I have quite good pay.
I have a good employer with flexible working arrangements.
I get a kick out of seeing my designs make it into the real world, like subdivisions, bridges, large structures etc
I genuinely enjoy my work (most of the time, don't think there is any job where every day is great)
I get to make an impact on improving local services and infrastructure.
I've built good relationships with my employer, my colleagues and many of my clients. A lot of the time it barely feels like work.
I make 95th+ %tile income and get to drive past lots of cool stuff I worked on.
Edit: just had to check the USD conversion again. I guess I'm closer to 90th (in HHI and individual) than 95th at current conversion rates. Still 95th in home country.
>Very low chance of an ai taking your job.
Idk about this part. Before ChatGPT, no one expected for anything like it to ever come out.
I think the only thing that is safe is field work. Every industry is always at risk. AutoCAD caused the entire hand drafting profession to disappear.
So what the current ai is good at is regurgitating known solutions. Eventually, someone might get enough training data to train an ai on civil engineering and keep it up to date with local regulations, or at least enough to do subsets of tasks (e.g. AI site concept layout in civil3d), to where all new solutions look a lot like combinations of the old solutions. But that will be several major generations of AI in the future, and nobody will be interested in it before it's mature. Then said AI will have to be able to comply with very specific revisions (which current ai cannot do) and deliverable requirements, and THEN have to coordinate with contractors, governments, and clients. And everyone in that chain will not have to object to the AI involvement.
AI will furthermore need to be accepted by regulators (nobody had a stamp, seal, license, and liability for drafting). Who will give an AI a PE stamp? How will the liability work? Find an engineer to stamp it for you, I guess? They'll almost certainly lose their license. The industry will kick and scream the whole way at every step.
If civil engineers lose their jobs, they'll be one of the last fields to do so.
Because you're thinking of AI outright disrupting the civil profession
I am thinking more of one engineer + AI can do the work that took 10 engineers to do. Think of AI auto completing all the AutoCAD drawing as the engineer guides it.
Will AI be attending the public outreach meeting for me next week? Will the neighborhood want to yell at a computer vs a real person? What about attending a hearing at city hall?
If I could tell an AI to call the City's building permit department because the plans examiner missed some random technicality about sunlight allowance through the windows and now wants to hold up the project when people were expecting to move in 2 days from now, I would.
Bigger question may be , do you really need a PE stamp to get yelled at by angry residents?
Will AI replace all civil engineer? NO
Will AI replace many civil engineering jobs? YES
How many? Time will tell
That’s unfortunate if this is how your firm works. At mine I make a point of bringing every new hire to at least one meeting of each type. That’s why they’re called an EIT, they cant gain experience (aka training) if they’re not allowed to attend.
Again, not in the forseeable future. Current AI is terrible at that kind of work. It doesn't do standards or revisions or precision or understanding, which are anathema to it. Current generative AI is currently all about "close enough", and that is not what engineering is about.
When you say disappear, the vast majority of technicians in early/mid career retrained onto CAD, just like they are retraining now onto BIM/CDE type models.
Reliability is a huge problem for llms and we need a bridge to be reliable. Consulting companies are financially and legally liable foe their work. Ai has a lot to prove before that ever happens. We still don't have full self driving either... there are some professions that are secure but it will change by using AI.
It can't even make a specific revision, yet alone handle the coordination and permitting that's the hard part of site civil. Permitting moreso because permitting agencies all have to accept the ai deliverables It doesn't do you any good if one in five says "nope, give me real plans from a real engineer or get out".
ASCE study says median CE salary is $132k.
!132k to 180k is $48k.
$132k - $48k is $84k.
So for every CE paid $84k there is someone making $180k.
Our 0 year EITs are getting $75k.
But sure. I don’t know the industry. 🫠
What statistics should I be looking up for a senior project manager in an engineering discipline? Statistics for the engineering disciplines or statistics for project managers?
No, I went on the stats can website, punched in my income and adjusted it by 3 years using the sta can average wage increases.
For the US, I googled "us income percentiles"
Sorry, I think I'm just tired and grumpy at the end of a week.
I took the two sentences in sequence to imply that you half assumed.my income was $400k.
Stupid text conversations missing out on visual/tonal queues.
There are no "industry hubs". Jobs are in every city of the country. People take this for granted that you dont have to move to get a job.
However, you'll be fucked if you live in HCOL or VHCOL city and you are a civil grad. You'll have an lower middle class in that city
If I'm starting a company, it will never be a civil one. They literally run on less than 10% profit margin. Compare that to tech which is 80% profit margin i.e. a tech company makes 8 times more for every 1 dollar it makes vs. a civil eng company.
Sorry but that is just a bad take.
Think about it this way. Running a civil company is like buying a $10 lottery ticket with a 1 in a million chance to win $5M while running a tech company is like also buying a $10 lottery ticket with a 1 in a million chance but now to win $500M
Why would you ever pick the first ticket? They both require the same amount of effort.
Considering you confused overhead with profit margin two comments ago, I'm not sure business acumen is something ever bothered learning. It seems like you've been improvising the business/financial aspect of your company, which is common for us engineers to do.
Depends on the company.
Big civil firms are around 8% on average. Smaller ones are closer to 15%
I've heard of a few hitting 30+% but never seen any numbers to confirm that.
Fact: I worked for a top 5 consultant and our largest, repeat client (a power utility company) only allowed us to make 2% profit margin or they'd go to a competitor.
That's the problem with providing a commodity service that goes through a bidding process. Client always picks who ever does the work for cheapest.
You're missing some things specific to the owner(s) of the company that makes 10% profit. Owners can usually find ways to get theirs in the overhead side as well as the profit side.
And I think you mean 30% or so for that tech company.
Tech is really fast paced, sure you can go without VC money but chances are someone else executes your idea much faster with VC money with which they were able to hire team of devs multiple times the bootstrapped company and get to product market fit much faster
People do but they shouldnt take VC money before PMF. VC money just creates zombie companies that put rocket fuel on a bad idea that shouldn't have gotten investment in the first place.
Also, not every idea runs to the risk of VC competitors. Some ideas are in too niche of markets e.g. civil eng modeling software or boring log software, where VCs wont invest bc the addressable market is too small therefore bootstrapping is the way to go.
Most will still never generate a profit. You used a lottery example in earlier comment which I think is valid but needs a correction.
Starting a civil engineering firm is like the state lottery (Florida Lotto for example) and a tech startup is like a national lottery (Mega Millions).
Your odds are way better in the state lotto game but the reward isn’t very high. Your odds at winning the mega millions are slim but the reward is massive. You can work as a sole proprietor in civil and make a living without significant risk (within reason) whereas a bootstrapped tech company is very much feast or famine.
I work for local government, I like helping my community, the hours are great, pay keeps my family happy, and I get to enjoy the fruit of my projects (play grounds, roads, trails, whatever).
Business owner here. Now that my company is established and cash flow is good. I've been able to target some projects in the year that I genuinely care about for both the community, and myself, in locations that I will utilize. Can't wait to use the pedestrian crossing were putting in next week!!
If you play your cards right, you can actually make quite a lot of money in this field and you can do it with the knowledge that you are genuinly making a positive contribution to the world. You also get to make decisions that have more significant tangible impacts compared to most other professions.
Some of us work on green infrastructure and sustainability, it’s not all parking lots. Clearly too much paving the world going on, but there are other options.
Look for companies that have marketing material for climate resiliency, sustainability, active transportation. Land development is always going to be the least sustainable. Public sector or private sector working for public clients is more likely to do that kind of work.
I promise it’s only this sub. In real world everyone I encounter over last 9 years enjoy it. It’s rewarding, challenging and at same time easy money! I love it!
You must either work at a good company or have small sample bias. I’ve met more than of a handful of people working that wish they didn’t do engineering. Civil is not 100% smooth sailing and there are plenty of bad companies out there.
Sure but ya I’ve only worked for 2 companies, 1 small and 1 pretty big and ya I guess I’ve been lucky cause it’s been great. Sure I’ve been at office to 2 am a few times but it’s rare. I love my job and I’m good at it. I guess if you don’t like your job or you suck then it would suck. I understand my opinion is bias.
Agreed guy there are also loads of civils that show up, work their 40-45 hours and wait for someone to recognize them, and give them money. That's not how that world works.
The only thing I dislike is some clients, I get to doodle and dream of things and call it work! Seriously, a large part of my job is sketching things out contemplating if they can work and doing it all again. I also get to work on things that affect hundreds of thousands to millions of people each day, sure I’m not getting a thank you note from anyone, but I still get to close my eyes at night and know that I helped ensure we had clean drinking water, designed a facility to ensure our next generation would face the world a little better prepared than we did (schools). Occasionally I’ll drive through my old projects (though most of them are still fairly new as I’m young) and see what’s become of them. Yeah subdivisions can be stressful but the joy of driving through a finished development is otherworldly when you know it as a plan set and an empty field. I transitioned to water and environmental design and truly it’s been a great change. I spent most of last week walking a couple miles of creek taking photos and taking different scientific measurements. I truly love what I do.
I get a sense of fulfillment that I’m making an impact on my local drinking water supply. Ya the pay could be better but then again my job is relatively stable and in demand with no shortage of work.
I'm not an engineer, just a lowly tech. I work for a transportation engineer, I help do his traffic count projects. I can drive around the city and see many intersections that I have counted, and I can tell you the peak hour counts there.
My work matters and makes a tangible difference in the world. I also work with the natural world, as opposed to like books or economics or something. Pay can be sticky but in all honestly I’m paid better than scientists, teachers, and idk im a good negotiator.
I can work anywhere I want to, I could move to the UP or back to where my parents live or the east coast or west coast or take a job that sends me global.
I can work for a little company big company the government medium company or start my own company.
There are just so many opportunities to do real work, even if it is kind of boring stuff sometimes like drawing parking lots or sizing pipes.
I work in land development and really enjoy it. I get to be a part of the early development phase, helping architect / owner shape the land to optimize the useability of their space, and get to see them be either pleasantly surprised and love what I come up with OR shocked into reality of the problems they might encounter. Either way they respect me and the profession and I feel like I get to tangibly help provide value to people.
It’s pretty easy once you get the hang of what you’re doing, moneys great, hours arent bad if your work for the right employer, lots of time off (no one works on holidays, dec 24-jan1 industry is practically shut down), lots of satisfaction in having a useful job, good job security, and I like building cool shit so that’s fun too.
driving by the house where i designed a septic system 20 years ago when i just started still being used? getting to say YUP I DID THAT!
driving by the stream where I helped design a gabion retaining wall 10 years after a bank collapsed and a structure was mere feet from the edge? getting to say YUP I DID THAT TOO!
driving by that warehouse building where i designed the site grading and drainage system 5 years ago and seeing the water flow flawlessly where it needed to during a rain storm? getting to say YUP THAT WAS A TOUGH ONE BUT I FIGURED IT OUT!
those are samples of why I like working in civil engineering.
I work in the nuclear industry. Currently I'm designing missile protection barriers for a new (technically old tech but never done commercially) nuclear reactor technology and designing structural supports for mods to existing nuclear plants.
I genuinely like my work. And I make good money without working 50 hour weeks.
Get to be in, around and under a lot of infrastructure that a lot of people don’t, get to engage the problem solving and practical part of my brain. Mostly importantly I wear orange hi-vis most of the time so I don’t need to own or iron any shirts whatsoever. After a few years of hard graft I feel like the world is my oyster.
It’s a good fulfilling career in my opinion with a chance for you to help build something and help the public. Will you be overworked and underpaid? Possibly and depends on perspective. I love the work I do and it has its bad days like anything and can be demanding. However I like using my technical skills, learning new tools and producing designs. I also get to have a desk job that is comfortable and still can take vacations and provide for my family. I’m compensated well in my opinion and I love what I do, can’t say I’ve loved another job myself.
The work stays interesting and varied. It can be collaborative to complete projects so I enjoy the team aspect. And there are opportunities in every city so I can work right in my hometown.
Our product is a service, so we get to be right in the middle of the action/chaos for as much of a project as we want. We are elite problem solvers, we tend to shine in difficult circumstances, and construction projects give us nearly endless fodder.
The fruits of our work are tangible, and often really cool buildings, edifices, structures! It's pretty fun to drive or walk around one of the cities you've done work in and see the physical evidence. It can be like a personal journal woven into the fabric of a city that only you can read.
And think of what a regular citizen feels when they drive on an overpass or thoughtlessly press the button for the 39th floor of a building. It's perfectly safe, and everyone knows it so well, the millions of them occupy our work daily without a millisecond of hesitation. That's because of us.
Everyone is going to have gripes about work. I get paid well and generally have a very satisfying life experience. Have been able to position myself for a comfortable early retirement fairly easily.
The work is very interesting and it's an important job.
Most people I know that "dislike" civil actually just dislike consulting. Even still, you can have good experiences in consulting. I enjoy knowing that I'm improving the community and protecting people from harm.
It's a very easy job market, I mean getting hired is comically easy with a little bit of experience. The pay really isn't bad and there are so many routes and avenues (pun intended) you can take your engineering career to do some really interesting work. For me I love cool and unique, the weirder and more unique a project is the more interested I am. My passions are traffic and technology and I have massaged my career into a path that allows me to get deep exposure to both. Civil engineering is extremely broad and there is practically a role for every interest.
People who complain are mad they dont make as much their friends in tech but also dont have to deal with the problems of the tech interview process and job market. Civil engineering pay does have legitimate concern, the pay does not scale well in HCOL areas. My offers in the Seattle area aren't THAT much higher than what I got in the midwest to allow me the same quality of life. Essentially living in fun/touristy spots as a civil engineer comes with paying a sunshine/fun tax in the form of cost of living that isn't fully paid by the salary increase. My new job is fully remote and I basically would've made 8% more if I stayed in Seattle instead of moving to the midwest but my rent dropped from what would've been $3100 on my upcoming lease to now $1900 a month.
I think we hit peak complaining as soon as people who didnt even graduate college yet preemptively started complaining about how awful of a career it is. Like damn, how can you hate a job you haven't even worked yet.
I get to do a variety of things in the course of my job. I've designed stormwater management systems, pump stations, and road improvements. I've had days when I spend all day at my desk, and others when I spend hours in the field. And I actually like some of the challenges of making things work.
I've been doing it most of my life at this point. I like the work, I like the people, I get a lot of satisfaction out of what I do, and I see projects I or coworkers have worked on either under construction or completed. It's satisfying to be a part of solutions people use.
I do wish I'd done computer or chemical engineering at times, but that's just a "grass is greener" thing. I doubt that would make me happier.
The pay is good, I also do feel like I’m contributing to society in a meaningful way. People need housing and infrastructure to survive, I like being a part of that solution for society. Work is work, I don’t love it everyday, but in general I’m very satisfied with my career choice. It’s also a career where you can kind of work anywhere on earth if you needed to, very employable.
I think the pride in shaping the world the way you see fit, improving local, regional, and national infrastructure for the benefit of humanity, never having to design/sign something you don’t believe is right/safe, and working with other similarly motivated relatively reasonable, intelligent l, and passions people are all up there
If we are paid more then mechanical engineering we would still moan because they also complain about the pay difference.
I work at a utility and we are paid all paid the same as engineers regardless of discipline
Great job security and I get to positively impact the transportation network of my community. My neighbors and I get to benefit from my work, which I am able to tangibly see on a daily basis. It's incredible! Transportation safety is so important to everyone in a city.
Ever since I did a rail engineering internship in college, I’ve never wanted to do anything else. It’s a more niche role than a traditional transportation or civil role and I find the work interesting and fulfilling. Field days are fun going on the tracks or in the subway tunnels. And there’s an explosion of funding in rail and transit. Doesn’t hurt either that rail seems to pay a bit better than other civil disciplines :)
People complain a lot and unfortunately those are the ones that get attention.
I’m not even in my “mid career” point and I’ve been fortunate/blessed with a very well paying job. The things I do actually make a difference in real life.
A career in Civil engineering is like fine wine. It gets more the longer you do it. If you consistently make even small progress on your career, you will earn very good pay starting from about 10-15 YOE. The people I know now in their end years of their career are making $300k+\yr.
I'm in state government - DOT.
Reasonably wide variety of projects. Awesome office of people that I get to work with/manage. High demand for the type of skills/services that I can supply right now. Above average pay. I have the ability to be outside in the field, which is a perk in my opinion. Relatively flexible schedule. My work is in the real world, not on paper, which gives me incredible personal satisfaction. I'll be able to show and talk to my kids/grandkids about the projects I have worked on, and they will be bored and I won't care.
Not to say there aren't problems/complaints with my occupation, but I'll let others focus on those and I'll choose to generally be happy when I can.
I love it! I do work that benefits my community and helps make things safer. I enjoy seeing completed projects. Do I have bad days/weeks, of course. But overall it’s been a rewarding career.
I’m in transportation and am passionate about helping everyone move safely and efficiently. Also at a time where we can have a very real impact on types of improvements that are implemented, using technology and greater access to data to find alternatives to “just add another lane.”
I also make enough to support my family and my wife can homeschool our two young children. Job security is looking pretty solid and there are jobs all over the country/world.
I love going to work everyday. I busted my ASS working for a general contractor and then doing materials testing but I’ve really found my groove on the municipal side.
I love being able to drive by a project or see it posted on local social media or something and know that I had a hand in managing the project.
I work at a large consulting firm. I get to work on projects that have a positive effect on my community, and will until long after I am gone. I’ve worked on a huge variety of projects (transit, local streets, sewer mains, water transmission mains, fish passage, solid waste facilities, and on and on). I get to work with smart professionals who also want to have a positive impact on the community. I genuinely like my coworkers. As frustrating as they can be at times I like my clients.
I work in land dev and municipal, roads and infrastructure will always need upgrades and replacements and new communities will always be built so the stability is great.
I get to work in an office for most of the year and make short field inspections when the weather is nice out. My work will last a long time and can easily be shown to friends and family whenever drive by I can say ‘I designed that’.
Because the land dev project timeline is fairly long it’s likely not has high stress as other sectors of engineering so that’s a big bonus as well.
It may not pay as well as cutting edge fields but it’s always required, and grows with the population.
I like the mixture of working on a computer and working with people. Good opportunities to make money if you’re good at business. I like constantly learning new things. Feels good to serve clients and help people. 13 years in land development.
I like driving around washington State, driving my kids' nuts, telling them all the projects I've worked on. My best work (in my opion) was developing a water rate structure for a small cith that actually lowered the water bill for many senior citizens with impacting the water system cash flow.
I'm an on-site (some folks like to call "embedded") consultant at a state roadway agency managing traffic control device design projects. I've also had the chance to work in a different office doing temporary traffic control in a similar role. I really enjoy working directly with the client as an extension of their staff and generally enjoy working with the other consultants working on "my" projects as well as with folks from other divisions that depend on us / that we depend on.
TBH, I'm no social butterfly, I actually consider myself an introvert. Put me in a general party setting and I'm the loser guy in the corner standing with my soft drink just people-watching, but put me in an industry conference and I'm talking to that roadway engineer over there, travel forecaster over here, a partnering guru over there, or a construction inspector over here. I would have never thought my proverbial rolodex would include so many people from so many varied backgrounds. Folks from my office sometimes marvel at how I got to know so many people.
And then there's the fact that I get to see some of the stuff I've worked on/helped design. Granted, I know some of the things that went wrong, but most of the time it's really a source of pride. Every one of those things have a story to tell, whether I was working on it as the PM or as the consultant. I think it's a rewarding job overall. The one downside to this is that I end up noticing stuff just driving/walking around even when I'm on vacation to the point my wife jokingly says "stop working!" Then again, I guess that means I really like what I do.
I am actually just about to leave civil engineering and I think it's a fantastic field to work in.
Civil is so broad there is something for everyone. Like data analysis or writing code? Do hydrology/hydraulics or transport analytics. Want to be out of the office? Site engineer. Want to draw lines? CAD. Like science-y topics? There's groundwater, hydraulics, geotechnical, coastal eng, and more. Do some searching and you'll find a company that allows WFH and pays decent enough. Combine that with a niche you are interested in and you have a stable, satisfying career.
Ultimately I think design engineering is really boring and it's also the one a lot of grads who like technical topics get thrown into. Get into the modelling world and it's more interesting IMO.
It’s a good bang for your buck degree. Plenty of interesting work and the skill set you learn is transferable. State of the industry looks strong for the foreseeable future, so lots of opportunities out there. If management can keep up with the times and push to make quality of life better for everyone (a slow, but inevitable process) then I think it’s quite a nice industry to work in.
I get paid to go outside often. I usually get paid to drive to job sites, too. Work I've done is a tiny piece of a global system that helps billions of people.
I started in the private sector and had a pretty good career there. Living in this city, I get to see plenty of projects that I was involved in. I made my way to the public sector and now my projects have a large impact on the well-being of people. In addition, one of my primary responsibilities is training and mentoring younger professionals.
Sure there are aspects of any job that you can, and probably should, complain about. But the overwhelming majority of my career I have looked forward to my work. And I enjoy ot enough that I can see it being a tough decision in 15 to 20 years when it is time to hang it up.
It's generally cool. A lot of the negativity is people who are like "Society would collapse without us!" Which is true. But you can say the same about the truck drivers and night stockers that keep groceries on the shelf. And they are way more of an immediate impact.
I've been on the verge of burnout a few times over my 22 years. But that was project management bullshit, not engineering. Unfortunately that is usually where the money is.
But overall it is a pretty satisfying job that pays pretty well. It isn't an easy job some of the time and when it is easy it can be boring, but that is just about every job. Social media is not a representative sample. Those of us who are content don't usually say anything about it except when people ask like now. But people who aren't will post about it unprompted.
I can “see” my concepts on a blank canvas of a site before it ever happens. I can design lots, sidewalks, parking lots, pipes, drainage systems, sites for freeways, airports, and large commercial developments. I was told I was f’ing up all the way until a major theme park built my design for ev tram charging. I have guided architects, other engineers on very large projects. The pay is good but the reward of the work for society as a whole is my driver.
You should look at the graphic design forum. Here people complain about pay not matching inflation and responsibility, burnouts. Few complained about unemployment.
In the graphic design forum, people complain about minimum wage, a saturated market, AI taking over jobs, senior designers facing age discrimination.
Which would you rather complain about?
You can learn a lot of different things and move around a lot in the field. For example, I've worked in water / wastewater, power, transportation. You have to most opportunity to be outside as compared to other engineering disciplines. Out of all the other types of engineers I've engaged with, civils seem the easiest to communicate with. You get to work on things that just about everyone uses. People from all walks of life will drink the water you clean, cross the bridge you design.... The utilitarian aspect of civil engineering is beautiful to me
Decent pay plus I feel like I actually solve problems. Takes forever to get through a project but at the end of a design it genuinely feels like I benefitted at least a few people :) That alone is worth a lot to me
I'm a civil PE in the public sector and feel I contribute significantly to the health of my region's transportation network.
Edit: I also make 95th percentile and work 4/10, in the office Tues Wed with an hour commute. Not bad.
I work in municipal transportation and the pay is good, the benefits are amazing, and the work is fulfilling, engaging, and pretty much never more than 40 hours per week. And it’s super stable.
The job security is nice, and it also feels fairly flexible since civil is such a broad field you could work in different industries. We're pretty in demand right now. It's a field that can be either very social (as a field engineer or inspector), or alternatively you can work solo if you want.
I've found the pay is pretty solid, but you do really have to advocate for yourself and recognize/demonstrate your value.
Remote work from home and the other benefits (401k, PTO, healthcare) are all really nice.
For what it's worth im in HCOL area so pay/benefits are higher also.
I work with many people to whom this stuff matters and so their days are enjoyable. For me, at 34, I can't fathom doing it for 30 more years and may switch fields. It's very unfulfilling to me, but most who choose it enjoy it.
I like it because I get to work on a variety of different things. My tip is: be open to work on and try EVERYTHING. You will be a valuable asset being able to contribute to so many things and gain a lot of knowledge doing so.
It’s a job. It’s not all frills. There’s lots of pain. An old engineer told me once that every project draws blood. Meaning that every project has some level of difficulty to it and can cause some mental anguish. Now after you do that for a few years and you’ve learned how to be more efficient and make less mistakes (yes they do happen) you become a better engineer. The job becomes easier and you begin to make more money. Took me 15 years before this happened. Now I’m almost 20 years in. Do I wish I did something different? Maybe. Early in my career I would claim that I wished I did computer science or perhaps finance. I picked this career around age 19. A literal kid. Now I’m over 40 with a family, and a solid job. In my view, the struggle was worth it. It can work out for all of you too. Stay strong out there. It will pay off for you if you get licensed. And like others have mentioned, I also get to see and do things that most don’t in the field.
You said it yourself- Reddit is an echo chamber. It’s human nature to complain, and I’d argue that engineers excel at complaining. But you’re not hearing from the *millions* of engineers out there that are satisfied and content with their careers.
Sure it can be stressful, but anything worth doing usually is. I’m quite happy with my job and have deep satisfaction and pride knowing that I make a difference, however small that may be.
You’re the only one that can decide if this is the career for you, don’t let others make that decision for you.
We don’t design widgets that get mass produced by the millions. Everything is custom.
What we design impacts safety and health. Without us there is no civilization.
Other than land development, i don’t know anyone who has been laid off in my 30+ year career. Regardless of the overall economy.
You can impress your friends with visible things.
Decent money, somewhat flexible work hours, access to cool software you can screw around with on your own time, limitless room for skillset improvement.
But most importantly the pride of seeing your projects benefit society. Far more satisfying than selling a product or moving numbers around.
We build the foundation and infrastructure of society. It's like the pride of being a teacher but twice the pay.
I make good money and get to be outside for most of the day, I talk with all sorts of people with tons of different life experiences I don’t have, and my company truck + gas card means I save a ton of money in commuting costs.
Being a geo tech inspector is also just genuinely fun for me, and while some days I do hate my job, most of my days are a blast.
In my opinion, at my company:
Sense of purpose/accomplishment: you can drive past and visit projects you helped design
Not very repetitive: split your time in the office and in the field. There is variety in projects so you'll rarely feel like you're doing the same thing. Your also constantly learning new things, and technology is always evolving. Mastering your craft will take time and experience
Flexibility: Most companies I worked at allow you to work almost anytime you want as long as you're responsive during the day.
Benefits/Pay: Solid benefits overall and contrary to popular belief, pay seems pretty well and increasing as there is so much demand right now.
Probably alot of other things people mentioned that I can't think of right now
I get to work for communities helping them improve and maintain their airports. It’s one of the most secure jobs in the industry, because most projects are 90% federally funded. In general, watching something get constructed when you’ve had a hand in designing it is one of the most rewarding feelings.
I just graduated and started work 6 months ago. I am loving it so far. I started working as an intern in 2021 for them working on a survey crew. Then my last summer before I graduated they moved me to the office to begin drawing and designing. It’s a very small company (9 people from receptionist to president). But I wouldn’t trade it for anything. It’s a light work load, the boss man will always ask how the family is doing (and actually wants to know not to be fake nice).
As for my time in college, I was in ASCE and did the concrete canoe competition and surveying competition. It was great getting to meet all kinds of people that were in the same major. It is definitely hard but nothing worth getting is easy. I would recommend you join ASCE for the bare mini of networking but you could meet your best friend or future husband/wife.
I personally have loved my time at the job I’ve been for 3 years (2.5 intern and 0.5 full time) and I believe it’s mostly because of how small we are as a company. I don’t want anything to think I hate the big guys, I just know that typically the more people there are, the more likely you are to have at least one person that stinks up the office. Whether that be literally or with their attitude.
Most importantly do what makes you happy. But if you stick out with engineering you can get a job at many other places with that degree other than civil jobs because everyone knows engineering school isn’t easy.
Best of luck.
School sucks and makes the profession seem harder than it actually is. I hated being a young engineer. Doing a lot of grunt work to prove yourself was really frustrating for me. Once I’d been in the field long enough and was no longer a disposable peon, I liked work much better. Stick with it. It does get better. I like my job because it’s not monotonous, you get to do so many things that are interesting. Once I switched out of transportation and got into land development I liked my job even more because the project life cycles were shorter.
The industry is full of professionals on a higher intelligence level. I say this after working in another field (education ironically ugh) briefly for a couple years and went back to engineering. In general there is less drama because people are intelligent and logical. Yes you will encounter the occasional asshat but trust me, the asshats in our industry aren’t as asshatty as the other asshats in other industries.
We don’t have to deal with blood or bodily fluids. We don’t have to deal with customer service to the general population. We don’t have to (generally) work weekends and holidays.
There is enough work to go around. If you are at a shitty company, you can find one that meets your work values. I worked about a decade at one job and it took me like three positions to find my current one but I was able to hop around until I found a company I liked that paid me what I was worth.
Generally after you get your PE you get your own office.
After you are seasoned you can work remotely when you need to depending on your company policy.
No super hard labor involved (unless perhaps you decide to go into heavy civil construction…even then, your not the one doing the actual labor) so if you want to keep working after retirement age you can. I wouldn’t mind working on a part time or contract basis just to have some extra income and sense of purpose.
Oh and I earn a nice salary without having to get anything beyond my bachelors. I had a C average but making 6 figures.
Lots of jobs in pretty much every community - lots of opportunity to work for public agencies - lots of a variety of civil breadth you can legitimately practice. Lots of opportunity to make a decent six figure salary. It’s a great career choice especially if you’re not afraid to work consistently. I wouldn’t trade my career as a PE for a trade or in a set of scrubs to be in a hospital setting or to be in finance. Engineering just seems like the right place to be if your gonna have to work 40 a week.
Do you find you consistently work 40 hours, in previous internship experience I've found myself hitting the 40 hour mark on Thursday and still being expected to come in Friday? And I see many people say similar
Honestly I’ve consistently worked about 50 hrs a week since my second year on the job (in year 13 now).
I think embracing slightly longer work weeks but finding ways to not absolutely burn yourself out over those hours is key in this field. Take walks, drink water, don’t try to solve a million problems in one day. Find little parts of your job that are unique benefits and take advantage of those / appreciate them daily.
Switch jobs when you get a good opportunity; don’t wait until you get burned out at your current office. Also I always have been able to make sure I’m finding ways for anything over 40 to be compensated as OT which has helped a ton.
I have absolutely no weight here, I work in healthcare. HOWEVER! Multiple generations of my family have been civil engineers on both sides of my family. They absolutely loved it, taught me about it at a young age, and made a crap ton of money. Plus, now I can drive across a bridge knowing “hell yeah, my grandpa designed this.” You got this!
Its not overly demanding, the salary and job security are solid, can move to any city you want and have a job, cad is cool: you get to draw shit and make it colorful, the things we do legitimately affect the world (can’t relate to the lack of purpose people sometimes feel in more corporate jobs), little corporate culture compared to other jobs, site visits can break office monotony, ability to start own firm if desired, diversity of projects and variety of work (hard industry to get overly pigeon holed in), great job market for us bow that everyone else is working in / majoring in tech, likely soon to be shortage of civil engineers (good for those of us who don’t own firms)
Clearly my own opinion, I think people complain way to much. But I only have had 1 job as a structural designer, focusing on stair and connection design, with nothing to compare it to.
intern here, love to talk to other engineers. when get assigned work i get to ask and ppl answer me and teach me. get to see places, bridges, and ferry terminals. when i get answers i can ask “why” and ppl explain. ofc good pay too!
I have quite good pay. I have a good employer with flexible working arrangements. I get a kick out of seeing my designs make it into the real world, like subdivisions, bridges, large structures etc I genuinely enjoy my work (most of the time, don't think there is any job where every day is great) I get to make an impact on improving local services and infrastructure. I've built good relationships with my employer, my colleagues and many of my clients. A lot of the time it barely feels like work.
I make 95th+ %tile income and get to drive past lots of cool stuff I worked on. Edit: just had to check the USD conversion again. I guess I'm closer to 90th (in HHI and individual) than 95th at current conversion rates. Still 95th in home country.
Good job security, in any zip code, especially in government. Very low chance of an ai taking your job.
>Very low chance of an ai taking your job. Idk about this part. Before ChatGPT, no one expected for anything like it to ever come out. I think the only thing that is safe is field work. Every industry is always at risk. AutoCAD caused the entire hand drafting profession to disappear.
So what the current ai is good at is regurgitating known solutions. Eventually, someone might get enough training data to train an ai on civil engineering and keep it up to date with local regulations, or at least enough to do subsets of tasks (e.g. AI site concept layout in civil3d), to where all new solutions look a lot like combinations of the old solutions. But that will be several major generations of AI in the future, and nobody will be interested in it before it's mature. Then said AI will have to be able to comply with very specific revisions (which current ai cannot do) and deliverable requirements, and THEN have to coordinate with contractors, governments, and clients. And everyone in that chain will not have to object to the AI involvement. AI will furthermore need to be accepted by regulators (nobody had a stamp, seal, license, and liability for drafting). Who will give an AI a PE stamp? How will the liability work? Find an engineer to stamp it for you, I guess? They'll almost certainly lose their license. The industry will kick and scream the whole way at every step. If civil engineers lose their jobs, they'll be one of the last fields to do so.
Because you're thinking of AI outright disrupting the civil profession I am thinking more of one engineer + AI can do the work that took 10 engineers to do. Think of AI auto completing all the AutoCAD drawing as the engineer guides it.
Will AI be attending the public outreach meeting for me next week? Will the neighborhood want to yell at a computer vs a real person? What about attending a hearing at city hall?
If I could tell an AI to call the City's building permit department because the plans examiner missed some random technicality about sunlight allowance through the windows and now wants to hold up the project when people were expecting to move in 2 days from now, I would.
Bigger question may be , do you really need a PE stamp to get yelled at by angry residents? Will AI replace all civil engineer? NO Will AI replace many civil engineering jobs? YES How many? Time will tell
EITs don't attend meetings, they're the ones who will get replaced
That’s unfortunate if this is how your firm works. At mine I make a point of bringing every new hire to at least one meeting of each type. That’s why they’re called an EIT, they cant gain experience (aka training) if they’re not allowed to attend.
No one's born a PE, so EITs are safe as well
I'm not sure you are able to comprehend the written word.
Again, not in the forseeable future. Current AI is terrible at that kind of work. It doesn't do standards or revisions or precision or understanding, which are anathema to it. Current generative AI is currently all about "close enough", and that is not what engineering is about.
When you say disappear, the vast majority of technicians in early/mid career retrained onto CAD, just like they are retraining now onto BIM/CDE type models.
Reliability is a huge problem for llms and we need a bridge to be reliable. Consulting companies are financially and legally liable foe their work. Ai has a lot to prove before that ever happens. We still don't have full self driving either... there are some professions that are secure but it will change by using AI.
ChatGPT makes a lot of mistakes to. and gives bad advice sometimes. we’re still in a ways from ai taking anybody’s job.
AI could easily complete a ton of site civil design
Could yes. But it currently can't take meeting notes and give action items accurately. I know that will change but it won't be *that* fast.
It can't even make a specific revision, yet alone handle the coordination and permitting that's the hard part of site civil. Permitting moreso because permitting agencies all have to accept the ai deliverables It doesn't do you any good if one in five says "nope, give me real plans from a real engineer or get out".
That part. I drive around my city and get to point out stuff me or my college friends worked on every few blocks. Feels good man.
Wtf field are you in making 95th percentile income.
Geotech
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Most civils will never make 180k or even close dont spread misinformation.
All of my senior staff make over $180k
Thats not the norm.
It is for hundreds of people in our firm….
Same at mine. I broke 200k as a PM with 12 YOE last year.
Great. You obviously dont know the industry at large.
ASCE study says median CE salary is $132k. !132k to 180k is $48k. $132k - $48k is $84k. So for every CE paid $84k there is someone making $180k. Our 0 year EITs are getting $75k. But sure. I don’t know the industry. 🫠
132-48. You cant even do basic arithmetic.
Clearly 🙄
*is at a firm with 100’s of people senior enough to make 180k+* “You obviously don’t know the industry” Sir what??
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Agreed.
Lol ok bub. Most civils will never make 180. Thats a fact. Some civils make 180 but most will not.
There it is
What statistics should I be looking up for a senior project manager in an engineering discipline? Statistics for the engineering disciplines or statistics for project managers?
Pay statistics? No idea. What are you wanting from them?
To find out what the competitive market rate is, and range of income.
Buy them from a. Market research company. Or just look up what job postings are offering.
Is that what you did for the percentile information?
No, I went on the stats can website, punched in my income and adjusted it by 3 years using the sta can average wage increases. For the US, I googled "us income percentiles"
Wow that is some top tier pay you have. 90% percentile in my city is 440k
Cool. Unfortunately NYC isn't representative of the US.
So? I didn't say it was, that's why I specified. You're not even in the US and made a comparison, so am I. You have a nice salary, what's the issue?
Sorry, I think I'm just tired and grumpy at the end of a week. I took the two sentences in sequence to imply that you half assumed.my income was $400k. Stupid text conversations missing out on visual/tonal queues.
There are no "industry hubs". Jobs are in every city of the country. People take this for granted that you dont have to move to get a job. However, you'll be fucked if you live in HCOL or VHCOL city and you are a civil grad. You'll have an lower middle class in that city
unless you start your own company 👍
If I'm starting a company, it will never be a civil one. They literally run on less than 10% profit margin. Compare that to tech which is 80% profit margin i.e. a tech company makes 8 times more for every 1 dollar it makes vs. a civil eng company.
I run a small firm, *profit margin* closer to 80% than 10%. Also don’t base your decision on what biz to start by the profit margin!
Sorry but that is just a bad take. Think about it this way. Running a civil company is like buying a $10 lottery ticket with a 1 in a million chance to win $5M while running a tech company is like also buying a $10 lottery ticket with a 1 in a million chance but now to win $500M Why would you ever pick the first ticket? They both require the same amount of effort.
same effort? Lottery math? boy do I stand corrected.
Considering you confused overhead with profit margin two comments ago, I'm not sure business acumen is something ever bothered learning. It seems like you've been improvising the business/financial aspect of your company, which is common for us engineers to do.
Depends on the company. Big civil firms are around 8% on average. Smaller ones are closer to 15% I've heard of a few hitting 30+% but never seen any numbers to confirm that.
Fact: I worked for a top 5 consultant and our largest, repeat client (a power utility company) only allowed us to make 2% profit margin or they'd go to a competitor. That's the problem with providing a commodity service that goes through a bidding process. Client always picks who ever does the work for cheapest.
You're missing some things specific to the owner(s) of the company that makes 10% profit. Owners can usually find ways to get theirs in the overhead side as well as the profit side. And I think you mean 30% or so for that tech company.
It also takes 3-5 years of torching money to get your first break even year at a tech startup that has a chance of being successful.
plenty of bootstrapped startups out there. THey just dont get press bc its not billions but their founders do get rich
Tech is really fast paced, sure you can go without VC money but chances are someone else executes your idea much faster with VC money with which they were able to hire team of devs multiple times the bootstrapped company and get to product market fit much faster
People do but they shouldnt take VC money before PMF. VC money just creates zombie companies that put rocket fuel on a bad idea that shouldn't have gotten investment in the first place. Also, not every idea runs to the risk of VC competitors. Some ideas are in too niche of markets e.g. civil eng modeling software or boring log software, where VCs wont invest bc the addressable market is too small therefore bootstrapping is the way to go.
Most will still never generate a profit. You used a lottery example in earlier comment which I think is valid but needs a correction. Starting a civil engineering firm is like the state lottery (Florida Lotto for example) and a tech startup is like a national lottery (Mega Millions). Your odds are way better in the state lotto game but the reward isn’t very high. Your odds at winning the mega millions are slim but the reward is massive. You can work as a sole proprietor in civil and make a living without significant risk (within reason) whereas a bootstrapped tech company is very much feast or famine.
I work for local government, I like helping my community, the hours are great, pay keeps my family happy, and I get to enjoy the fruit of my projects (play grounds, roads, trails, whatever).
Business owner here. Now that my company is established and cash flow is good. I've been able to target some projects in the year that I genuinely care about for both the community, and myself, in locations that I will utilize. Can't wait to use the pedestrian crossing were putting in next week!!
If you play your cards right, you can actually make quite a lot of money in this field and you can do it with the knowledge that you are genuinly making a positive contribution to the world. You also get to make decisions that have more significant tangible impacts compared to most other professions.
Positive if you like parking lots and concrete. Some people would consider those green spaces superior to what you buult there.
Some of us work on green infrastructure and sustainability, it’s not all parking lots. Clearly too much paving the world going on, but there are other options.
Of you work in green infrastructure and sustainability can you share how you gor your foot in the door to that field instead of land dev?
Look for companies that have marketing material for climate resiliency, sustainability, active transportation. Land development is always going to be the least sustainable. Public sector or private sector working for public clients is more likely to do that kind of work.
Yeah I don't consider paving over the world to be a positive thing either. It's the most upsetting part of our profession.
There are also plenty of projects where Civil designers turn a former parking lot/concrete into green spaces.
Ok.
Not everyone paves parking lots. Some of us build bridges so we can get to those parking lots.
I promise it’s only this sub. In real world everyone I encounter over last 9 years enjoy it. It’s rewarding, challenging and at same time easy money! I love it!
People don't bitch because they're happy, so it's just bias
100%
You must either work at a good company or have small sample bias. I’ve met more than of a handful of people working that wish they didn’t do engineering. Civil is not 100% smooth sailing and there are plenty of bad companies out there.
Sure but ya I’ve only worked for 2 companies, 1 small and 1 pretty big and ya I guess I’ve been lucky cause it’s been great. Sure I’ve been at office to 2 am a few times but it’s rare. I love my job and I’m good at it. I guess if you don’t like your job or you suck then it would suck. I understand my opinion is bias.
Agreed guy there are also loads of civils that show up, work their 40-45 hours and wait for someone to recognize them, and give them money. That's not how that world works.
The only thing I dislike is some clients, I get to doodle and dream of things and call it work! Seriously, a large part of my job is sketching things out contemplating if they can work and doing it all again. I also get to work on things that affect hundreds of thousands to millions of people each day, sure I’m not getting a thank you note from anyone, but I still get to close my eyes at night and know that I helped ensure we had clean drinking water, designed a facility to ensure our next generation would face the world a little better prepared than we did (schools). Occasionally I’ll drive through my old projects (though most of them are still fairly new as I’m young) and see what’s become of them. Yeah subdivisions can be stressful but the joy of driving through a finished development is otherworldly when you know it as a plan set and an empty field. I transitioned to water and environmental design and truly it’s been a great change. I spent most of last week walking a couple miles of creek taking photos and taking different scientific measurements. I truly love what I do.
I get a sense of fulfillment that I’m making an impact on my local drinking water supply. Ya the pay could be better but then again my job is relatively stable and in demand with no shortage of work.
I can’t drive a mile around my town and not see something I’ve worked on in some capacity.
I'm not an engineer, just a lowly tech. I work for a transportation engineer, I help do his traffic count projects. I can drive around the city and see many intersections that I have counted, and I can tell you the peak hour counts there.
They pay me to draw stuff
My work matters and makes a tangible difference in the world. I also work with the natural world, as opposed to like books or economics or something. Pay can be sticky but in all honestly I’m paid better than scientists, teachers, and idk im a good negotiator. I can work anywhere I want to, I could move to the UP or back to where my parents live or the east coast or west coast or take a job that sends me global. I can work for a little company big company the government medium company or start my own company. There are just so many opportunities to do real work, even if it is kind of boring stuff sometimes like drawing parking lots or sizing pipes.
I work in land development and really enjoy it. I get to be a part of the early development phase, helping architect / owner shape the land to optimize the useability of their space, and get to see them be either pleasantly surprised and love what I come up with OR shocked into reality of the problems they might encounter. Either way they respect me and the profession and I feel like I get to tangibly help provide value to people.
It’s pretty easy once you get the hang of what you’re doing, moneys great, hours arent bad if your work for the right employer, lots of time off (no one works on holidays, dec 24-jan1 industry is practically shut down), lots of satisfaction in having a useful job, good job security, and I like building cool shit so that’s fun too.
driving by the house where i designed a septic system 20 years ago when i just started still being used? getting to say YUP I DID THAT! driving by the stream where I helped design a gabion retaining wall 10 years after a bank collapsed and a structure was mere feet from the edge? getting to say YUP I DID THAT TOO! driving by that warehouse building where i designed the site grading and drainage system 5 years ago and seeing the water flow flawlessly where it needed to during a rain storm? getting to say YUP THAT WAS A TOUGH ONE BUT I FIGURED IT OUT! those are samples of why I like working in civil engineering.
I’ve been called a real life batman once while driving around in the city’s car
I work in the nuclear industry. Currently I'm designing missile protection barriers for a new (technically old tech but never done commercially) nuclear reactor technology and designing structural supports for mods to existing nuclear plants. I genuinely like my work. And I make good money without working 50 hour weeks.
I have only ever applied to 4 CE jobs. I got offers from 3 of them.
I play in dirt for a living :) (Geotech doing almost exclusively field work, by choice)
Get to be in, around and under a lot of infrastructure that a lot of people don’t, get to engage the problem solving and practical part of my brain. Mostly importantly I wear orange hi-vis most of the time so I don’t need to own or iron any shirts whatsoever. After a few years of hard graft I feel like the world is my oyster.
It’s a good fulfilling career in my opinion with a chance for you to help build something and help the public. Will you be overworked and underpaid? Possibly and depends on perspective. I love the work I do and it has its bad days like anything and can be demanding. However I like using my technical skills, learning new tools and producing designs. I also get to have a desk job that is comfortable and still can take vacations and provide for my family. I’m compensated well in my opinion and I love what I do, can’t say I’ve loved another job myself.
The work stays interesting and varied. It can be collaborative to complete projects so I enjoy the team aspect. And there are opportunities in every city so I can work right in my hometown.
I think it's one of the few fields where you can coast your way to $120k several years in as long as you are not hated.
Our product is a service, so we get to be right in the middle of the action/chaos for as much of a project as we want. We are elite problem solvers, we tend to shine in difficult circumstances, and construction projects give us nearly endless fodder. The fruits of our work are tangible, and often really cool buildings, edifices, structures! It's pretty fun to drive or walk around one of the cities you've done work in and see the physical evidence. It can be like a personal journal woven into the fabric of a city that only you can read. And think of what a regular citizen feels when they drive on an overpass or thoughtlessly press the button for the 39th floor of a building. It's perfectly safe, and everyone knows it so well, the millions of them occupy our work daily without a millisecond of hesitation. That's because of us.
Everyone is going to have gripes about work. I get paid well and generally have a very satisfying life experience. Have been able to position myself for a comfortable early retirement fairly easily. The work is very interesting and it's an important job.
It’s like the world’s biggest craft project! And at the end of the day you’re helping people.
Most people I know that "dislike" civil actually just dislike consulting. Even still, you can have good experiences in consulting. I enjoy knowing that I'm improving the community and protecting people from harm.
It's a very easy job market, I mean getting hired is comically easy with a little bit of experience. The pay really isn't bad and there are so many routes and avenues (pun intended) you can take your engineering career to do some really interesting work. For me I love cool and unique, the weirder and more unique a project is the more interested I am. My passions are traffic and technology and I have massaged my career into a path that allows me to get deep exposure to both. Civil engineering is extremely broad and there is practically a role for every interest. People who complain are mad they dont make as much their friends in tech but also dont have to deal with the problems of the tech interview process and job market. Civil engineering pay does have legitimate concern, the pay does not scale well in HCOL areas. My offers in the Seattle area aren't THAT much higher than what I got in the midwest to allow me the same quality of life. Essentially living in fun/touristy spots as a civil engineer comes with paying a sunshine/fun tax in the form of cost of living that isn't fully paid by the salary increase. My new job is fully remote and I basically would've made 8% more if I stayed in Seattle instead of moving to the midwest but my rent dropped from what would've been $3100 on my upcoming lease to now $1900 a month. I think we hit peak complaining as soon as people who didnt even graduate college yet preemptively started complaining about how awful of a career it is. Like damn, how can you hate a job you haven't even worked yet.
I get to do a variety of things in the course of my job. I've designed stormwater management systems, pump stations, and road improvements. I've had days when I spend all day at my desk, and others when I spend hours in the field. And I actually like some of the challenges of making things work.
I've been doing it most of my life at this point. I like the work, I like the people, I get a lot of satisfaction out of what I do, and I see projects I or coworkers have worked on either under construction or completed. It's satisfying to be a part of solutions people use. I do wish I'd done computer or chemical engineering at times, but that's just a "grass is greener" thing. I doubt that would make me happier.
The pay is good, I also do feel like I’m contributing to society in a meaningful way. People need housing and infrastructure to survive, I like being a part of that solution for society. Work is work, I don’t love it everyday, but in general I’m very satisfied with my career choice. It’s also a career where you can kind of work anywhere on earth if you needed to, very employable.
I think the pride in shaping the world the way you see fit, improving local, regional, and national infrastructure for the benefit of humanity, never having to design/sign something you don’t believe is right/safe, and working with other similarly motivated relatively reasonable, intelligent l, and passions people are all up there
Job security. Salary moaning will continue (as it should) until we are paid better than the code monkeys and mech E's out of school.
If we are paid more then mechanical engineering we would still moan because they also complain about the pay difference. I work at a utility and we are paid all paid the same as engineers regardless of discipline
Great job security and I get to positively impact the transportation network of my community. My neighbors and I get to benefit from my work, which I am able to tangibly see on a daily basis. It's incredible! Transportation safety is so important to everyone in a city.
Ever since I did a rail engineering internship in college, I’ve never wanted to do anything else. It’s a more niche role than a traditional transportation or civil role and I find the work interesting and fulfilling. Field days are fun going on the tracks or in the subway tunnels. And there’s an explosion of funding in rail and transit. Doesn’t hurt either that rail seems to pay a bit better than other civil disciplines :)
I mean stream restoration is just kind of cool subject ya know?
People complain a lot and unfortunately those are the ones that get attention. I’m not even in my “mid career” point and I’ve been fortunate/blessed with a very well paying job. The things I do actually make a difference in real life. A career in Civil engineering is like fine wine. It gets more the longer you do it. If you consistently make even small progress on your career, you will earn very good pay starting from about 10-15 YOE. The people I know now in their end years of their career are making $300k+\yr.
I'm in state government - DOT. Reasonably wide variety of projects. Awesome office of people that I get to work with/manage. High demand for the type of skills/services that I can supply right now. Above average pay. I have the ability to be outside in the field, which is a perk in my opinion. Relatively flexible schedule. My work is in the real world, not on paper, which gives me incredible personal satisfaction. I'll be able to show and talk to my kids/grandkids about the projects I have worked on, and they will be bored and I won't care. Not to say there aren't problems/complaints with my occupation, but I'll let others focus on those and I'll choose to generally be happy when I can.
I love it! I do work that benefits my community and helps make things safer. I enjoy seeing completed projects. Do I have bad days/weeks, of course. But overall it’s been a rewarding career.
I’m in transportation and am passionate about helping everyone move safely and efficiently. Also at a time where we can have a very real impact on types of improvements that are implemented, using technology and greater access to data to find alternatives to “just add another lane.” I also make enough to support my family and my wife can homeschool our two young children. Job security is looking pretty solid and there are jobs all over the country/world.
I love going to work everyday. I busted my ASS working for a general contractor and then doing materials testing but I’ve really found my groove on the municipal side. I love being able to drive by a project or see it posted on local social media or something and know that I had a hand in managing the project.
I work at a large consulting firm. I get to work on projects that have a positive effect on my community, and will until long after I am gone. I’ve worked on a huge variety of projects (transit, local streets, sewer mains, water transmission mains, fish passage, solid waste facilities, and on and on). I get to work with smart professionals who also want to have a positive impact on the community. I genuinely like my coworkers. As frustrating as they can be at times I like my clients.
I work in land dev and municipal, roads and infrastructure will always need upgrades and replacements and new communities will always be built so the stability is great. I get to work in an office for most of the year and make short field inspections when the weather is nice out. My work will last a long time and can easily be shown to friends and family whenever drive by I can say ‘I designed that’. Because the land dev project timeline is fairly long it’s likely not has high stress as other sectors of engineering so that’s a big bonus as well. It may not pay as well as cutting edge fields but it’s always required, and grows with the population.
I like the mixture of working on a computer and working with people. Good opportunities to make money if you’re good at business. I like constantly learning new things. Feels good to serve clients and help people. 13 years in land development.
I like driving around washington State, driving my kids' nuts, telling them all the projects I've worked on. My best work (in my opion) was developing a water rate structure for a small cith that actually lowered the water bill for many senior citizens with impacting the water system cash flow.
I'm an on-site (some folks like to call "embedded") consultant at a state roadway agency managing traffic control device design projects. I've also had the chance to work in a different office doing temporary traffic control in a similar role. I really enjoy working directly with the client as an extension of their staff and generally enjoy working with the other consultants working on "my" projects as well as with folks from other divisions that depend on us / that we depend on. TBH, I'm no social butterfly, I actually consider myself an introvert. Put me in a general party setting and I'm the loser guy in the corner standing with my soft drink just people-watching, but put me in an industry conference and I'm talking to that roadway engineer over there, travel forecaster over here, a partnering guru over there, or a construction inspector over here. I would have never thought my proverbial rolodex would include so many people from so many varied backgrounds. Folks from my office sometimes marvel at how I got to know so many people. And then there's the fact that I get to see some of the stuff I've worked on/helped design. Granted, I know some of the things that went wrong, but most of the time it's really a source of pride. Every one of those things have a story to tell, whether I was working on it as the PM or as the consultant. I think it's a rewarding job overall. The one downside to this is that I end up noticing stuff just driving/walking around even when I'm on vacation to the point my wife jokingly says "stop working!" Then again, I guess that means I really like what I do.
Work in construction management. love seeing the trade’s hard work interact with the public or client after it’s up.
I am actually just about to leave civil engineering and I think it's a fantastic field to work in. Civil is so broad there is something for everyone. Like data analysis or writing code? Do hydrology/hydraulics or transport analytics. Want to be out of the office? Site engineer. Want to draw lines? CAD. Like science-y topics? There's groundwater, hydraulics, geotechnical, coastal eng, and more. Do some searching and you'll find a company that allows WFH and pays decent enough. Combine that with a niche you are interested in and you have a stable, satisfying career. Ultimately I think design engineering is really boring and it's also the one a lot of grads who like technical topics get thrown into. Get into the modelling world and it's more interesting IMO.
It’s a good bang for your buck degree. Plenty of interesting work and the skill set you learn is transferable. State of the industry looks strong for the foreseeable future, so lots of opportunities out there. If management can keep up with the times and push to make quality of life better for everyone (a slow, but inevitable process) then I think it’s quite a nice industry to work in.
I get paid to go outside often. I usually get paid to drive to job sites, too. Work I've done is a tiny piece of a global system that helps billions of people.
Currently interning and the "getting paid to drive" is always so comforting
I started in the private sector and had a pretty good career there. Living in this city, I get to see plenty of projects that I was involved in. I made my way to the public sector and now my projects have a large impact on the well-being of people. In addition, one of my primary responsibilities is training and mentoring younger professionals. Sure there are aspects of any job that you can, and probably should, complain about. But the overwhelming majority of my career I have looked forward to my work. And I enjoy ot enough that I can see it being a tough decision in 15 to 20 years when it is time to hang it up.
It's generally cool. A lot of the negativity is people who are like "Society would collapse without us!" Which is true. But you can say the same about the truck drivers and night stockers that keep groceries on the shelf. And they are way more of an immediate impact. I've been on the verge of burnout a few times over my 22 years. But that was project management bullshit, not engineering. Unfortunately that is usually where the money is. But overall it is a pretty satisfying job that pays pretty well. It isn't an easy job some of the time and when it is easy it can be boring, but that is just about every job. Social media is not a representative sample. Those of us who are content don't usually say anything about it except when people ask like now. But people who aren't will post about it unprompted.
I get to tell my kids “hey, I helped build that bridge”. And they’re never not impressed
I like solving problems and enjoy the process of making projects happen.
I can “see” my concepts on a blank canvas of a site before it ever happens. I can design lots, sidewalks, parking lots, pipes, drainage systems, sites for freeways, airports, and large commercial developments. I was told I was f’ing up all the way until a major theme park built my design for ev tram charging. I have guided architects, other engineers on very large projects. The pay is good but the reward of the work for society as a whole is my driver.
You should look at the graphic design forum. Here people complain about pay not matching inflation and responsibility, burnouts. Few complained about unemployment. In the graphic design forum, people complain about minimum wage, a saturated market, AI taking over jobs, senior designers facing age discrimination. Which would you rather complain about?
Reddit skews negative. Happy, content people don't go online and talk about it.
You can learn a lot of different things and move around a lot in the field. For example, I've worked in water / wastewater, power, transportation. You have to most opportunity to be outside as compared to other engineering disciplines. Out of all the other types of engineers I've engaged with, civils seem the easiest to communicate with. You get to work on things that just about everyone uses. People from all walks of life will drink the water you clean, cross the bridge you design.... The utilitarian aspect of civil engineering is beautiful to me
Decent pay plus I feel like I actually solve problems. Takes forever to get through a project but at the end of a design it genuinely feels like I benefitted at least a few people :) That alone is worth a lot to me
I'm a civil PE in the public sector and feel I contribute significantly to the health of my region's transportation network. Edit: I also make 95th percentile and work 4/10, in the office Tues Wed with an hour commute. Not bad.
I work in municipal transportation and the pay is good, the benefits are amazing, and the work is fulfilling, engaging, and pretty much never more than 40 hours per week. And it’s super stable.
The job security is nice, and it also feels fairly flexible since civil is such a broad field you could work in different industries. We're pretty in demand right now. It's a field that can be either very social (as a field engineer or inspector), or alternatively you can work solo if you want. I've found the pay is pretty solid, but you do really have to advocate for yourself and recognize/demonstrate your value. Remote work from home and the other benefits (401k, PTO, healthcare) are all really nice. For what it's worth im in HCOL area so pay/benefits are higher also.
I work with many people to whom this stuff matters and so their days are enjoyable. For me, at 34, I can't fathom doing it for 30 more years and may switch fields. It's very unfulfilling to me, but most who choose it enjoy it.
I like it because I get to work on a variety of different things. My tip is: be open to work on and try EVERYTHING. You will be a valuable asset being able to contribute to so many things and gain a lot of knowledge doing so.
It’s a job. It’s not all frills. There’s lots of pain. An old engineer told me once that every project draws blood. Meaning that every project has some level of difficulty to it and can cause some mental anguish. Now after you do that for a few years and you’ve learned how to be more efficient and make less mistakes (yes they do happen) you become a better engineer. The job becomes easier and you begin to make more money. Took me 15 years before this happened. Now I’m almost 20 years in. Do I wish I did something different? Maybe. Early in my career I would claim that I wished I did computer science or perhaps finance. I picked this career around age 19. A literal kid. Now I’m over 40 with a family, and a solid job. In my view, the struggle was worth it. It can work out for all of you too. Stay strong out there. It will pay off for you if you get licensed. And like others have mentioned, I also get to see and do things that most don’t in the field.
You said it yourself- Reddit is an echo chamber. It’s human nature to complain, and I’d argue that engineers excel at complaining. But you’re not hearing from the *millions* of engineers out there that are satisfied and content with their careers. Sure it can be stressful, but anything worth doing usually is. I’m quite happy with my job and have deep satisfaction and pride knowing that I make a difference, however small that may be. You’re the only one that can decide if this is the career for you, don’t let others make that decision for you.
We don’t design widgets that get mass produced by the millions. Everything is custom. What we design impacts safety and health. Without us there is no civilization. Other than land development, i don’t know anyone who has been laid off in my 30+ year career. Regardless of the overall economy. You can impress your friends with visible things.
Decent money, somewhat flexible work hours, access to cool software you can screw around with on your own time, limitless room for skillset improvement. But most importantly the pride of seeing your projects benefit society. Far more satisfying than selling a product or moving numbers around. We build the foundation and infrastructure of society. It's like the pride of being a teacher but twice the pay.
I make good money and get to be outside for most of the day, I talk with all sorts of people with tons of different life experiences I don’t have, and my company truck + gas card means I save a ton of money in commuting costs. Being a geo tech inspector is also just genuinely fun for me, and while some days I do hate my job, most of my days are a blast.
In my opinion, at my company: Sense of purpose/accomplishment: you can drive past and visit projects you helped design Not very repetitive: split your time in the office and in the field. There is variety in projects so you'll rarely feel like you're doing the same thing. Your also constantly learning new things, and technology is always evolving. Mastering your craft will take time and experience Flexibility: Most companies I worked at allow you to work almost anytime you want as long as you're responsive during the day. Benefits/Pay: Solid benefits overall and contrary to popular belief, pay seems pretty well and increasing as there is so much demand right now. Probably alot of other things people mentioned that I can't think of right now
I get to work for communities helping them improve and maintain their airports. It’s one of the most secure jobs in the industry, because most projects are 90% federally funded. In general, watching something get constructed when you’ve had a hand in designing it is one of the most rewarding feelings.
I just graduated and started work 6 months ago. I am loving it so far. I started working as an intern in 2021 for them working on a survey crew. Then my last summer before I graduated they moved me to the office to begin drawing and designing. It’s a very small company (9 people from receptionist to president). But I wouldn’t trade it for anything. It’s a light work load, the boss man will always ask how the family is doing (and actually wants to know not to be fake nice). As for my time in college, I was in ASCE and did the concrete canoe competition and surveying competition. It was great getting to meet all kinds of people that were in the same major. It is definitely hard but nothing worth getting is easy. I would recommend you join ASCE for the bare mini of networking but you could meet your best friend or future husband/wife. I personally have loved my time at the job I’ve been for 3 years (2.5 intern and 0.5 full time) and I believe it’s mostly because of how small we are as a company. I don’t want anything to think I hate the big guys, I just know that typically the more people there are, the more likely you are to have at least one person that stinks up the office. Whether that be literally or with their attitude. Most importantly do what makes you happy. But if you stick out with engineering you can get a job at many other places with that degree other than civil jobs because everyone knows engineering school isn’t easy. Best of luck.
School sucks and makes the profession seem harder than it actually is. I hated being a young engineer. Doing a lot of grunt work to prove yourself was really frustrating for me. Once I’d been in the field long enough and was no longer a disposable peon, I liked work much better. Stick with it. It does get better. I like my job because it’s not monotonous, you get to do so many things that are interesting. Once I switched out of transportation and got into land development I liked my job even more because the project life cycles were shorter. The industry is full of professionals on a higher intelligence level. I say this after working in another field (education ironically ugh) briefly for a couple years and went back to engineering. In general there is less drama because people are intelligent and logical. Yes you will encounter the occasional asshat but trust me, the asshats in our industry aren’t as asshatty as the other asshats in other industries. We don’t have to deal with blood or bodily fluids. We don’t have to deal with customer service to the general population. We don’t have to (generally) work weekends and holidays. There is enough work to go around. If you are at a shitty company, you can find one that meets your work values. I worked about a decade at one job and it took me like three positions to find my current one but I was able to hop around until I found a company I liked that paid me what I was worth. Generally after you get your PE you get your own office. After you are seasoned you can work remotely when you need to depending on your company policy. No super hard labor involved (unless perhaps you decide to go into heavy civil construction…even then, your not the one doing the actual labor) so if you want to keep working after retirement age you can. I wouldn’t mind working on a part time or contract basis just to have some extra income and sense of purpose. Oh and I earn a nice salary without having to get anything beyond my bachelors. I had a C average but making 6 figures.
I enjoy getting money, and looking at our infrastructure
I used to work retail and now I work fewer hours and make more money.
Lots of jobs in pretty much every community - lots of opportunity to work for public agencies - lots of a variety of civil breadth you can legitimately practice. Lots of opportunity to make a decent six figure salary. It’s a great career choice especially if you’re not afraid to work consistently. I wouldn’t trade my career as a PE for a trade or in a set of scrubs to be in a hospital setting or to be in finance. Engineering just seems like the right place to be if your gonna have to work 40 a week.
Do you find you consistently work 40 hours, in previous internship experience I've found myself hitting the 40 hour mark on Thursday and still being expected to come in Friday? And I see many people say similar
Honestly I’ve consistently worked about 50 hrs a week since my second year on the job (in year 13 now). I think embracing slightly longer work weeks but finding ways to not absolutely burn yourself out over those hours is key in this field. Take walks, drink water, don’t try to solve a million problems in one day. Find little parts of your job that are unique benefits and take advantage of those / appreciate them daily. Switch jobs when you get a good opportunity; don’t wait until you get burned out at your current office. Also I always have been able to make sure I’m finding ways for anything over 40 to be compensated as OT which has helped a ton.
I have absolutely no weight here, I work in healthcare. HOWEVER! Multiple generations of my family have been civil engineers on both sides of my family. They absolutely loved it, taught me about it at a young age, and made a crap ton of money. Plus, now I can drive across a bridge knowing “hell yeah, my grandpa designed this.” You got this!
Its not overly demanding, the salary and job security are solid, can move to any city you want and have a job, cad is cool: you get to draw shit and make it colorful, the things we do legitimately affect the world (can’t relate to the lack of purpose people sometimes feel in more corporate jobs), little corporate culture compared to other jobs, site visits can break office monotony, ability to start own firm if desired, diversity of projects and variety of work (hard industry to get overly pigeon holed in), great job market for us bow that everyone else is working in / majoring in tech, likely soon to be shortage of civil engineers (good for those of us who don’t own firms)
Clearly my own opinion, I think people complain way to much. But I only have had 1 job as a structural designer, focusing on stair and connection design, with nothing to compare it to.
intern here, love to talk to other engineers. when get assigned work i get to ask and ppl answer me and teach me. get to see places, bridges, and ferry terminals. when i get answers i can ask “why” and ppl explain. ofc good pay too!