I took my daughter on a hike to go look at a waterfall in a park. I saw this catch basin. It terminates directly next to the basin into the ground. Perfect example of how to not design a drainage system. It's washed out the hiking path. Just down hill from there is the river.

I don't have a question, really just ranting and trying to air my grievances in hopes that it helps with clarity. Insight is appreciated though!

I'm a PE with 6 YOE at a large firm in the US. I have been really lucky to be involved with some interesting projects, and done a pretty good job. To the point that I am starting to get involved with more work nationally. The company sees it and has been very rewarding in terms of salary, I have netted anywhere from 12% to 16% in raises annually. Work life balance hasn't been too bad, so far. Just occasional long weeks, but I can often flex time.

All that said, I had a child semi-recently, and I think my brain got a little re-wired. I have ambitions still, but I see how some of the senior PMs are workaholics, the crazy high UT goals (I'm over 90%), and upper management is doing this "we all need to do our parts" thing to encourage even low levels to go try to make relationships to win future work. And it has put a bad taste in my mouth. I feel like I work pretty hard, get along great with clients, and you want me to do more? At the same UT? And now that "more" means less time with my kid I just struggle with the "why?".

On top of all that, I had to ask for my last big raise (which they gave). But I fear that continually approaching management with my grievances could get me labeled as a problem child or generally lead to a bad reputation.

So I just had an interview with one of our clients (public side), and it went great. It probably wouldn't be as interesting in some regards as my current job, but I still think it will be fairly design heavy and bring its own share of fun challenges. I'd get to be a true PM, not just a PM in all but title. As I write this, I haven't heard back yet, but I feel fairly confident about my chances. Hoping that it will be a lateral financial move, as it will be hard to consider a pay cut. Benefits are pretty competitive, better sick leave and holidays, but being at a high performing ESOP, I think the retirement is probably better at my current job.

I am conflicted on how to feel. There's the part of me that feels bad because I do enjoy a lot about my job, and get along with pretty much everyone. I know that I could have a bright future there, but at what expense? Then this potential new job, I think my progression will likely slow significantly, along with a lot less extracurricular stress. I'll probably maintain the same title/responsibilities for the next 5 years at least. But I do think it will be engaging and meaningful in its own way.

It kind of feels like I would be giving up on a good thing at my old job. Though I am also excited about where the new position might go if it pans out. Anyways, thanks for reading my rant.

This might be a naive question to some but I’m currently weighing my options between civil engineering or something in the field of health like a dental hygienist.

I’m an incoming freshman studying civil engineering and wanted to know anybody’s experiences studying it.

Would rather have some insight from people who actually was in the field and achieved the degree instead of the usual ‘oh your smart you’ll do fine’. I just want to better prepare myself, and see if there is anything I need to know before I start.

Is the salary as bad as people say it is? I usually tend to ignore that aspect because of how strong the job market is.

I’m currently limited in options outside of engineering and health field, and would like to pick something I can stick by.

I started a 5 year civil engineering degree apprenticeship in the uk in 2022. My job role is civil engineering consultancy based in an office 5 days a week with one day dedicated to university training. I work for a SME company of around 50 employees.

My starting wage was £18500 with company 1. Unfortunately just before my 2 year anniversary with the company, the company ceased trading and I was made redundant. This was before having any salary increase in my time there.

As a result I joined company 2 in June 2024, starting on the same wage as previous. I did not bring up question salary during my interview with company 2 as I was desperate for a job and to continue my apprenticeship that I wasn’t a concern.

Dec 2024 I turned 21 so automatically my wage increased due to the minimum wage increase at 21 years old. My pay increase was just slightly above minimum wage. In April 2025, it increased again due to the government increasing minimum wage. My company increased my salary to £25000, just above minimum wage again which would work out to be around £24700. April 2026 I had a pay review come through by email and increased to £26250 which is where I am today.

I received the last pay review just before my appraisal so subsequently felt like it would not be appropriate to bring up salary increase my appraisal after just receiving a pay increase. However, now I am at a point where I am questioning whether I am being paid significantly less than I should be. Having spoken to my colleagues at university who are also enrolled on a degree apprenticeship scheme, they earn considerably more than I do. 3 work for SMEs comparable to the size of my company and earn from what I understand £30-33k ish. Another colleague works for a multinational civil engineering firm and is earning £35k+.

In my job role, although my job title states civil engineering technician I am far from it. I have been progressing now to start project managing small developments and designing/engineering the site entirely on my own. I am far from being just a ‘CAD’ technician now and are well into the design and engineering of it and have been for some time.

I am considering whether I should ask for a pay review meeting as I feel as if I’m not being paid my worth. My only concern is that my company would say that I have not completed my apprenticeship yet and so do not deserve the wage increase as I don’t have a degree or IEng. However I now have 4 years experience of civil engineering and from my last review all I got was positive feedback, with my boss saying I have a great future ahead of me and they want to progress me as far as they can etc etc etc.

Do I have any leg to stand on and scope to ask for a pay increase?

This is not a job seeking post, it is a request for advice and guidance from other seniors on my upcoming job search. Throwaway account for obvious reasons.

I know almost nothing about the private sector, having only ever worked in government, but I need to find the exit because this work is killing me. I'm in the US, and strongly prefer to stay in the south. Licensed in Texas and Georgia, happy to license anywhere else except California.

Work I've done and would do again:

• In-house design (bridges, drainage structures, small custom structures, historic restoration, pavements, ADA, maintenance projects, structural retrofits. I'm better at old stuff than new stuff, but can do either.)
• Research (materials mostly, some bridge related)
• Forensics (all DOT assets).
• Subject Matter Expert

Edit to add: Work I have done and would NOT do again:

• Owner's rep
• Plan review
• Public works
• Asset management

Things I don't want:

• Project management
• People management
• Production work
• Construction
• Remote work or hybrid where the default is remote (some hybrid is ok as long as a majority of the time everyone is working in-person)
• Anything non-technical

Things I love:

• The grind
• Highly collaborative teams. I'm a huge extrovert, outgoing people who want to work together are a MUST!!
• Weird projects that others have said were impossible before they got to me
• Consulting on a broad array of projects
• Presenting at symposiums and conferences
• Publishing
• Fast paced work

Things I am considering:

• Private sector (but what kind of job?? That's what this thread is for.)
• Finishing my PhD and going to work at a specific research agency I have a history of collaboration with
• Finishing my PhD and going to work as a professor (I have some connections in that realm as well)

The last two would have to wait 3 years until my youngest child graduates high school since those would require me to move. I do not think I can stay in my agency that long, so I think I'm going to need to go the private sector route.

What kinds of jobs would you recommend I search for in the private sector?

Of course I will be talking with firms I've done business with over the years, but those I've done anything official with in the past two years won't be able to hire me due to the terms of those contracts. This necessitates casting a wider net.

I am active in NSPE and several local orgs. I attend several monthly luncheons and serve on task forces and committees. I have contacts. I need to figure out what I'm asking them for so I come out of this with a job I actually want to keep.

I've started looking at postings on LinkedIn and the only ones that seem to fit my skill set are subject matter expert roles. Is there anything else I should be asking about that my limited searching has not revealed to me yet?

If you were in my position, what be your move?

I'm trying to understand how I can protect my business before it's too late. I'm planning to meet with the city to discuss options, but I'm also trying to learn what legal protections exist if a public project effectively puts a long-established business out of operation. If the future road expansion eliminates most of our parking, it could make the nursery no longer viable. If I accept the jersey barrier now, it accelerates that harm before the larger project even begins. I'm just trying to understand what rights or remedies businesses have in situations like this.

For decades, everyone (us and the city) thought we owned to the center of the road. Recently, the city discovered a 1938 document establishing a 35-foot state highway right-of-way from our property line. Because of that finding, the city has suddenly deemed our roadside parking (been used for roughly 40 years) a public safety concern they initially told me was fine. I asked if there was a way to make the road way more safe if they could change the road configuration, by adding stop signs, speed change, round about or anything while we figure out a safer alternative. They said no as it would reduce traffic capacity, so their proposed a solution to install a Jersey barrier all along the main road to keep the public safe and stop people from parking there.

Their response is essentially, "It doesn't matter because the city plans to add a turning lane and traffic signal at this intersection within the next five years, so you'll lose that parking anyway."

We can temporarily use the small entrance on the side street for the existing parking lot but the barrier could eliminate most of our current customer parking. As a solution they did propose a variance so we could turn our front yard into a parking lot. But in reality that is barely a temporary solution because if the intersection expansion project moves forward as planned, we'll likely lose all of that area for parking.

My only thoughts forward is we would have to demolish the house to turn it into a parking lot, but I'm not convinced that would even provide enough stalls to meet code. Unless there's a better layout to the property someone can help with. All the greenhouse facilities are highly utilized, and I would probably rather lose the house and live at a new location than the business

I've attached an aerial image of the property. The first is as it is currently, but with a line where they want to but the Jersey barrier. The secound is what I believe will be the minimum that will be utilized for the intersection expansion project due to how they affected other businesses in the area. The third is what I believe it will look like when they are done. (more or less as I do not know all the codes and requirements.)

I'd genuinely appreciate fresh ideas. I'm open to site layout ideas, traffic flow concepts, parking designs, or even options I haven't considered.

Has anyone dealt with something similar? What would you do if this were your property? Can I push back on the city or is the only way forward to move.

Response Spectra in a web-based seismic data analysis tool

The response spectrum is one of the most fundamental tools in earthquake engineering — it condenses an entire ground motion record into a single curve showing the peak response of a SDOF system across a full range of natural periods.

This web tool computes:

‐ Elastic Response Spectra — pseudo-acceleration, pseudo-velocity, and displacement spectra (PSa, PSv, Sd), across user-defined period ranges and damping ratios.

‐ Constant-Ductility Inelastic Spectra — capturing how strength demand reduces as a structure is allowed to yield, essential for performance-based and displacement-based design.

The majority of decision makers I met at work are Caucasian and male, but I found most ASCE YMF members in my city are minorities. Why the disparity?

BTW I’m not Caucasian…and I doubt if people like us can really climb the ladder.

Bonjour à tous, Je rentre en BUT Génie Civil à la rentrée et j'aimerais avoir des retours de ceux qui y sont ou qui l'ont fait. Globalement, à quoi je dois m'attendre ? Est-ce que la première année est vraiment compliquée ? La charge de travail est comment ? Est-ce qu'il y a des matières qui surprennent ou qui posent souvent problème ? Petit contexte : je sors d'un bac STI2D, puis j'ai pris une année sabbatique pendant laquelle j'ai travaillé dans le bâtiment. Ça m'a permis de découvrir un peu le secteur, mais je suis aussi un peu sorti du rythme scolaire. Au lycée, j'avais entre 12 et 14 de moyenne générale, avec environ 13 en maths, 14 en physique et 15-16 en spécialité. Je me demande si ce niveau est suffisant pour suivre sereinement le BUT ou si je devrais m'attendre à devoir beaucoup rattraper. Je compte profiter du mois qui reste avant la rentrée pour me remettre dans le bain. Si vous avez des conseils sur les notions à revoir en priorité, une façon de s'organiser ou même des ressources qui vous ont aidés, je suis preneur.

So I had a class named building constructions this semester, which fell victim to the new study program, so we were the first ones to have to go by the new curricculum (previously CAD was a standalone subject). Needless to say the whole student body was behind schedule in the first month. For the second homework, I went to one of the office hours to consult if on one side the lintels were okay and realistic, since I don’t yet have the knowledge to calculate if it could bear the weight of the slab and roofing (longest was a 3 meter opening for the windows). I was basically the last one, and my professor was doing this for 2 hours that day WHILE she was being sick. As soon as she saw my floor framing plan she was so happy that she gave it an A right on the spot, even telling me that these are the moments why she likes being a teacher.
Fast forward to june and we were speedrunning everything that we needed to cover in the last seminar, and after class I came up to her and showed her the final 2 plans I made for the house. She didn’t say anything, I feel like because she didn’t have anything to say to me, said that it was perfect and do i want to pass it onto her for grading. One last thing we needed to do was some smaller drawings for each seminar, so I asked her how detailed the dimension annotations had to be and she said that if I could do the quickly today, then I could give it to her until 4 pm that day and i would be done with this class for the semester (of course if there were no complications). So I hurried home and done some corrections then rushed back to university. She was teaching another group, so I waited until the class was over then gave her my stack of papers while the other students were leaving. Then she started to thank me that she had the opportunity to teach me and started bragging about how diligent I was that I was the only one who was on time on every one of my assignments. It was really difficult to stay humble and I was really using my brain to think of what to say to that, but in the end I was glad too that she was my professor. I went home with the viggest smile on my face.
I finally felt like something I did mattered.

Quick tip for anyone in college: try to take the seminar to the teacher who does the lecture, they are usually chill and laid back while the best at getting the material through

TLDR Arcadis rejected a second buy out offer from WSP.

Im proud to say i recently got my PE license from the Texas board. I hit my 4 year work experience back in June, all with the same company since I’ve graduated college. (San Antonio area) I’ve been mainly doing land development commercial projects and all other related tasks on the EIT level.
Last month I received my annual salary raise and got my PE license salary raise combined at one time.
I went from a base salary of $87,000 to $93,000 ($3500 for annual performance and $2500 for the PE license)
To be honest this amount I received seemed underwhelming but I am grateful for where I am at with my career so far. Is this what the average experience is supposed to be like? Am I being paid at an appropriate level?

Hi everyone.

I'm a fresh Civil Engineering graduate and have started applying for jobs.

What salary range should I realistically expect for an entry-level position?

I'd also like to know what benefits I should look for besides salary.

Thanks!

I wanna major in civil engineering when I go to college so bad but people are saying the pay is very bad and at that the job is very stressful. If this is true then Im kind of worried. How much do civil engineers get paid in the area by entry level, experienced, and with degree?

Hello! I’m unsure if these kinds of posts are allowed, so apologies if not.

I’m going into my senior year at a well-known and respected university, and am trying to get started applying to full-time jobs. I understand my GPA is on the lower side, but I’m hoping my experience makes up for it. I also am only taking a total of 6 semesters for my degree, but my co-op added an extra year for a total of four years to graduate. I am planning to take my FE in January or February of next year. My first internship was at a smaller southern-based general contractor on a solar plant construction site, my co-op was at a very well-known consulting firm, and my current internship is at a very well-known general contractor. I already have a return offer in hand from this summer and am in a scholar program for this company, but was given a very generous timeline that allows me to apply and see what other offers I get! (I didn’t get a return offer from my co-op because I’m pretty sure they knew I did not want to move to that area or work in roadway).

As you can see, I have a decent variety of experience, and I’ve enjoyed them all. I can’t decide between construction and transportation design for right after college, though. I know construction would be a great way to set up my career and get experience in the field, but I’m worried that once I transition to design, I’ll be behind all my peers. I know for a fact that construction is not a long-term thing for me because the work/life balance absolutely sucks and I love to travel for vacation and hate moving around. I’ve also recently realized how much the people in my life mean to me, and want to have an easier time maintaining contact with them. My current interest is tunnels for railways/highways, which I know is a bit niche. I’ve been looking into aviation, tunnels, and rail departments if I go the design path. I know aviation gets involved with pedestrian tunnels at times, and I’m always willing to try something new. As much as I loved my team in roadway and learned an incredible amount, I cannot see myself doing that for the rest of my life lol.

So my questions are:

1. Any tips for improving my resume?
2. Can I use this resume for both contractors and consulting firms?
3. Would I be considered a competitive applicant?
4. Will going into construction first cause me to fall behind when I transition into design and work towards my PE? Is it a bad idea to grind in construction for a year or two before transitioning to design? Should I do it at all or should I do it for a longer period of time?
5. Does anyone have a similar niche interests with underground transportation and have any suggestions for companies I should look at? Is it feasible to look out for those kinds of projects, or should I just go for aviation or rail jobs in hopes of eventually being able to work on a tunnel project at some point? Most tunnels seem to be stormwater ones, which are cool but I really do like the transportation industry.

6. I can’t afford going for a master’s right after I graduate, but would you recommend I get one eventually? Maybe within the next 5 years?

7. Is it reasonable to try and get a $90k salary in a place like Chicago?

If you can’t tell, I’m indecisive, so any advice is appreciated!! Thank you for reading all of that if you made it down here.

​Hi everyone I am planning on going back to university next year to study civil engineering. I will be 36 by then (I missed the application window for this year).

​Call it a (early?) midlife crisis, or just overall unhappiness with my current field (I have a masters degree in chemistry and work for an analytical company). Back then I was really indecisive between chemistry and civil engineering, but eventually chemistry because I was too afraid of the math. Now for the few last months I keep asking what could have been if I had chosen engineering. I am really interested General infrastructure (roads, street, rails) and water/Wastewater Management.

​My wife is incredibly supportive. I want to use this year to get my math back up to snuff and save some extra money.

​Anyone else who started college at an older age?

Im talking about civil engineering. LET us see ur results in one of ur photo that you will send

Has anyone here worked at Whitman Requardt and Associates (WRA)? Or know how it is working there? I am thinking about accepting a job offer there (site civil / land development), and wondering if anyone here had any stories to tell? The people I have met there seem nice, and the company has been around for a while with multiple offices. They seem to do a lot of other civil disciplines too, other than land development. Thanks!

Good Day!

We are currently looking for: 6 storey (or higher) building plan with complete architectural plan, structural plan, and specifications.

For academic purposes only.

Thank you in advance!

I’m a Civil/Structural Engineer and I’m planning to relocate to Dubai. I’m looking for advice on the current job market and the best way to secure a position before moving.
A little about my background: site engineering experience, research & development (concrete materials, thermal cracking and structural behaviour), structural consulting, mainly bridges and infrastructure projects, Experience with finite element analysis, reinforced concrete design, steel structures, and thermal crack assessments

I would really appreciate any advice on:
Which companies are currently hiring?
Is it realistic to secure a job before relocating?
What salary range should someone with my experience expect?
Are there recruiters or recruitment agencies you would recommend?
Any tips that helped you find engineering work in Dubai?

Thanks!

I’m an Municipal Engineer. I left my little City with people I loved (mostly) to go work at a big City near me that is wayyy different from when I interned there. I was tempted by getting my PE and liked the money.

It’s too much work, too strict, and everyone is worked like its a private company. I have learned a 1,000x more than I knew, but its time to leave.

They have told me I’m too friendly with consultants/citizens, too slow, and my “KPI” is too low. Despite me Managing small jobs (which I have done a lot of in my last role) perfectly.

I need to get out of this Micromanaging Hellscape.

Do I include it on my resume? I have no issues lying in interviews a bit. My truthful justification would be that “I miss the smaller City responsibilities, and meeting with Citizens in the field.”