I'm an engineer (civil fag). Been with this company since I graduated 1.5 years ago.
>Keep asking for technical work so I can actually do real engineering >"It's coming user!" >Stick me in shitty construction projects in the mean time >Basically glorified admin work and babysitting engineers way senior to me >Technical work finally offered to me (rare opportunity), forced to say no because shitty construction project is ramping up and I don't want to do 20 hours unpaid overtime just to stay on top of both projects.
On the other hand the company itself is really cozy, team is chill, I'm WFH 4 days a week. Despite that I've started applying for other jobs.
Hello fellow civil fag, what kind of work do you do exactly and how much do you get paid? I did some consulting with my state's DOT during the peak of the "pandemic" which was WFH but holy shit was it boring and pointless im in design now which is comfy but it's literal CAD work 85% of day which becomes mundane
Nathan Torres
I'm in a similar boat. I have an A.S. in electronics and I haven't seriously used my degree in the two years since grad. First gig was a glorified assembly job, and my current one (after a little hopping around) is almost 100% physical as rhe circuits are microscopic. I can push wires around and see if my signal gets better but I don't have the slightest clue what's happening electronically. It feels like I've forgotten all of my education and now there's no way I could get a real technical job, as if they offer those to newbies anyways.
The perks are I'm almost 100% independent, flexible hours, nobody checks my time card for breaks, and once I take the weekend shift I'll only work 36 hours every week woth 4 days off. I plan to l2code with that time to hopefully get an even cozier, better paying WFH gig some day. I hope by this time next year
I’m not in engineering but I’ll try to give you some advice zoomer friend.
Are you super autistic? So autistic that you actually enjoy doing technical engineering work? If so looking for a new job (or asking to switch to this new opportunity as your main work and looking for a successor for your current work) is a good move.
Otherwise, natural career progression will at some point result in you taking over a management role where your actual “hands on” technical work is limited. Project management/middle management role will be the next logical step in your career progression. You put it as “babysitting” senior engineers, but if this is a role where you have people directly reporting to you and you’re taking on a PMO/project lead role it will be very easy for you to leverage this experience as you vie for a management job. “I was the project manager of a construction job involving xyz with # of people directly reporting to me. In the project we achieved abc over a timeline of Y years” will look good to any prospective employer. Do you see yourself as more of a “technical expert,” a veteran employee with a deep knowledge base that can be relied on to deliver results in a highly technical role? Or do you see yourself as someone that wants to climb the corporate ladder as you position yourself into leadership roles? Decide what your career goals in 3-5 years are and make a decision based off of that.
Bentley Baker
>I graduated 1.5 years ago A good timeframe to stay in a job would be 3 years. You will get more than a fair share of admin work in later career stages (its called "project management") so why not use the opportunity to get perfect skills on that. Work on your time management and communication skills so you do all the babysitting tasks exactly on time, in a proactive way and communicate in perfect polite style so everyone respects you . Nothing bad will come from this. You can always look over the engineering others do in the project, to keep up to date on the specifics of how they do it.
David Bailey
Civil/Structural engineer here. If you do the technical stuff life gets a lot harder and the pay us not as great. Develop basic competency in technical stuff but focus mord on your people skills and you can ascend the ladder faster and maybe branch into Project Management if you really like work.
Benjamin Johnson
that's pretty much the definition of men, someone that needs no one to survive, a men is able to carry himself and his family and society.. if you can't do that you are not a men, you are a boy...
Oliver Peterson
A couple clear signals when you should job hop: 1.) Are you miserable? (If yes, leave) 2.) Have your promotions/pay raises stagnated? (Expect a promotion every 2-3 years) if yes, leave. 3.) Have you outgrown the company? If there aren't better opportunities for you internally then consider leaving, especially if you don't have equity in the company.
Adrian Morgan
a man*, my esl friend
Isaac Evans
Overseeing projects IS "real" engineering work. Making sure the mouthbreathers on site don't do something retarded because they don't understand why things are the way they are (i.e. "dude it seemed better to me to do it this way so I changed up the process") is the role of an engineer. As an engineer, your job is to have enough technical background to effectively supervise the project. You say you've only been out of school for 1.5 years? The company is probably using these jobs as a way to teach you all the weird, esoteric tribal knowledge about your industry that the school didnt teach you. You can't go into design without knowing all of it.
Luis Moore
sounds like you're doing project management. lie on your resume to make it really sound like project management and job hop to a senior project management role that requires even less work for 2x as much money.
Daniel Bennett
I’ve stayed at the job I got after graduating for 10 years cause the boss was super nice and the company is pretty decent all around. I’m not sure if that was a mistake because I am a little afraid of ever leaving now.
Joshua Garcia
i worked manual labor jobs for several years before getting my wagie career going. few things are sadder than hearing a low level wagie manager in a factory or a warehouse saying "i thought i wouldn't stick around for more than a few years and here i am, 30 years later." MANY, MANY, MANY such cases.
Joshua Myers
do the least amount of work for the most money possible bro and upskill at the same time
Jacob Morales
Big civil consulting firm. I get paid 75k AUD inclusive. Not fantastic but good for my country.
Ngl I actually enjoy technical work and dislike the project coordination/ management aspect of it even though I am good at it (socially competent introvert I guess). All my preferences follow from that. Even though my current project is on paper fantastic for my career IF I wanted to go the pm route but I just don't.
Good point but I worry it will be too late to develop technical competence later in life. Who's gonna give a junior technical role to a boomer PM.
Julian Diaz
Ok but I’m not a warehouse manager wagie I’m a corporate accountant
Kevin Bennett
Do you ever feel like our field is kinda crappy overall.
I had a semi technical project some months ago and the deadlines were rough. Pulled a 19 hr day at one point. And as you know we don't get paid over the daily 8 hours.
Kinda wanna pivot to a data science role specific to the civil domain. No clue how though
Justin Gray
who wouldnt? Just means they get to pay you less for more real world experience
Charles Allen
yeah i am too. how much do you make? i'm at $95k with bonus fully remote with 4 YOE, no CPA.
