r/civilengineering

After seeing lots of images of the flash floods in NYC yesterday. I’m curious for anyone working/living over there, are there ongoing city projects to update the storm drain infrastructure ? I feel like these flash floods are happening more and more often.

I’m a civil engineer from Jordan and recently started working with an international organization on desalination-related projects. Honestly, I’ve become very interested in this field and I feel that water and desalination could become a major direction for my career.

At the same time, desalination is still considered a relatively new field in Jordan compared to Gulf countries, and we still don’t have a large amount of local expertise or opportunities in it yet.

For engineers who work in water, infrastructure, or desalination — especially in the Middle East — do you think this field is worth pursuing long term?

Would you continue building experience in it from now, or would you keep your options more open before specializing too much?

I’m also hoping one day to find opportunities in Gulf countries, so I’d really appreciate honest advice, career direction, or even different points of view from people with experience in the industry.

I’d especially appreciate insights from engineers working in GCC countries or large-scale water utilities.

Thanks a lot.

Hello! After getting some exposure to the niche field of aviation civil engineering, I am very interested in pursuing it! I am on the search for firms that specialize in it, that have interesting projects in both airside and landside, while having a decent work-life balance. If anyone knows any, that'd be great! thanks :D

I work mostly with engineering and AEC firms on the insurance side. I see a lot of confusion around E&O, GL, COIs, contract requirements, and why premiums can be all over the place.

Insurance usually gets ignored until a client asks for something, a contract gets held up, or there’s a claim. Figured this might be helpful for anyone trying to understand the basics before it becomes urgent. Happy to answer general questions if it’s useful.

Hi all, I’m 3.5 YOE in Canadian east coast. At a multi-national consultant doing transportation. At work I’m involved a mix of municipal and P3 projects. I’ve come to be seen as dependable so there is steady work going for me. I’m compensated between 70-80k CAD annually. Currently I’m rather confused about which direction to head towards in the future.

My background is that I landed in Canada around 2 years ago but back home I was a graduate doing structures. I am much more interested in structures and heavy civil than I am transport but I have no luck getting interviews for structural roles. I’m thinking that it’s my lack of Canadian education and lack of local structural experience. On top of many junior roles being non-existent given the trend of outsourcing to India. I’m getting calls however from recruiters for transportation roles.

In my experience, I see that the industry here is more geared towards roads and transit infrastructure. At least my boss thinks so, they also suggest me to get into the energy sector given future government spending is heading towards expanding Canada’s energy infrastructure. On top of that they constantly advocate against structures given the higher complexity and responsibility borne by the EOR despite similar pay (according to them). So that has me second guessing my desire to go back into structures sometimes.

Yet while I am studying for my P.Eng technical exams (I need to do them since I am not a Canadian grad) and revisiting structural concepts, I truly find that my interest lies in heavy civil / structures. Statics and dynamics and designing structures is why I studied this degree and what I was trained to do in my graduate role. I am currently working towards P.Eng and I’m hoping that would land me more structural interviews, despite the lack of Canadian experience thereof. If it doesn’t get any better after P.Eng, I’m considering doing an M.Eng in structures or something related to energy infrastructure or perhaps something that overlaps(?) to take advantage of the future fiscal spending policy.

Writing to seek opinions from others in the industry about my situation. Is my current compensation fair? Worth it to do a masters to get back into structures? Would you agree/disagree with my commentary of the Canadian industry? Any other paths to land a structure role without committing a year of full time study to get that credential? Fully pivot into energy? (I don’t even know what that looks like) Or continue sticking it out in transport?

Any and all thoughts, discussion and suggestions welcome.

I recently graduated with my civil engineering degree. I absolutely hate designing. Every time I sit in my desk I think to myself “ why did I get this degree”. I absolutely hate sitting behind an office all day. What are my options ?

What’s it looking like out there?

I have no back up job or anything but I hate my job. I’m an NEC4 site supervisor, currently working in highways schemes in England. But I hate it! I’ve tried my best to be interested in the job. But this is not what I went to university for! I wanted to be a structures/geotechnical designer. Not supervising kerbs and gullies getting installed.

FXck it. I’m not exactly thriving in the role either. It’s just not exciting to me. Give me eurocodes, british standards, equations, analysis, engineering drawjngs, simulations and you’ve got my focus and my ears pricking up. I’m watching holes getting dug up, taking pictures and recording it on spreadsheets. It’s so dull.

I can’t keep pretending I’m passionate about my job. I’m only doing it for the money. But they’ve stopped my overtime and i drive 100 miles a day with no reimbursements for my fuel. I have no more reasons to be here. It’s not exactly a role that lends itself to my chartership training.

I’m going back to university to do Msc in structures and i’m starting over. It’s been impossible to pivot when you have no experience. I’ve tried so many times to pivot back to design, been interviewed so many times but for me to get the experience, I must already have 30 years experience. For me to get from a to b, you must already be at M. The industry really is this cruel!

I don’t know how i’m gonna afford it. I’m gonna have to move back in with my mum to cut costs but i’ll figure it out. Probably get a loan from the bank for the tuition fee. Whatever. I’d rather be in debt and happy with my job than being in debt and unhappy with my job.

I think my managers are clocking in on me anyway. Project Manager wants to drive around the site tomorrow. I think he wants to have a quiet word with me.

I’m just started on this new project and we’re doing some interesting archaeological work. But my interests stops at watching ancient bones and artefacts getting dug up and talking to the archaeologists about their theories. But after that, i’ll hand in my notice with or without a back up job. Fxck it, iI’ll work in McDonald’s or whatever in the meantime or go on benefits for little while, just until I’ve made concrete arrangements. But come September this year, i’ll be studying.

I already have an MEng in Civil Engineering, and 7 years mixed consultancy and site experience. And I hope, if I study again, for Msc Structural engineering, then I could finally land a structures role! If that still doesn’t get me to where I need to be. Then I will go insane!!!

It shouldn’t be this hard! God, sometimes I wanna cry.

I used to work for a consulting firm that had a utilization rate of 96%. I took a job outside of consulting about a year ago (nothing to do with my consulting job, had to for outside reasons). I’m thinking of going back to consulting, but I’m worried about having a crazy high UT goal like I did before. From what I’ve heard most places don’t have UT goals in the 90s. Is this accurate for most consulting firms? TYIA

Are there any instances on here of you or someone you know going to get a law degree after civil undergrad? If so, what do they do now?

I have been at this company my entire career so far. I have 6 years experience, I only have my EIT for now. I plan on starting studying for the PE this year. Because of my years of experience and not having my PE yet I'm having a hard time finding salary data to know what I should be getting paid. All the salary websites I look at have crazy wide open ranges that tell me nothing.

I know I am underpaid because inflation calculator is telling me I'm making a lot less than what I started at out of college. I'd need a 10-15% raise just to get back to what I started at, but it seems crazy to ask for a 15% raise.

How am I supposed to know what my market value is without interviewing for jobs and getting offers? I live in a town with only a few other civil companies so I don't really want to go through that process and burn any bridges.

Cost of living index of 90 in the US (LCOL) Started at 70k
Now at 80k
Inflation calculator says 70k I started with is worth 90k now.
Am I crazy to ask for 93k?

I'm getting recruiters reaching out to me for PM positions and $110k+, but I assume it's because they think I have a PE based on my years of experience. I'm not currently a PM but the company is wanting to start getting me some experience with that and business development because they think I have the skills to do so.

Edit: I forgot to mention my billing rate is $165

So you're thinking about becoming an engineer? What do you want to know?

Hi all, I’m soon going to be a new grad from an Ag engineering program that has a curriculum that has given me knowledge and hands on experience with mechanical, civil, control systems engineering. However my passion is water resources, conveyance and management. Another thing is that my college is in a town I love and have very tight community with.

I have signed with a firm that does a lot of land development, and while I do find the work interesting and there are some water resources, drainage management, stuff I feel like I may be limiting myself.

In my head I’ve told myself it’s fine to work there for a year or two, learn skills, such as AutoCAD proficiency, work on my FE and PE then look for something local like for my county or city, or even gov like DWR. I am worried that after 2 years my intuition about hydraulics and my passion may dull and I wouldn’t be equipped to move to that field.

I also am considering going back to school for a masters in something like water engineering or hydrology but to be honest I have been in school for 6 years and currently feel a bit burnt out from academia.

I want to ultimately do work that benefits my surroundings, both community and environment. But also at this point in my life I want to live close to my friends and be able to do my hobbies.

Has anyone been in similar situations or felt similar ways at the start of their career?

Hi there- I’m in a small satellite office at a medium sized consulting firm. I recently had several projects I committed to cancelled, rescoped, or delayed by the client without a deadline on restarting. I ended up struggling to fill my workload with new, ad hoc work until these projects started. I ended up using PTO to fill my timecard. This was communicated to my supervisor and other more senior engineers. No one really squawked much until I burned through 60 hours of PTO over four months (plus whatever I was accruing) and starting filling out incomplete timecards. Stuff like this happens usually once a year or so. We have a larger office, and folks there don’t seem to have the same problem, possibly because the office is ~20x the size and there’s more stopgap work available? I keep getting promotions, raises, and bonuses, and I have explicitly asked trusted colleagues if I have a bad work reputation, and the answer is no.

Any advice? Is all consulting like this? I’ve been here 7+ years, have a PE, etc. I’m not sure if the grass is any greener elsewhere, but I’d like to be able to use PTO for an actual vacation (I’ve taken 5 days off at a time once since I’ve been here, not counting paternity leave, which is state-funded)

EDIT: wow, thanks for chiming in. Lotta responses. I should clarify that I don’t mean using PTO to cover in-office time. I mean essentially working reduced hours (e.g., I don’t have 40 billable hours this week so I’ll take Friday afternoon off).

So i got an offer from my first internship and i feel like i should feel more excited. I have been trying to get one for so long and now that i have an offer im not as excited as i thought i would be. I feel like i am not going to be able to keep up cause like i feel like i know nothing but i understand thats the whole point of an internship. Can yall tell me if you ever felt like this at the beginning like is it just the nerves?