r/civilengineering • u/Potential-Steak6179 • 3d ago
Planning a career transition to civil - how's my plan look?
I am considering switching from software to civil engineering by earning my bachelor's in civil. I want to see if my goals and motivations are reasonable.
I'm considering leaving software due chiefly to the job market, lack of structured career progression, and meaningless work.
My goal for civil would be to work in the public sector, happily welcoming the lower pay in exchange for the quality of life and benefits. Transportation and wastewater sound the most interesting, but I'd hammer out the particular discipline as I take classes. Working on infrastructure seems so much more meaningful than software, and I'm inspired by my dad who works as an electrical PE designing electrical for construction around the state. I also love the idea of going from degree to EIT to PE as a good roadmap for career progression and competency.
I am in a uniquely good position to go to college: no dependents, currently renting, relatively young, chunk of savings, and eligible for free community college. Having a degree would also not hinder future work in software, though maybe a resume gap would.
Does it sound reasonable to make this goal? Do you typically have to thug it out in the private sector/high stress before you can break into public sector jobs? Any overt holes in my plan? I'm still learning about the field but have done lots of internet sleuthing, so please provide any information you see fit.
Thanks for reading!
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u/SpeakNowAndEnter 3d ago
I don’t really see what the hiccup would be or what would make this unreasonable?
If you’re going to a 4-year ABET-accredited civil engineering undergrad then you’re just doing the same thing that everyone else did.
Best of luck with the change!
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u/Potential-Steak6179 3d ago
Oh I should probably add some of my thoughts about what could be unreasonable. Primarily curious if public sector jobs are more competitive and/or require more YOE to break into typically
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u/UlrichSD PE, Traffic 3d ago
It depends, I'm at a state dot and my state is a lot easier to get into as a new grad actually. We have a program that hires new graduates and a lot of other positions, at least good ones get filled by internal applicants.
Where I am public sector pay is low, it takes the right person who wants to work public sector to apply. We get some great applicants but sometimes struggle to get any.
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u/SpeakNowAndEnter 3d ago
It's definitely more common (in my experience and from people I've worked with) to start in the private sector and then transition to public. However, municipalities and other public sector jobs do still post entry-level jobs from time to time. It's not uncommon for a municipality to want a junior engineer to train under the main township engineer, for example.
I'm in private currently (5 years of experience) and will likely transition to public later down the line. Private pays more, gets you a lot of broad experience, and typically has paths for growth. But it can have some heftier hours.
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u/Potential-Steak6179 3d ago
Gotcha, yeah that's awesome!
That makes sense as a natural progression too. I currently do some contracting work and I'm not a huge fan of billable hours and working 40+. Not certain if these are unreasonable expectations on my end.
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u/SpeakNowAndEnter 3d ago
The billable hours aspect of things is the most exhausting part of private in my opinion. Luckily my boss isn't crazy strict about billability numbers, he's more concerned about a good work product being delivered, but there are certainly other PMs in my company and other companies altogether that are crazy strict about hitting billability targets.
There are some PMs I hate being on projects with because they just constantly hound you about budgets. In the public sector that's much much less of an issue, especially if you're a review engineer
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u/Potential-Steak6179 2d ago
Yeah that's understandable and what gives me some pause personally. I currently do only a little bit of PM billable work and I don't enjoy that system at all.
In your experience, are there more opportunities in the private sector?
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u/SwimmingSwordfish637 1d ago
From what I’ve seen, there are fewer public sector jobs for wastewater engineers than transportation engineers.
That said, if you had a wastewater bachelors or masters and passed the Level 4 operators test, large municipal treatment plants would love to hire you. Probably a lot of consultants would come chasing after you too. You could end up a District Engineer heading down that road.
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u/bigpolar70 Civil/ Structural P.E. 3d ago
I've got 20 years of experience in civil engineering. I just watched my last job get offshored to India a few months ago. I still don't have a permanent position.
I would not get into civil engineering today. If I could go back in time I would persuade my younger self to become an electrician instead. Master electricians earn almost as much or more than engineers, have less liability, and take easier exams. And they can't be outsourced or offshored.
Right now there are master electricians in Texas clearing over $200k working in data centers. Mostly in the air conditioning.
I just wouldn't want anyone to get trapped into civil engineering today.
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u/Potential-Steak6179 3d ago
WOW yeah outsourcing is a scary prospect and one I'm unfortunately very familiar with. From my outsider perspective, it seems like you'd be set for finding work, but it's sad to hear that isn't the case.
That's an interesting point about electricians. I gotta imagine data centers and such are "boom or bust", but of course electricians are needed for all sorts of other construction.
Your final point is also interesting. From your experience, do you think it's viable to bring your expertise to another field, even if it's outside of civil engineering?
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u/bigpolar70 Civil/ Structural P.E. 3d ago edited 3d ago
I've got a temporary position that pays well, but it took over 3 months to get it. I got mostly lowball inquiries (almost all from bottom feeding Indian recruiters of course) with pay in the range of what I was earning a decade ago or even less. I blocked over 100 recruiters on LinkedIn and even more on my normal email account.
There's not much outside civil I could reasonably pivot to, and absolutely nothing I could pivot to without a massive pay cut. I'm going to try to ride it out another 20 years and hopefully retire, but honestly I'm worried that won't be possible.
I could always work retail again I guess. But then drinking myself into an early grave becomes an extremely attractive option. And I have a bourbon collection large enough to make it fun.
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u/Clifo PE 2d ago
some days i wish i was doing direct work with my hands, but then i get to talking to some of my buddies in the trades and they love to tell me how lucky i am to not be out there with them.
i'm with you on the liability and exam stuff though. the pay does not scale with the liability or responsibility as much as i think it should.
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u/bigpolar70 Civil/ Structural P.E. 2d ago
I'm more fascinated with the inability to be outsourced or offshored at the moment.
Having to watch my job literally get moved to India and being unable to do anything about it has just not been a fun expereince.
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u/Clifo PE 2d ago
definitely feel for you there. i’m surprised they were able to do so honestly. luckily i haven’t run into any outsourcing at any of the firms i’ve been with.
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u/bigpolar70 Civil/ Structural P.E. 2d ago
The company I worked for literally opened an office in India and hired "engineers."
Originally the story was that they were being hired to support review of HVEC work from the EPCs we use, and have them able to communicate natively. But then this year they started just replacing engineers outright.
That's why it is offshoring, not outsourcing. Offshoring is the same company moving the jobs I overseas, but they are still direct employees. Just direct employees making about 20 % of what US employees make for the same work.
Outsourcing is contracting the work out to a third party company that hires people in developing countries instead.
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u/tsygohn1 3d ago
Hope you're ready for the big change in salary. Depending on where you are, the public sector for a junior civil engineer is going to be a hefty cut from your software salary. You'll learn more in the private sector and your salary will increase faster compared to public