I mean in my area fresh grad wages are like 65k, and I’m in a low cost of living area. Wages are a touch depressed because boomers are sticking around but it’s not BAD BAD. Definitely there’s a lot of bitching in this sub that we don’t get paid tech bucks but there’s a lot of upsides too that don’t get discussed as oftenġ) it’s straight up just a useful degree. It was the best choice I have ever made and he would say the same.īased on your responses to the comments here it feels you came to this sub looking for something to dissuade you from pursuing this field. I would say literally the only bad side to this is working the hours we do. I do work after my family goes to bed in the evenings once or twice a week. We don't work weekends but I would say we probably average about 10.5 hours a day during the week. Site plan work for people building houses is absolutely booming right now. Our employees only work 40 a week but overtime is there if they want it but we do not force and I think we take good care of them with regular small bonuses ($700-$1200) a few times a year plus Friday lunches etc. We keep a very low overhead and that's what helps us succeed. It took a while to get to this point but as far as money goes I will net over 130k this year and my partner will do better than that. We work many hours, but we take the jobs we want and turn down the ones we don't.

He can do many aspects of my job and I can do some of his. I would say our company is 65% engineering focused and 35% surveying focused. I am a registered surveyor and opened a firm with a friend of mine I met years ago who is a registered Civil Engineer.

My biggest piece of advice is skip the passion, just get REALLY good at what you do, get the pay increases and the passion will probably come when you're in demand.

Civil is in a bit of a race to the bottom, but I can't really tell you any other industry that isn't also a race to the bottom post-2008 recession. Basically my whole team is trying to get into the new parent company at this point.Įvery job has parts that suck. The irony is that the acquiring company tied all of the execs' bonuses on our retention, so our ego-driven execs suddenly treat us like shit and we all leave, and now they won't get their bonuses. Until my management recently became a cesspool after we were acquired. Sales can be a bitch at times, but I think engineering software sales is actually pretty fun, especially without the time sheets!.

I've been doing customer success and then sales for the last 5 years. I transitioned to consulting for a year and then I joined the software company that created the software I was always using to model infrastructure at the previous two jobs. I was there for 5 years and they paid for my masters in industrial engineering. I started my civil career in government infrastructure planning, working for an entity of a large city.

Civil engineering career paths reddit