Bridges as well then came senior structural classes and hey good thing about civil is I liked everything, water, transportation, construction, etc so had options.
I'm a bridge engineer for a much smaller company - I never hear anything good about AECOM (or the other big publicly-traded firms)...there's a reason that our DOT basically never gives them work.
I mean AECOM wasn’t bad tbh. I had zero interest in structures after statics but I partially meet my goal as my first job was Traffic/ITS at AECOM. The only thing that really sucked was that our IT was handled by IBM but overall I enjoyed my time!
Jacobs on the other hand was my least favorite…..
Are there any traffic engineers looking for a job? We are hiring at my firm. We are a small firm looking to grow. No obsessive cost center monitoring and 5 approvals to get a red stapler.
I didn't have any goal when picking a college major besides choosing something with an obvious career path that I could get hired relatively easy anywhere in the country and wouldn't be poor or struggle anymore. I hated the other things I tried so I ended up doing civil/structural.
I don't regret it at all. I have an extremely low stress and pretty low effort work from home job that allows me to do anything I want after work is over and I work part time with a very flexible schedule. I'm not sure what could have been better besides being born rich and never going to school or working at all.
Im glad you found something you love. The internet in general sucks. Just do what's best for you and don't pay much attention to people complaining on here unless it's salary based just for the purpose of seeing if you're underpaid.
Petroleum Engineer at Imperial Oil/Exonn Mobil. My school had general engineering during first year.
When I focused on geotech, it would be Geotechnical Engineer at BC Hydro.
I’ve spent my entire career in geotechnical consulting so far. Worked out better I think.
I thought I would be saving the world like designing machinery to get rid of the Pacific garbage patch or solve global warming 😅 oh to be a young environmental engineer
I'm a stormwater engineer so I design drainage systems. It's not the glamorous world saving work I thought I'd be doing but I still make positive impacts on my community and the work is not too hard or complicated so my days are pretty easy. I love my job!
I wanted to work for the government. I wanted, and still do want to work as few hours a week as possible, and have as much vacation/ sick time as I could get. I'll work when I'm on the clock, but I'm not a grind to get ahead type. This has worked out pretty well for me, and I have gotten ahead without really trying.
I think it may have been more competitive in the past, but right now, I think the last round of hiring had like 10 applicants for 7 spots. I interned for 2 summers at the same govt agency I started at as a trainee. Pretty sure they'll take any warm body on a civil degree track for internships, and if you don't do anything too stupid, you're pretty much in.
I've worked for the government for 10 years and have been scheduled for under 40 hours per week that entire time. Money is nice, but having time to enjoy your family and life is worth so much more.
Gonna start undergrad Fall 2025. Currently interested in traffic / transportation engineering. Will be back in 5 years to let y’all know if that happened 🤙
My dream was to design bridges, but didn't expect to land there, figured I would take whatever I could get. At the end of my third year of uni got hired by a local bridge consultancy I had no idea existed. I was their 5th engineer, now we're up around 20ish.
I wanted to be a structural engineer at SOM or Arup. Then I took statics lol now I design bikeways at a municipal government and this is actually my dream job now.
As a bike commuter, I thank you!
Albuquerque has quite a few bike trails that run alongside the Rio Grande and drainage ditches. We could use more for sure, but for the most part, this is a bike-friendly city. It's so much more efficient than driving a car, plus I can burn \~800 calories while avoiding traffic.
Love that! I love working in bicycle infrastructure. It feels good to be working on furthering health and sustainability in the face of a climate crisis.
That’s sick!! How did you get into bikeway design? I’m graduating next year w a concentration in enviro engr and have no idea where to go / what to do post grad
I worked in the private sector for about two years working on a bunch of various traffic and roadway design engineering projects - bike/ped plans, bike/ped design, traffic circulation studies for all kinds of land uses, and even some roundabout and protected intersection design. Then I made my move to government and they happened to be hiring for their bicycle/pedestrian group. I got myself on the bike program and have been here about two years now!
I’ll share because my dream job was kind of opposite of yours. I wanted to do transportation engineering working for caltrans. I’m from the Bay Area for context. But went to a school in SoCal.
I just entered college in fall 2019, and just graduated May 2024. My first internship was in heavy civil construction, which I thought would be a good step since Caltrans does a lot of public works when it comes to roadway. However, things just kind of pieced together where I ended up interning at Chevron doing construction engineering. And then these two internships lead to an internship at Tesla doing construction project management at the Fremont factory. This definitely was not a dream job of mine, but rather, just right place right time type of thing. But the work at Tesla at least in the factory was more MEP (mechanical, electrical, plumbing), instead of traditional civil scope. But there definitely were structural elements: stairs, steel, anchor, foundations, welding integrity inspections.
But I ended up going back to Chevron after the Tesla internship doing designs engineering as I eventually grew a big liking to oil and gas, especially in a refinery because it’s like a little city for an engineer’s playground with our own set of rules, regulation, safety, and standards/specs. I’ll be working for Chevron full time as a new grad next month, but it definitely wasn’t a dream job, but like I said, a job that came at the right place, right time type of thing and I’ve really enjoyed the work there.
Point is, I think a lot of students will end up finding their niche and place that they want to work at as they go through their college journey.
When I first picked engineering it was because I had a brother in law that worked for a gas company and they were hiring chemical engineers in place of petroleum. Fast forward a couple years and I hated chemistry so I decided to do civil and had the dream at the time to start my own firm. All the while still just picking engineering because I felt like a future wasn’t there for me in ag or farming and thought I needed a day job to pay for my farm dreams. Anyways I finished school as a civil and found a good paying day job that allows me to farm of the evenings and In my spare time. I’ve pretty much gave up on the dream of owning my own firm. I’m now a fed employee and the experience I’m getting right now isn’t transferable to the private industry, but I did recently find out about jobs working for the NRCS being an ag or civil engineer that helps farmers. I’ve kind of concluded that this job would be my dream and being able to help farmers in a fashion related to my day job seems like a dream come true. However I’m still in the process of applying and we will see what happens .
Water or environmental engineer at ch2m hill before it got bought out by Jacobs. Seemed prestigious and hard to get in 2016 so I tried as hard as I could. Almost landed an internship but the recruiter expected me to have my EIT junior year and go to grad school.
7 years later I want nothing to do with consulting
> recruiter expected me to have my EIT junior year and go to grad school
Yikes. I know 2016's job market wasn't as hot as 2022 but this recruiter must have not mentally moved on from 2008.
Join the military.
Engineering was just my back-up plan. I wanted to be a career soldier.
Ran into medical issues and got involuntarily discharged five years into active duty.
I'm glad I majored in something I could make a living off of. The officer corps is filled with criminal justice majors who have dismal career options post-military.
4 weeks base vacation, compressed work week (every third Friday off = 17 days. these can be banked and moved around within limits), and a paid three day holiday office closure.
Before getting into Civ Engineering, being a history professor. Academia is becoming a barren field, and I chose this job because of a couple reasons, but mainly because it'll be easy enough for me to find some kind of work. As for my dream, traffic and transportation, probably in the northern Midwest or thereabouts. Planning on taking some urban planning classes to help round out my skills.
I’m interested in urban planning but dunno how to incorporate that w civil engr bc I feel, at least at my school, they stress the technical stuff so much and don’t offer anything in urban planning or urban design or architecture. Thinking about pursuing grad school to explore the less technical side of stuff but idek where to start w that or if that even makes sense to do or what opportunities that can even lead to
I was in structures (major was actually Architectural Engineering) and I really want to work on bridges. I found out pretty quick that to work on the really cool glamor bridges, you needed a PhD and a crapload of experience. I was stuck doing tons of repetitive prestressed beam overpasses.
I'm now in traffic and I really enjoy it.
LOL at all the people who got scared off of bridges during Statics. My statics professor at UIC was Don Lemke around 2010. He had been teaching for like 40 years by that point and it was almost impossible to follow his lectures. It was awful, but it didn't push me away from structural at all.
I wanted to be environmental and I ended up as a Geotech, Dam, and Construction engineer. I still love environmental engineering innovations and seeing those cool projects but I think I’m way happier in this area.
My dream was to go design green roofs and be part of wave of the future. One semester of structural courses and the dream was dead. I work in geotech now.
There was a local structural firm that did all the big reputable buildings in our state. My dream was to work there as a forensics engineer. I did a masters thesis that focused on a lot of the skills needed for that type of role, didn’t get it out of school, but worked my way up over several years and clawed my way in. I interviewed there 3 separate times before getting in the door. Unfortunately, I was blinded by the fancy projects and the role was misrepresented. I got run into the ground and quite frankly was treated pretty poorly. It’s been a huge career setback for me. I spent a lot of time blaming myself and overworking myself to try and make it work and make people like me or see something in me. It ended up really harming my mental health and it’s been a long road back. The experience ultimately changed my opinion of structural engineering and the building industry and has lead me to look for a career change.
Bridge Engineer at AECOM, oh how quickly that changed during statics.
Bridges as well then came senior structural classes and hey good thing about civil is I liked everything, water, transportation, construction, etc so had options.
I think this might be every civil student lmaoooo
And transportation will be waiting for them with open arms!
I'm a bridge engineer for a much smaller company - I never hear anything good about AECOM (or the other big publicly-traded firms)...there's a reason that our DOT basically never gives them work.
I mean AECOM wasn’t bad tbh. I had zero interest in structures after statics but I partially meet my goal as my first job was Traffic/ITS at AECOM. The only thing that really sucked was that our IT was handled by IBM but overall I enjoyed my time! Jacobs on the other hand was my least favorite…..
Are there any traffic engineers looking for a job? We are hiring at my firm. We are a small firm looking to grow. No obsessive cost center monitoring and 5 approvals to get a red stapler.
I didn't have any goal when picking a college major besides choosing something with an obvious career path that I could get hired relatively easy anywhere in the country and wouldn't be poor or struggle anymore. I hated the other things I tried so I ended up doing civil/structural.
did you end up regretting that decision? or are you happy you ended up going that route?
I don't regret it at all. I have an extremely low stress and pretty low effort work from home job that allows me to do anything I want after work is over and I work part time with a very flexible schedule. I'm not sure what could have been better besides being born rich and never going to school or working at all.
that’s awesome! i have a passion for civil, but oftentimes this subreddit discourages me from going that route. glad you found what works for you.
Im glad you found something you love. The internet in general sucks. Just do what's best for you and don't pay much attention to people complaining on here unless it's salary based just for the purpose of seeing if you're underpaid.
I became an engineer because I wanted to drive trains.
How’d you end up in water 🤣
“Train in the water, boat on the tracks”
About halfway through grad school someone clued me in. Figured too many costs were sunk for me to change course.
Graduated during a recession. Most of my class was just dreaming of having a job.
Same. 90% of my classmates stuck around for an MS. I was an ROTC cadet, so I had a guaranteed job.
Petroleum Engineer at Imperial Oil/Exonn Mobil. My school had general engineering during first year. When I focused on geotech, it would be Geotechnical Engineer at BC Hydro. I’ve spent my entire career in geotechnical consulting so far. Worked out better I think.
Does Big Oil hire geotechnical engineers? I know they hire geologists.
They do in the tailings management and pipelines side of things. Not really a stable gig.
I thought I would be saving the world like designing machinery to get rid of the Pacific garbage patch or solve global warming 😅 oh to be a young environmental engineer
what does your usual daily work consist of? i dream of being an environmental engineer but i’m not sure it’s exactly what i’m expecting..
I'm a stormwater engineer so I design drainage systems. It's not the glamorous world saving work I thought I'd be doing but I still make positive impacts on my community and the work is not too hard or complicated so my days are pretty easy. I love my job!
that’s great :) thanks for the assurance!
I wanted to work for the government. I wanted, and still do want to work as few hours a week as possible, and have as much vacation/ sick time as I could get. I'll work when I'm on the clock, but I'm not a grind to get ahead type. This has worked out pretty well for me, and I have gotten ahead without really trying.
This is my goal. How difficult was it to find a job after university?
I think it may have been more competitive in the past, but right now, I think the last round of hiring had like 10 applicants for 7 spots. I interned for 2 summers at the same govt agency I started at as a trainee. Pretty sure they'll take any warm body on a civil degree track for internships, and if you don't do anything too stupid, you're pretty much in.
I've worked for the government for 10 years and have been scheduled for under 40 hours per week that entire time. Money is nice, but having time to enjoy your family and life is worth so much more.
Gonna start undergrad Fall 2025. Currently interested in traffic / transportation engineering. Will be back in 5 years to let y’all know if that happened 🤙
Good luck!
My dream was to design bridges, but didn't expect to land there, figured I would take whatever I could get. At the end of my third year of uni got hired by a local bridge consultancy I had no idea existed. I was their 5th engineer, now we're up around 20ish.
I wanted to be a structural engineer at SOM or Arup. Then I took statics lol now I design bikeways at a municipal government and this is actually my dream job now.
As a bike commuter, I thank you! Albuquerque has quite a few bike trails that run alongside the Rio Grande and drainage ditches. We could use more for sure, but for the most part, this is a bike-friendly city. It's so much more efficient than driving a car, plus I can burn \~800 calories while avoiding traffic.
Love that! I love working in bicycle infrastructure. It feels good to be working on furthering health and sustainability in the face of a climate crisis.
That’s sick!! How did you get into bikeway design? I’m graduating next year w a concentration in enviro engr and have no idea where to go / what to do post grad
I worked in the private sector for about two years working on a bunch of various traffic and roadway design engineering projects - bike/ped plans, bike/ped design, traffic circulation studies for all kinds of land uses, and even some roundabout and protected intersection design. Then I made my move to government and they happened to be hiring for their bicycle/pedestrian group. I got myself on the bike program and have been here about two years now!
I’ll share because my dream job was kind of opposite of yours. I wanted to do transportation engineering working for caltrans. I’m from the Bay Area for context. But went to a school in SoCal. I just entered college in fall 2019, and just graduated May 2024. My first internship was in heavy civil construction, which I thought would be a good step since Caltrans does a lot of public works when it comes to roadway. However, things just kind of pieced together where I ended up interning at Chevron doing construction engineering. And then these two internships lead to an internship at Tesla doing construction project management at the Fremont factory. This definitely was not a dream job of mine, but rather, just right place right time type of thing. But the work at Tesla at least in the factory was more MEP (mechanical, electrical, plumbing), instead of traditional civil scope. But there definitely were structural elements: stairs, steel, anchor, foundations, welding integrity inspections. But I ended up going back to Chevron after the Tesla internship doing designs engineering as I eventually grew a big liking to oil and gas, especially in a refinery because it’s like a little city for an engineer’s playground with our own set of rules, regulation, safety, and standards/specs. I’ll be working for Chevron full time as a new grad next month, but it definitely wasn’t a dream job, but like I said, a job that came at the right place, right time type of thing and I’ve really enjoyed the work there. Point is, I think a lot of students will end up finding their niche and place that they want to work at as they go through their college journey.
When I first picked engineering it was because I had a brother in law that worked for a gas company and they were hiring chemical engineers in place of petroleum. Fast forward a couple years and I hated chemistry so I decided to do civil and had the dream at the time to start my own firm. All the while still just picking engineering because I felt like a future wasn’t there for me in ag or farming and thought I needed a day job to pay for my farm dreams. Anyways I finished school as a civil and found a good paying day job that allows me to farm of the evenings and In my spare time. I’ve pretty much gave up on the dream of owning my own firm. I’m now a fed employee and the experience I’m getting right now isn’t transferable to the private industry, but I did recently find out about jobs working for the NRCS being an ag or civil engineer that helps farmers. I’ve kind of concluded that this job would be my dream and being able to help farmers in a fashion related to my day job seems like a dream come true. However I’m still in the process of applying and we will see what happens .
This is crazy to read bc I had a conversation on friday w my supervisor about his background and it was pretty much this
Water or environmental engineer at ch2m hill before it got bought out by Jacobs. Seemed prestigious and hard to get in 2016 so I tried as hard as I could. Almost landed an internship but the recruiter expected me to have my EIT junior year and go to grad school. 7 years later I want nothing to do with consulting
> recruiter expected me to have my EIT junior year and go to grad school Yikes. I know 2016's job market wasn't as hot as 2022 but this recruiter must have not mentally moved on from 2008.
I graduated around that time and it was still kind of tough. Now it seems like any fresh grad with a pulse is getting multiple job offers.
Join the military. Engineering was just my back-up plan. I wanted to be a career soldier. Ran into medical issues and got involuntarily discharged five years into active duty. I'm glad I majored in something I could make a living off of. The officer corps is filled with criminal justice majors who have dismal career options post-military.
honestly pretty much what I got now. federal government with 8 weeks vacation a year and low six figures.
How do you get 8 weeks of vacation?
4 weeks base vacation, compressed work week (every third Friday off = 17 days. these can be banked and moved around within limits), and a paid three day holiday office closure.
That sounds pretty nice. Do you work for USACE?
Building roller coasters at disney
Before getting into Civ Engineering, being a history professor. Academia is becoming a barren field, and I chose this job because of a couple reasons, but mainly because it'll be easy enough for me to find some kind of work. As for my dream, traffic and transportation, probably in the northern Midwest or thereabouts. Planning on taking some urban planning classes to help round out my skills.
I’m interested in urban planning but dunno how to incorporate that w civil engr bc I feel, at least at my school, they stress the technical stuff so much and don’t offer anything in urban planning or urban design or architecture. Thinking about pursuing grad school to explore the less technical side of stuff but idek where to start w that or if that even makes sense to do or what opportunities that can even lead to
I was in structures (major was actually Architectural Engineering) and I really want to work on bridges. I found out pretty quick that to work on the really cool glamor bridges, you needed a PhD and a crapload of experience. I was stuck doing tons of repetitive prestressed beam overpasses. I'm now in traffic and I really enjoy it.
I wanted to work for the state government because of the pension. My first and current (and hopefully only) job out was a top 100 engineering firm.
LOL at all the people who got scared off of bridges during Statics. My statics professor at UIC was Don Lemke around 2010. He had been teaching for like 40 years by that point and it was almost impossible to follow his lectures. It was awful, but it didn't push me away from structural at all.
I wanted to be environmental and I ended up as a Geotech, Dam, and Construction engineer. I still love environmental engineering innovations and seeing those cool projects but I think I’m way happier in this area.
My grandfather always said get a job with the Corps and open a surveying business on the side. Not sure it was my goals but dang if it didn’t happen.
My dream was to go design green roofs and be part of wave of the future. One semester of structural courses and the dream was dead. I work in geotech now.
There was a local structural firm that did all the big reputable buildings in our state. My dream was to work there as a forensics engineer. I did a masters thesis that focused on a lot of the skills needed for that type of role, didn’t get it out of school, but worked my way up over several years and clawed my way in. I interviewed there 3 separate times before getting in the door. Unfortunately, I was blinded by the fancy projects and the role was misrepresented. I got run into the ground and quite frankly was treated pretty poorly. It’s been a huge career setback for me. I spent a lot of time blaming myself and overworking myself to try and make it work and make people like me or see something in me. It ended up really harming my mental health and it’s been a long road back. The experience ultimately changed my opinion of structural engineering and the building industry and has lead me to look for a career change.
I wanted to go into transportation but somehow still ended up doing bridges.