Disappointed by the potential career options for geotechnical engineers
I’m closing in on 20 years in geotechnical engineering in the US. My career has been with consultants and I’m very tired of it. In my 20ish years, I’ve worked for more than one company but the pattern seems to be the same. Everyone is overloaded with projects and responsibilities. I’ve been given higher expectations with decreasing support and expected to produce more than the year before to sustain continued growth. I’ve gotten to a point where my mental health has suffered and I need to leave consulting behind. I’ve been stuck in middle management for the last 8-10 years with no potential for doing anything else for another 5-10 years. And it’s not like the principal engineer(s) have it any better. They are overloaded, stressed, and generally unhappy.
I’m disappointed with the job postings and recruiters that contact me. It’s always for a low level position in a far away city with no option of remote work for a 40% pay cut. “Senior” positions are for those with 6-8 YOE that again want to pay me bottom salaries and get offended when I mention a reasonable salary. I recently interviewed for a remote subject matter expert position with a company and was told “you don’t have x niche experience that was not mentioned in the job posting or interview so we’re hiring someone else.” So the few roles beyond consulting seem to be next to impossible to land due to competition.
Other options are contractors or government but contracting seems to be a frying pan to fire situation and government seems to be a massive pay cut and very location specific.
It’s just difficult because I wish there was a better option besides the endless grind of consulting but for now it seems it’s where I’ll be for a long time to come.