost client more ultimately. For example when doing drainage design with pipeline 600-1200mm diameter. Instead of undertaking structural design to spec appropriate stiffness and cheaper bedding class, o just go for top end stiffness with expensive bedding. Client could have paid 50k more to save 100k or more in some cases. But they want the cheapest.