u/axiom60

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MS with structural focus, 2 YOE, passed the FE first time right out of undergrad. Started at my current role at a state government DOT (bridge design) in summer 2024.

Took the PE first time in March after studying for around 5 months. Failed (walked out feeling like I ate shit, I had to take a wild guess on 15-20 questions at the end because I didn't have time even touch them) but was fairly close to the passing average, so I decided to jump back into it relatively quick. Began studying again in May and took it for the second time last week (first week of August).

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Takeaways I think will help others:

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Knowing the concepts is only half of it. If you don't have the basic test taking strategy down (and that's not even engineering) it means nothing.

I put 300+ hours into the first attempt but didn't really practice under a real time constraint simulating the exam.

I leaned too hard on thinking that if I knew the concepts well enough I would be fine (this is how I operated on exams in school and it generally worked).

Even if you know the concepts inside and out it means fuck all if you cannot get enough questions right in 8 hours.

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If retaking it, diagnose weak areas by cause, not by topic.

The diagnostic if you fail tells "where" you lost points, but not "why". At first I thought I just need to hardcore study categories 1 and 2 (Loads and Forces/Force Effects) since those seemed to have dragged down my score below the passing threshold.

Wasn't until a month before the second attempt that I realized I just need to drill doing problems under a time constraint since that's why I left so many problems untouched the first time and that led to failure.

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Flashcards are a gem.

There's actually a lot of formulas and pieces of info you actually need to memorize for the exam and it's not found in any of the codes, I only figured this out after I started writing stuff that I knew had to be memorized and filled up 2 pages.

Even things written in the codes should be memorized to save time which again ties into the importance of time management for this exam.

For instance, it says in the fine print of AISC why the G factor is 10 for a pinned support but it'd take a couple minutes to locate that if I didn't know. After putting that on a flashcard and drilling it so many times, on the exam my brain immediately jumped to "ok, for this structure G=10 here and I know that for sure because of the card" and it saved a ton of time.

I used an app (Anki) that could sync any cards I added between both my work computer and phone. It was helpful to just drill the flashcards as a low-capacity task while walking around, waiting in line, etc etc. basically in any situation where I couldn't sit down and study with the rest of the material. Not to mention the act of making the flashcards in the first place was also review.

EDIT: because a lot of people wanted these flashcards, send me a DM for that

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AI is a gem too if used right.

I wouldn't trust it to generate problems for me or solve question bank ones (nor write this reddit post lmfao), but I found out that Claude was very good checking work I already did and diagnosing mistakes.

I would attempt each problem cold on paper with a timer running (no more than 6 minutes per problem), then input into Claude three things: the problem statement, my full written work including my reasoning for each step, and the official provided solution. Then have it spit out what went wrong and why.

Doing this across a few hundred problems was even better, since AI started flagging patterns across all of them that I wouldn't have pieced together on my own. This is actually how I figured out my issue was time management and not concept gaps.

Claude suggested several fixes for my recurring problem execution mistakes:

-Before touching the calculator write down exactly what's being asked with the qualifier words and units still attached, then every given quantity with its units.

-reread the question twice before starting to work it, and twice again before selecting an answer

-set a strict time cap: if I spend over 6 minutes on a problem, move onto another one, but make sure to write down a quick note of exactly where I left off and/or what step to do next, so that way when I return to an unfinished problem I don't waste time getting up to speed on it again. (The second part of this was crucial)

This time management tactic was probably the biggest difference between the first and second attempts, before narrowing this down and practicing it I would sink up to 30 minutes on a single problem which obviously wasted a lot of time and wouldn't fly on the exam.

I think this is what ultimately helped me pass (narrowing down the time management issue as the biggest one and being able to focus on that).

On the second attempt I did actually run out of time again, but there were only 5 questions across the entire exam where I had to pick a random letter due to lack of time to work them, which is much better than up to 20 of those!

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Unfortunately there is a luck component at the end of the day.

The draw of 80 questions is variable and you can do everything right but still get handed a cluster from the one area you practiced least. That's not a reason to prepare less but I think it's a reason to build margin for sure. The set of questions I got the second time included much more straightforward ones than the first attempt.

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Don't tell people at work until it's done.

Before the first attempt I mentioned "I'm taking my PE on [day]" as office small talk, so the week after I took it I was constantly getting asked how it went, which made admitting the fail much worse. When people started asking when I am retaking it, I said "sometime this summer" without giving a specific date, and they eventually just forgot and stopped asking. That way If I did fail again there wouldn't be as much of a peanut gallery.

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Studying (or doing anything demanding, period) the night before is useless.

I was trying to fire off several practice problems before both attempts and in hindsight it was a waste of time and just stressed me out more.

Neither time did anything I touched that night help me the next day on the exam. I would've just relaxed and tried to go to bed earlier (for the second attempt I was also running on 4 hours of sleep, do not recommend. The test center proctor even asked me "sir are you fully awake" when I first got checked into the exam room lmfao)

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Just open the result when you get it because that was set in stone on exam day anyway.

The day of getting the result was clearly my most nerve-wracking moment in recent memory, because I thought the odds of passing were "slightly better than a coin flip" and the stakes were a lot higher time if I failed.

I got the email at 9 am, decided I'm not going to open it in the office and wait until I get home, which was stupid in hindsight because then I just spent the whole day ruminating...

It really felt like I was going to either find out it's Christmas in August, or that my dog died, with no in-between...luckily after I got home, christmas came early with the green "pass" icon. But it was really not worth that much anxiety dragged out for a while.

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This exam fucking sucks. But reframing it as just one "gate" helped me a lot.

everyone in this field needs to take it at some point or the other. And it's just one way to gatekeep a credential and should not be a reflection on your competence as an engineer.

I like to think of the PE like a driving skills test, I failed that a couple times (parallel parking is a bitch) and didn't get my license until almost 19; while it was definitely frustrating during that period, eventually I did pass, got the license and moved on. There's no restrictions on driving as opposed to if I passed it the first time because it's just one gate and once it is cleared, no one cares.

Similarly I struggled a lot early in college, got double academic probation 1st year and ended up taking statics 3 times. But after that gate (and everything after it) was eventually cleared, no one gave a flying fuck how many classes I had to repeat or how long I took to graduate.

Hell if failing statics was the end of it then I would have never been able to go into the structures side! This was honestly the mantra in my head going forward especially when I got frustrated while studying for the second attempt and had thoughts of putting it off further or just quitting.

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Take it ASAP if you can.

Most states have decoupled it where you can sit the PE anytime as long as your FE is complete. I don't regret taking it prior to reaching the experience for licensure. This gave me enough time where I knew that even if I did fail once or twice I would likely get it done before there was more pressure to pass and get licensed.

A lot of my coworkers who are also entry level said they're just going to wait until the 4 years experience mark and then think of it, but I knew if I did that then the exam would just be dragged on for longer, not to mention my workload would also build up over time and cut into bandwidth for exam prep.

I also took advantage of a slower job to study, part of it was knowing I wouldn't be at this position forever so I should knock out this thing under the easiest possible conditions.

Even though I did obviously have to spend evenings and weekends doing it and sacrifice a lot of free time (especially the last couple months before each attempt were just work, study, eat, sleep, rinse, repeat), being able to double dip some work hours to study definitely helped take the edge off.

Took it on Wed 8/5. This was my second attempt, I had taken it in March and failed narrowly
 (diagnostic) so I decided to just jump back in and retake after a few months.

 First half

• ~15 forces / structural mechanics / loads. most of these gave a beam setup and asked for max moment, bending stress, shear, deflection, etc where you'd have to use superposition from beam tables, the rest were quick conceptual.
• ~10 soils/geotech. Mostly conceptual with some simple calcs straight from reference handbook. Btw AASHTO Ch. 10 commentary on foundations explains a lot of the soil concepts better than the handbook does, and clears things up when the handbook equations are ambiguous. Some of the geotech also crossed into ACI footing design. Practicing geotech more paid off because the number of problems on the exam that pertain to it is usually more than how much they emphasize it in the review classes.
• 4–6 AISC. A couple conceptual, the rest calcs requiring table lookups in the steel manual.
• 2 PCI. Table lookups, not complicated once you find the right one, but I burned time flipping through PCI because there are so many design aids
• 5–7 ASCE 7 / IBC. Code lookups plus seismic and wind design calcs. For the latter calc problems, the numbers were simple enough and I think it mainly tested whether you can get to the right chapter and pull the right equation quick

Second half

About the same difficulty as the first half more or less

• ~20 purely conceptual, no calcs. Concrete and steel mostly plus some AASHTO, OSHA, and IBC. These were the "know it or don't" type where they can be figured out by digging through codes but that will just burn time
• only got 2 wood questions, both simple concept/code lookups. I got lucky here since I with wood design calcs in practice (and chose to not sink as much time into it because wood is a minor part of the exam)
• ~15 general design. Footing/foundation design, bolt groups, retaining wall factor of safety, etc. also a couple diaphragm questions. For almost all of these the calcs themsleves were simple but you'd need to have the formula memorized
• 3–4 general structural mechanics (frame/truss).

Overall read

Better gut feeling walking out than the first time. In March, I was very sure I failed after the exam, which I did but at least I was much closer than I thought.

This time I ran the clock dry on both parts, spent 30 minutes more than I wanted to on the morning portion, which cut into the afternoon. On each section there were 2–3 problems where I didn't have time to actually work them and had to pick a random letter, so around 5–6 wild guesses out of 80. Not ideal but on my first attempt I was scrambling at the end and I think I ended up with 15-20 wild guesses total.

I flagged maybe 15–20 questions total and changed my initial answer on about 5 after double-checking. For problems where I was mostly confident but not certain, I didn't flag them since it is better to spend that time on untouched problems.

For questions I knew I wouldn't have time to work, I read carefully and eliminated answers to improve the guess so on all except the "wild guess at end ones" I had it narrowed down to two answer choices if I wasn't sure which should increase the possibility.

I def could've been more efficient because I didn't have time left in either half to double check after the first pass, but I think realistically that's only a couple more questions correct which likely wouldn't change how I felt walking out.

I would say maybe 60–65% odds of passing, just going off confident vs. not-confident question counts, but no one knows how they grade this behind the scenes so hopefully I see the green light on my account next week!

Taking it for the second attempt on 8/4.

So far I’ve gone through all the School of PE question bank problems (also did these for first attempt but this time I generally was able to solve them more easily and felt more confident).

I want to go through the entire AEI practice exam before the test and that will be the final diagnostic and focus on any last minute topics to brush up. Probably won’t use the NCEES practice exam since that one is a joke compared to the real deal, I took that right before the first attempt, did well and went in feeling way too confident lmfao

Between now and then though, I have both the Petro book and the Learnova question bank (500 questions, probably won’t have time to go through all but can pick/choose). Which one would be more beneficial to hammer out for practice if I have only two weeks? I did some of the problems in Petro and they take forever, pretty sure they’re designed to be more complex than the actual exam…

EIT, master's in structural focus. Currently work at a state DOT doing bridge design, have been there for 2 years. Planning to take the PE soon and get licensed by next year. My job is decent: stable, very cushy (actual work is maybe 2-3 hours a day on average, deadlines are often months out), lower pay but good benefits. I do bridge projects (plan preparation, PS&E, etc) and sometimes get to work on research items to help develop the agency's standards, etc.

Even though it's a chill job I am definitely getting bored and think it's time to move on. A good chunk of the bridge projects end up being more of roadway design work which doesn't hurt but is not what I wanted to do.

I've looked into other government roles (state, city, county, federal...) which are going to be all on the transportation side, however the number of structural/bridge related openings in this category that are also in a location I'd actually live in are scant few, not to mention they can take several months to even have an opening.

So if I want to branch out, I'm probably looking into the private sector.

However, my first full time position (between undergrad and masters) was at a transportation consulting firm where I was doing roadway construction inspection and some CAD drafting. Didn't enjoy the work (which is why I did the MS to pivot to structures, I like that better since it's more theory based and even in the industry I feel like I'm putting to use what I learned in classes), and the firm culture was toxic ("we're a family" type bullshit). Overall the stress from billable hours, utilization rate, and constant demanding workload was something I couldn't handle and I got fired for performance 9 months in.

I realize that was one bad company/management and that there are definitely better consulting gigs that have work-life balance and generally 40 hour weeks, but the whole billable time and crunch to work efficiently really stresses me out and I probably wouldn't last super long in consulting. Unfortunately it is a workload issue (exact same thing in college, I flunked out my first year and only passed classes once I lightened the credit load and spread it out by taking summers), and even if I ended up at the best firm in the country and I can't submit quality work at the fast pace expected in consulting then I wouldn't last super long there. I need a generally "40 and done" job (realizing that all salaried jobs will have nonzero busy weeks and overtime). So consulting is off the table and I realize that rules out like, 3/4 of the jobs in this field lol.

What I'm trying to figure out: are there structural roles outside of government DOT that don't run on billable hours? Doesn't have to be bridges — I'd be opening to pivoting to substation/transmission, vertical structures, product design, railroads/transit, whatever.

I realize this would mean I have to work on the owners where they are doing more of project management and consulting out most of the work instead of doing it inhouse, similar to government. Would also prefer something with no fieldwork or very minimal/occasional site visits. Does something like this reasonably exist anywhere in the private sector and would hire an EIT?

tl;dr getting bored in cushy DOT role, want to try a different/more interesting job in structures but also not shoot myself in the foot by going back to consulting billable hours.

EIT, master's in structural focus. Currently work at a state DOT doing bridge design, have been there for 2 years. Planning to take the PE soon and get licensed by next year. My job is decent: stable, very cushy (actual work is maybe 2-3 hours a day on average, deadlines are often months out), lower pay but good benefits. I do bridge projects (plan preparation, PS&E, etc) and sometimes get to work on research items to help develop the agency's standards, etc.

Even though it's a chill job I am definitely getting bored and think it's time to move on. A good chunk of the bridge projects end up being more of roadway design work which doesn't hurt but is not what I wanted to do.

I've looked into other government roles (state, city, county, federal...) which are going to be all on the transportation side, however the number of structural/bridge related openings in this category that are also in a location I'd actually live in are scant few, not to mention they can take several months to even have an opening.

So if I want to branch out, I'm probably looking into the private sector.

However, my first full time position (between undergrad and masters) was at a transportation consulting firm where I was doing roadway construction inspection and some CAD drafting. Didn't enjoy the work (which is why I did the MS to pivot to structures, I like that better since it's more theory based and even in the industry I feel like I'm putting to use what I learned in classes), and the firm culture was toxic ("we're a family" type bullshit). Overall the stress from billable hours, utilization rate, and constant demanding workload was something I couldn't handle and I got fired for performance 9 months in.

I realize that was one bad company/management and that there are definitely better consulting gigs that have work-life balance and generally 40 hour weeks, but the whole billable time and crunch to work efficiently really stresses me out and I probably wouldn't last super long in consulting. Unfortunately it is a workload issue (exact same thing in college, I flunked out my first year and only passed classes once I lightened the credit load and spread it out by taking summers), and even if I ended up at the best firm in the country and I can't submit quality work at the fast pace expected in consulting then I wouldn't last super long there. I need a generally "40 and done" job (realizing that all salaried jobs will have nonzero busy weeks and overtime). So consulting is off the table and I realize that rules out like, 3/4 of the jobs in this field lol.

What I'm trying to figure out: are there structural roles outside of government DOT that don't run on billable hours? Doesn't have to be bridges — I'd be opening to pivoting to substation/transmission, vertical structures, product design, railroads/transit, whatever.

I realize this would mean I have to work on the owners where they are doing more of project management and consulting out most of the work instead of doing it inhouse, similar to government. Would also prefer something with no fieldwork or very minimal/occasional site visits. Does something like this reasonably exist anywhere in the private sector and would hire an EIT?

tl;dr getting bored in cushy DOT role, want to try a different/more interesting job in structures but also not shoot myself in the foot by going back to consulting billable hours.

I applied in early May for a Direct Hire position. The announcement opened in April and closes in October, but it says on the posting "NOTE: This is an open continuous announcement for six months with various cut-off dates. We will routinely review applications."

Which reads like they have various cycles where they will review applications and do interviews, rather than waiting until October to start reviewing (correct me if wrong). However, it doesn't say when the cut-off dates are in the posting.

The only contact info on the posting was a generic automated agency email, but I found the agency's LinkedIn page and saw a few of their managers had made posts with the link to the same job posting saying they are hiring (so I knew it's legit).

Would it be weird or detrimental to message one of those individuals informing them I applied and asking about their review timeline? Because it would signal that I looked them up specifically beyond what was given in the job posting. The Linkedin posts didn't come up in my network (I had found the job posting in question from the usajobs board itself), I specifically searched for the agency and people who work there just to get more info on it.

Just bought a 2026 SEL Sport yesterday, paid $25,500 out-the-door (Indiana, 7% tax). This included a $2000 rebate and and $700 for Zeibart package tacked on, but I opted out of the $800 theft protection system since that would have made the total north of 26k.

Just curious, has anyone ended up with a lower OTD price for the same trim recently for this year's model?

26 year old guy, got a job offer in Nashville. White collar engineering position, I would be making a little north of 80k.

I currently live in Indianapolis. Salary is 71,500. Currently live alone, paying 1550 total (base rent + all utilities, internet, parking). No debt (planning on buying a car soon however, already planned out financially), I save an average of 1200 a month and able to max my Roth IRA every year.

With that pay in Nashville (also knowing my take home would be more because no income tax in TN) would this lifestyle still work financially? Looking at spending no more than 1800 for everything on a studio or 1 bedroom. My job would be right next to the Legislative Plaza downtown, would like to walk to work if possible. However especially if rent and parking downtown is generally crazy high I’d be ok with a 10-15 minute commute. Besides downtown, please suggest are some areas within this price range that would have a decent population of young professionals in 20s. I have heard traffic is pretty bad for a smaller city so preferably somewhere I could get downtown from without using the freeway.

While the job situation seems ok (lateral move, would be slightly better or the same as my current one), Nashville and Tennessee in general doesn’t excite me and does not seem like a huge upgrade over Indy based on my research.

What is the dating scene like for a 20s young professional? In Indy a lot of women my age are more conservative/religious and looking to just settle down quickly which narrows down the compatible dating pool quite a bit. I still get 1-2 dates per month here from using the apps which I think is good as it gets for a shorter indian guy.

My main gripe with Indiana in general is the Bible Belt culture. Even in the city asking "are you married" and "what church do you attend" are common icebreaker questions. And outside of the city it's safe to assume that basically everyone is the type who spends every sunday in church/bible study or at the very least is from a religious upbringing. It really seems like in Tennessee this would be very similar or worse. This type of thing is not a dealbreaker for me but it definitely feels othering as a non-christian brown guy so I'd prefer my next city to not be in a bible belt-y area which is why I'm a little bit skeptical of choosing Nashville.

In general, is it worth it for someone my age? I get the impression that Nashville is mainly a tourist town (don't drink or go to bars much and not into live music, but both are things where I'd tag along if I knew someone who was doing it) and most of its reputation comes from being a fun place to visit, but I also see it's consistently on the list of top cities for young professionals.

Hey everyone, looking to replace my 2008 Honda Civic with around 140k miles.

I don't drive a ton, maybe 10k miles a year tops (although that might go up after a new one because I'd be more inclined to take longer trips with a nicer car).

My main goal is to buy something reliable and keep it for longer term as possible, ideally 10-15 years. I did weigh the options of leasing vs. financing, decided it's better to make a decent a down payment and get most of the way to buying the car fully.

I would be putting down 10k and could sell/trade the Civic for around 4-5k.

My cutoff for sticker price of new car is 25k but ideally I would like to not go north of 22k if possible.

I have narrowed it down to the Corolla and Elantra. Test drove both, liked the Elantra better but I'd be happy with either because any newer car honestly feels like a spaceship compared to what I have now.

the deals I'm considering:

1. $21,458 CPO 2025 Toyota Corolla LE 14k miles

2. $20,600 New 2026 Hyundai Elantra SEL Sport Full original owner 10yr/100k powertrain warranty

The main things I'm weighing between these are the Corolla's better reputation for long-term vs the Elantra being brand new with the full warranty. I think the Corolla would be a bit cheaper to insure which offsets the Elantra's lower price.

A new 2026 Corolla LE would cost around $23,500 on average, but in order to get a Corolla (no accidents and 1 owner only) at around the same price as a new Elantra, have to go for a gently used CPO one. Also is it worth just paying an average of 2k more for a new Corolla instead of the CPO one I listed?