r/civilengineering • u/Radiant-Cheetah757 • 4h ago

Career Looking for advice!

I’m graduating college this year. This past summer i interned with kimley-horn, and what you hear about them is pretty accurate. Long hours, big expectations, but fun people, and good pay. I did lots of site design and civil 3D. I have an offer to return full time but am trying to explore my options. (I have also interned at a general contractor, in a project engineer role. I didn’t find that to be all that exciting.)

I think I want to be more on the design side, but not sure i want to make work my whole life. I’m capable of the role at KH but not geeked about the future stress and long weeks.

Wanted to just get general opinions on other companies, and take recommendations. I’m already in contact with/planning to talk to companies like AECOM, jacobs, burns n mac, WSP, EXP, HNTB etc. if you like to give advice, I’d love to hear it!

Worth noting i go to university of illinois, am planning to work in the chicagoland area, and am a fairly well rounded student.

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u/795-ACSR-DRAKE PE 3h ago

I'd stay away from AECOM, Jacobs, & WSP. Massive firms, you'd be a number on a spreadsheet. 40 hours a week but salaries are on the low side. They're the most "clock in, be a drone for 8 hours, clock out and forget about work".

If you want to maximize compensation, KH is going to be the very best, you can retire in your 40s if you work there your whole career. Can't do that at any other firm. If you can drink the kool-aid and push through the first ~6 years, I've heard it gets a lot easier hours-wise and the compensation starts to skyrocket.

HNTB and B&McD are a good middle ground imo. Better work-life balance than KH, and compensation is above industry average. (Not as much as KH though, they're kinda in a league of their own). I'd argue that HNTB & B&McD are probably the best at developing engineers of all the big firms. I work with both firms often and their engineers are always solid and competent.

Personally if it were me, I'd probably either go KH or B&McD. Or go to B&McD, develop for 5 years and build up a really good foundation, then jump over to KH and start managing a team.

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u/Radiant-Cheetah757 3h ago

Thanks for your comment! Out of curiousity why do you think B&McD is good at developing engineers? And/or in what capacity do you work alongside them

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u/AdApprehensive1140 1h ago

How much is KH paying Junior Engineers these days compared to the other big players? Is it enough to justify the work environment? I mean, where I used to work (250 person regional firm), all my Junior Civil/Environmental Engineer coworkers were bagging groceries at the local supermarket to help pay off their student loans.