So, there’s this young EIT with about a year of experience.
We interact very often and I feel like a mentor to her
And we talk very often. she always asks me work questions along with things like improving workflow and technical skills etc. She has a good enthusiastic attitude and you can tell she’s open/trying to learn.

Fast forward to today and her boss walks in and pulls her for a meeting and absolutely gets on her. They told her she’s the worst engineer on the team and that once she gets PIP’d she can never work for another company again. Just berating her. She asked her boss how she can improve and it was a laundry list of things she’s done wrong.

she then asked if there’s anything she’s doing okay at and he said “absolutely nothing” which I felt was wrong bc of what I actually see when she brings me her work for questions and also that’s no way to encourage someone new imo.

This particular team that she’s a part of works primarily remote. When they come in, no one greets her or asks about what she’s doing or if she has any questions. Based on what I’ve seen her work on, what she was assigned recently vs what they had her working on for at least half of her time here is night and day in terms of difficulty.

After she came out that meeting, I can tell she felt dejected but was trying to keep her head up. I invited her to lunch and we had convo so I could gauge her mindset. I asked her if she’d gotten feedback from her boss prior to today.

She said this is the most feedback she’s ever gotten from him. No 1:1, no goal meetings, and no performance reviews or evaluations prior to this.

I asked her about training in her group.

They just have them watch Bentley videos…

I asked her how often she asks for help.

She asks frequently and is either met with no response, people referring her to multiple other ppl, or if it’s her boss, responses where he responds to her extremely condescendingly.

I say all this to ask how would you encourage someone dealing with this to keep their head up and keep trying? I’m very very very compelled to tell her to leave, But I don’t want to overstep in anyway.

In my opinion, she’s very diligent and is trying her best considering the circumstances, but I don’t want her mental to get out of control and she just gives up all together.

How would you guys navigate this?

Just finished an internship at a small firm, hired by someone who I have a loose personal connection with. All summer I did admin things like getting coffee and fixing furniture. I did not even have AutoCAD on my computer. Spent many hours twiddling my thumbs.

The summer finished and I immediately applied to a large national firm (the firm most frequently talked about on here… as a hint 😁) and I was interviewed and accepted an offer.

The CEO of the small firm called me personally, to tell me that I was hired because of his name on my resume, not my interview, and told me I played him after “begging” him for an internship. I was extremely taken back by something so wildly unprofessional and unexpected. Should I have done something different here?

I am a civil engineer specializing in traffic/transportation and have passed my FE. Almost a total of 5 years of experience including a couple summers as an intern. I would like to become a mom in the next couple of years, in which I am not sure I will want to return to work. Should I work to get my PE license just in case in the future I want to go back, or need to make extra money? Husband has a good job. I am worried that if I don’t push to get it now, I won’t ever get it in the future. AND can I still maintain my PE license if I am not working for 5-10years? Do I just pay for the license once I pass the exam?

UPDATE: I will start studying and plan to take the exam next year! Thank you everyone!

I have a lot of friends who work in industries like sales, consulting, biotech, etc., and their workplaces seem to operate very differently from what I’ve experienced in civil engineering. They might have meetings scattered throughout the day, but otherwise they have a lot of autonomy over when and where they work. They can WFH when they want, come into the office when it makes sense, schedule appointments or errands during the day and make up the time later, etc. Some of them don’t necessarily work a traditional 8–5/40-hour week every single week either, but they’re still considered full-time, valued employees because they’re getting their work done and meeting expectations.

I feel like I rarely hear about this kind of work environment in civil engineering. Even “flexible” jobs often seem to mean something like 2–3 WFH days per week with fairly structured hours.

Are there civil engineering roles/companies that operate this way? If so, what types of roles tend to offer that level of autonomy? Is it mostly something you get with seniority, or are there areas of civil where it’s common even earlier in your career?

Not necessarily looking for a job like this, just genuinely curious whether they exist in the industry.

After 8 years in the private sector.... from college graduate EIT through office management of a small satellite office for a large P.E. firm...

I joined the local city municipal development review group.

Today was my first day there. I was graciously greeted with a welcome sign, some candies, and a reminder that there is no time tracking.

It is a surreal feeling. Thanks for letting me share my experience. Good night.

Hi! I’m curious if there are any moms here who left their jobs to stay home with young kids and later decided to return to the workforce.

What was the transition back to work like for you? How difficult was it to find a job again after being out of the workforce, and did you feel like the time away affected your career?

I’d especially love to hear how long you stayed home, what field you were in, and what field you returned to. For some additional context, I work in the transportation sector and I am considering leaving for a few years while my son is young (he’s 9 months now). I’d be especially interested in hearing from anyone in a similar industry!

Hello,

I have been looking for work in Civil engineering for a 32-hour week with the understanding I would work more when deadlines come up. I keep having interviews but being meet with people saying they are really impressed with my skills and like me but "we recently hired a lot of new grads that need training. etc." which I take a polite rejection after you see them hire someone else.

I have 8 YOE in consulting municipal engineering with a focus on drinking water plant design but I have worked on a little of everything at this point. I also have a Bachelors and Masters in Environmental Engineering with an extensive research background. I am facing some health fatigue issues which is why I need to work a reduced week. I am starting to lose hope of being hired.

Is there some alternative industry where my skills could transfer? I am really passionate about drinking water because I like the process, chemistry, and human health aspects. So far I have been applying to Civil consulting and City Engineering but with no luck.

Appreciate any advice, and thank you.

Today is my 25th birthday. I passed the civil engineering board exam here in the Philippines earlier this year (structural focus) and tried to start my own independent practice.

Instead of celebrating or working on actual design jobs, I am sitting in an empty living room helping my family pack boxes. We completely ran out of money. We sold our car a while back to get by, but we ran out of cash again, so we had to sell our home and move into a rental this month. We are a family of eight. My parents just retired from government service and their pensions are still stuck in paperwork, plus my grandmother and four younger siblings. Being the eldest child (panganay) holding an engineering license while your family loses their house feels terrible. I have been dealing with a lot of depression over it, but I just try to hide it so I do not stress them out even more while we pack.

Trying to make engineering work locally has been a dead end. Local design offices want 2+ years of experience and expect you to know ETABS, STAAD, Revit, and AutoCAD on day one for ₱15k to ₱20k a month ($260 to $350 USD, 6-day workweeks). Most private clients just want a quick ₱1,500 ($25) rubber-stamp on plans drawn by random draftsmen or foremen. The moment I tell them I actually have to check the calculations, inspect the site, and give them a real quote, they ghost me instantly. The only decent contract I got was an independent research and documentation project for a state university, but one-off gigs do not pay the rent every month.

I have basically accepted that local retail design practice here is broken, so I am transitioning my focus to international remote engineering support (CAD drafting, structural detailing, estimating/takeoffs, and project coordination) for firms in Australia, the US, and elsewhere.

To get used to international standards, I have been downloading public tender sets from AusTender to practice reading foreign drawings, doing material takeoffs in Excel, and working on my technical English for the IELTS.

For those of you working with international remote engineering teams: what skills, workflows, or documentation habits make a junior engineer abroad truly effective from day one? What should someone transitioning from a local structural background focus on most?

TLDR at the end.

I'm part of the design team for a large, 5-year Phase III infrastructure project set to kick off construction this year. It will involve many sub-contractors, judging from a similar project that wrapped last year, will have RFI's on a weekly basis. My firm will be managing the RFI's and I'm looking into which system to use. We have both Procore and Newforma licenses available at the company.

I have not used either of these tools before but am getting a good sense of what they can do. I very interested in any actual user experiences on one or both systems, where the gaps are, and what they do well or don't do at all. Anything you can tell me is appreciated.

TLDR: which of system is best and/or what are strengths or weaknesses of one vs the other?

TIA!

I'm a master's student in civil engineering, water resources track, and I have the opportunity to do some research in sediment transport. I'm changing careers from another STEM field and my main reason for doing this degree is to qualify for the FE exam in my state and start working as a water resources engineer. I know most things in academia are not very applicable to work, but I'm wondering if anyone in water resources could comment on whether they think this type of experience would have utility. Thank you!

29% of the PEs audited in January this year by the LA board needed to remedy continuing education requirements.

Hey all, just enrolled in CC and I’m thinking of pursuing CCET. I’m on the West Coast, for context. My q is solely the CCET AAS worth it? Or should I do my CCET at my CC then transfer to a university to finish & become a CE?

Commentary & advice welcomed. Please be kind (:

So I'm currently on my On The Job training to get an asphalt certification. I know spec wise it states to make a tapered paper edge when making transverse joints at the end of a day's production but that isn't something I have been seeing. Is that only something only done when making full depth placements since we've only placed 1-2 inches or is it just something allowed since the contractor torches the mat to bond during the next production.

I’m currently studying Civil Construction Design and trying to gain some experience related to my course.
I really want to start getting some experience before I graduate, but I’m finding it quite difficult. Most junior jobs ask for experience, but at the same time, it’s also hard to find a company willing to take on someone with no experience as an intern.
It feels a bit like… if no one gives you a chance to start, how are you supposed to get that experience in the first place?
For anyone working in civil engineering/drafting, how did you get your first experience in the industry? Any advice for a student trying to get started?

Feels like work is gatekept from me

Hi everyone, I am 22F, 1 year into the workforce and believe that I am subtly being discriminated against. I’d like to get others opinions on my situation though before I jump to that conclusion.

I currently work in construction engineering and am the youngest and only female in a team of 15 men. For the past year, I’ve been asking for work but have been told there’s no work or given nontechnical work such as annotating drawings to “make things look pretty and aesthetic”. If I do get technical work and I screw up, I get berated pretty heavily mostly on the aesthetics of my drawings even if the work is technically correct. I get told things like “your drawings make me want to throw up” or “you need to put more effort into the job” even though I was already trying my best and seniors were too busy to answer my questions. Additionally I found out that my manager has been asking my male coworkers if they believe I am “capable” of doing a task despite them being hired around the same time or a year ahead of me whereas I have never been asked input on whether male coworkers are capable of a task.

Last week there was a team meeting where we talked about work distribution and since I had the lightest workload, the senior vice president told the project manager to put me on a task which is highly technical. However I found out today that the project manager gave the task to the other two male junior engineers who are at the same level as me and I was just told again to “update the tags on the drawings”. This situation confused me because that project manager kept saying how the project needs a lot of help yet he is just not giving work to me.

This whole situation makes me feel like I suck at my job. Even though I admit I have screwed up at times my male coworkers have screwed up too, yet they still get assigned the more technically complex and challenging work. I should also mention that these male coworkers both have “mentors” assigned to them whereas I have no mentor assigned to me because my previous mentor quit. She was also a woman on my team who was given the construction admin work mainly instead of technical.

What do I have to do to get those same opportunities as my male coworkers and earn trust from the project managers? At this point my career is suffering because I am not being given technical work.

660,000 gallon aerated sludge tank for municipal wastewater.

Im going into my third year of civil engineering in October, i keep seeing people coming out of uni complaining about not being able to find a job, some people saying they've applied to over 100 jobs and not found one. But i also do know civil engineering is quite a high demand job.

Just asking for the general consensus here, are civil engineers struggling to get their first job our from uni? or is it much tamer compared to other proffesions.

Edit: A commenter made a good point so i will add that im in the UK, just outside of central london (UK citizen).

I do also have a dutch passport that gives me the right to work in certain EU countries, however i wouldnt consider that just yet as that would be something i would think about later in my career rather than my first job.

Charles "Chuck" Marohn has won his court case, receiving a federal judgement that the Minnesota Licensing Board overstepped its authority.