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JSteven

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I had my first co-op/internship full time job about 12 years ago and I just took a new position this January in the Geotech Consulting field as an "entry level" engineer. I've been working on and off since then (over 6 full time years straight after graduation, 1.5 years of full time co-op during school, part-time engineering work between classes and hiring freeze approx 2 years) and I have yet to see any decent financial reward or personal satisfaction for my work and I find that most people in this field have little to no practical function.

I respect these humble positions to some extent, but I feel I am surrounded by eggheads. I cant seem to pass the Geotech PE and work continues to frustrate me. Anyone here work in the field of estimating, project management, product R&D, tech support/sales, who can offer a testimonial for a career change?

 
JSteven said:
I had my first co-op/internship full time job about 12 years ago and I just took a new position this January in the Geotech Consulting field as an "entry level" engineer. I've been working on and off since then (over 6 full time years straight after graduation, 1.5 years of full time co-op during school, part-time engineering work between classes and hiring freeze approx 2 years) and I have yet to see any decent financial reward or personal satisfaction for my work and I find that most people in this field have little to no practical function.
I respect these humble positions to some extent, but I feel I am surrounded by eggheads. I cant seem to pass the Geotech PE and work continues to frustrate me. Anyone here work in the field of estimating, project management, product R&D, tech support/sales, who can offer a testimonial for a career change?
Click to expand...
I would definitly say being on the contractor side is much worse then being on the client side unless you can make the legendary individual contractor salerys (upwards of around 200k) or if you are trying to build experience and get your PE etc. If you have established your self as a credible PE with 5-7 years experience and you are not making 6 figures you should try finding a job with the client. Contract jobs are not ment to be stable but in theory you should be making more than enough to put in the bank to ride out a down turn but if you are already an established engineer and are not bank rolling best to go to the client side if you can or find a better contractor that will pay enough so you can survive down turns. If you are not an established engineer then thats a different story, you should always be striving for the next certificate (PE, etc) or degree as well as being willing to tackle difficult engineering problems at work and the rest will fall into place when people are getting laid off you just might get an offer from the client if you stand out as someone who is not a joker. This is exactly my position now, I am a grossly underpaid contractor working in the client offices for almost a year now and am working on either going with another contractor for a 130% raise or trying to go direct with the client. Obviously we can only do what is in our control to change but this is the path I would recommend. Your probably going to get the hooky pooky about how your lucky to have a job but if you are a super star player there is real money to be made out there. You also may have to be willing to move, I personally would never take a rotational position because I like sex to much but for some there is really good money to be made doing that as well.

As far as project managment I find alot of people working in project management have no buisness being there, project management is sufficiently complicated enough that you really should have an MBA with emphisis in project management there are alot of things that have to go right for a project to be sucessful, not my chosen carrer path but I have seen well managed and poorly managed jobs and the difference is usually a project manager that knows what he is doing and has actual class room training and not just some guy in the company that puts on a cow boy hat. R&D is PhD level stuff, this is what I eventually want to get into, very low likely hood of working around egg heads in R&D (not impossible though). Never dealt with sales and have no interest, heard you can make alot of money but I would hate it unless I really really believed in the product.

 
rppearso said:
As far as project managment I find alot of people working in project management have no buisness being there, project management is sufficiently complicated enough that you really should have an MBA with emphisis in project management there are alot of things that have to go right for a project to be sucessful, not my chosen carrer path but I have seen well managed and poorly managed jobs and the difference is usually a project manager that knows what he is doing and has actual class room training and not just some guy in the company that puts on a cow boy hat.
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I smell something funny... maybe that's because you're talking out your ass?

PMs in construction don't need an MBA education to be successful - I have too many direct examples to the counter.

 
rp-

As wrong as you are about so many things, I find myself a little frightened at the thought that you are actually in control of chemical processes. I am hoping that either-

1. You are one of those savants who is a genius in one area but pretty much loco in everything else, or

2. You are a bored middleschooler laughing your ass off because you managed to get a bunch of professional engineers to take you seriously enough too argue with you.

It may just be difficulty putting your thoughts into words on a screen. And a lot of words I might add. But sorry, that's how you come across..

 
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IlPadrino said:
PMs in construction don't need an MBA education to be successful - I have too many direct examples to the counter.
Click to expand...

I will take this a step further.

PM's in construction that have MBA's tend to be the WORST PM's out of all of them. They all become bean counters with zero concept of what needs to take place in the field, and the time and money they end up wasting because of it FAR outweighs their attempts to nickel and dime everything else.

 
benbo said:
rp-As wrong as you are about so many things, I find myself a little frightened at the thought that you are actually in control of chemical processes. I am hoping that either-

1. You are one of those savants who is a genius in one area but pretty much loco in everything else, or

2. You are a bored middleschooler laughing your ass off because you managed to get a bunch of professional engineers to take you seriously enough too argue with you.

It may just be difficulty putting your thoughts into words on a screen. And a lot of words I might add. But sorry, that's how you come across..
Click to expand...
I agree with #2.

 
Jsteven

I went through similar feelings about 5 years ago, I didnt see any major money reward for the investment in my career. I wasnt in geotech but I had similar feelings about working my way into being a Project Manager, I was frustrated, I looked at everything from going to work to be a store manager at Home Depot, to working for accenture, and even came close to being an FBI Agent.

When I looked at other choices it became apparant to me that the money I would take by changing careers would be too much of a setback and I stuck it out, passed the PE, and then after two job changes am somewhat happy and feel I am compensanted at a fair amount.

Maybe take a look at doing something outside of geotech within the civil engineering field and look for something that has a little more job satisfaction?

 
Road Guy said:
Jsteven
I went through similar feelings about 5 years ago, I didnt see any major money reward for the investment in my career. I wasnt in geotech but I had similar feelings about working my way into being a Project Manager, I was frustrated, I looked at everything from going to work to be a store manager at Home Depot, to working for accenture, and even came close to being an FBI Agent.

When I looked at other choices it became apparant to me that the money I would take by changing careers would be too much of a setback and I stuck it out, passed the PE, and then after two job changes am somewhat happy and feel I am compensanted at a fair amount.

Maybe take a look at doing something outside of geotech within the civil engineering field and look for something that has a little more job satisfaction?
Click to expand...
All good points mentioned above and thanks. As far as getting over this PE hurdle would it be advised to stick with the Geotech or is there an easier exam... Construction/Transpo? I know enough about site construction and road construction in a general sense, but how difficult would those exams be for someone who isnt a highway engineer or a PM by nature?

 
JSteven said:
As far as getting over this PE hurdle would it be advised to stick with the Geotech or is there an easier exam... Construction/Transpo? I know enough about site construction and road construction in a general sense, but how difficult would those exams be for someone who isnt a highway engineer or a PM by nature?
Click to expand...
The "easiest" exam is the one in the area you are most familiar with.

 
become a surveyor like me. I make it rain with my fatty income - i likes sex 2 :mf_boff:

 
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