Career Blues

I received my PE a couple of years ago. I have about 10 years CE experience - mostly land development. I also have about 5 years experience with the dot com world doing programming in C, and various LISP(s).

Anyway, the point is I thought that getting my PE would also mean that I would get more interesting work. All I do is minimal design and spend most of my time answering various regulatory agencies and local boards with comment/response, etc. for getting plans/projects approved. This work is killing my brain - what is left of it.

Is there anyting exciting out there? Or, is this how the next 30 years will play out? Answering the dumbest most bureucratic BS I can imagine? I think I am due for a career shake up but do not want to waste the PE/experience I do have.

Suggestions?

Do you work at a small firm? Have you discussed this with your supervisor? Maybe switching jobs is the answer? Although, bigger jobs mean bigger bureaucratic BS and bigger headaches and MORE comments and responses .

knelli said:

Do you work at a small firm? Have you discussed this with your supervisor? Maybe switching jobs is the answer? Although, bigger jobs mean bigger bureaucratic BS and bigger headaches and MORE comments and responses .

Click to expand...

I work for the most non-focused company (small - 15 people). The manager/owner is seen maybe once per week for a couple of hours. he is MIA, hence no supervisor. The pay is good and i do enjoy the freedom of no supervision at times - like when i want to stroll in at 10 am, after late meeting the night before. This company only offers only 1 type of work(land development) - that is the big problem. trying to figure out something more challenging/meaningful - while still collecting a real pay check is the obstacle. I'm not opposed to changing companies, besides I live 60 miles from NYC - which could offer real options if i don't want to find something more local.

Don't be discouraged, GCIII. First of all, consider yourself lucky that you have a job and the pay is good. There are engineers that are looking for any job now.

But I DO understand how detrimental it is to do boring, repetitive work. I recently changed jobs for that reason. My advice is to get a "Plan B". You have experience and credentials that make you marketable, so get your resume in tip-top shape and let it work for you.

Good luck. And if you need advice, or need to vent, you can find help here.

Another piece of advice that I have started to implement lately is to establish a group of peers that you communicate with regularly. The folks here are a start, but perhaps some local people would help you out. Get involved in a couple of organizations, contact some folks you went to school with or perhaps worked with on a project. I have found that most of my peers have the same gripes I do, and most everyone is happy to discuss their experiences. This also has the added benefit of establishing a network where you will hear of job openings, RFQs, etc. In my brief experience I have found that developing people skills such as these and really being pro-active in the community will do wonders to set you apart.

You are not in a bad situation.

Is pay good? Yes

Are the hours flexible? Yes

Does your boss micromanage? No

We all get bored.

Sometime we engineers go all our career looking for good paying jobs without overbearing bosses and flexible hours.

This is what you do...

Find an engineering discipline you enjoy (water resources, wastewater, etc.) Cultivate that while you continue to do land development.

Eventually you will become good enough at the new discipline to become the leader in your small office for that discipline.

Start winning jobs and you'll be set! Your existing boss should love the fact that you are trying to broaden your horizons and opening more job oppurtunities for the firm.

Find a discipline you are interested in.

i had the EXACT same problem, although i do not have my PE yet. Small firm, no boss, comment responses to morons.

funny story . . . . i had to take a plan before a Planning Commision (where i live its all volunteer from the community - meaning Engineer wannabes, house wives and farmers with nothing better to do on a Tuesday night!). One woman commented on the proposed grading in the rear yards on a section of the plan . . . it went like this :

Woman : "I don'l like the steep slopes in those rear yards."

Me : "They are 3:1 slopes per the ordinance."

Woman : "Well i think 3:1 is just too steep. Make them 2:1 and it would be MUCH better."

Me : ~ Blank stare like a deer in the head lights ~ "O.K. whatever makes you happy."

of course the TWP. Engineer promptly corrected her and told her in so many words to let the engineering to the engineers.!!!

your solution MAY be to find a LARGER company . . . . i left and now work for a firm with about 100 +/- people. MUCH more interesting and larger projects to work on.

I, too, and having a career crisis at the moment. I hate controls work, and have ever since I started doing it 6 years ago. But my degree in Computer Engineering was pretty much useless when I graduated in 2002 (right after the dot com bust), so I accepted what was available. I ended up getting laid off twice in the 2 years following my graduation, so I decided that I was far too expendable. In the last couple years, I have gotten my masters in engineering management and my PE. Now, I have decided it's time to move on. I'm currently doing conveyor controls at a small division of a large company. There is no chance for advancement, and my PE is largely useless here. Not to mention the fact that the idiotic upper management are driving the company into the ground and blaming it on the ailing economy (while completely ignoring the fact that all of our competitors have more work than they can handle...I know, because I've interviewed with several of them). We recently laid off 7 people (over 20% of the office staff) while everybody else is hiring like crazy.

I am in the enviable position of having enough interviews, opportunities, and offers to be highly selective of the one that I choose. As opposed to my last 2 job searches where I was living on unemployment checks and jumped at the first offer hurled in my direction, I am able to really think about whether a job would make me happy or not. I have decided that company stability, chance for upward mobility, and markets served by the company are the most important aspects for me...so now I just have to find a job that fits all of my criteria.

I have to admit, though, it's getting hard to hide all of the interviews and job-hunt related phone calls from my current employer. Oh well, if they fire me, I should have an open offer on the table to accept immediately.

^^ Be careful- that just happened to me! I was so bored and miserable that people came up to me and asked me why I was still there! (Because I was two weeks from finding out if I had passed the exam, that's why!!!) So they fired me two days after I passed! I am SO happy to be gone. I am doing something completely different now and very much looking forward to the variety. I told them in the interview that if I was going to be doing mundane design then they could jsut stop now. I'm glad it worked out that way because they appreciated my honesty and I don't have to worry that I'll hate it.

Thanks for the posts - so far.

I do disagree with building up business for someone else's business when that owner is hardly putting any effort into it their business. Additionally, the owner has been approached by other Engineers about taking on additional owners, etc. and he said no way.

I think the approach will be as follows - please feel free to criticize.

1. Start attending ASCE meeting for area - I will start meeting other Engineers. Need to join ASCE as well.

2. I currently attend specific Town(s) various board meeting. But I really started doing this just to get exposure to the back end of the design process (the approvals) with an associate of the company. He has been an engineer for 25/30 years. I asked if I could tag along about 2 years ago and have keeped up doing it ever since. No extra money in it, just for the experience. Great experince but he is always in the drivers seat. I think I will approach the owner and request my "own' Town for meetings, etc.

3. Start looking, just to have an idea of what is out there. I think, fundamentally, that the company I work at is too small. I like larger projects. I worked on some big ones in the past, like the Big Dig in Boston, etc. My biggest problem is location of the big companies. Big companies seem to be in the cities. NYC is 60 miles (2 hour) commute. Anyone have any suggestions for the area of good Engineering firms/what a big Engineering firm will be looking for?

4. Keep a poistive attitude in the office. Can't afford to get fired.

Any other suggestions, comments etc?

You don't necessarily have to work for a huge company. Working for a company that frequently does subcontract work for those huge firms also has its perks. I work for a large construction and engineering company, and even the guys we sub out work to are always looking for engineers, especially civil, since most of the problems in our projects are soil or concrete related.

If you're willing to relocate, there is a huge amount of work going on in NC. Some related to military bases, but other, too.

#3- this was the problem I had. If you're stuck, you're stuck. The benefits that I had assumed would come with a small company were outweighed by the fact that b umps affect everyone. I will probably never go back, but that was my bad experience, and might be yours. Sometimes a bad taste in your mouth is enough to ruin it for you.

Edit: sometimes I hate that "bump" icon

I KNOW!!!! bump you can't get away from the bump!!!

bump

SCPE said:

You are not in a bad situation.
Is pay good? Yes

Are the hours flexible? Yes

Does your boss micromanage? No

We all get bored.

Sometime we engineers go all our career looking for good paying jobs without overbearing bosses and flexible hours.

This is what you do...

Find an engineering discipline you enjoy (water resources, wastewater, etc.) Cultivate that while you continue to do land development.

Eventually you will become good enough at the new discipline to become the leader in your small office for that discipline.

Start winning jobs and you'll be set! Your existing boss should love the fact that you are trying to broaden your horizons and opening more job opportunities for the firm.

Find a discipline you are interested in.

Click to expand...

This is a good suggestion since the firm is so small!!!

Will they pay for extra school? I would recommend a degree like I am approaching MSETM (link) through OSU. It is like an MBA geared to wards engineering. The 1 hour classes are condensed versions of MBA classes where we already have exposure to Tech, Engineering, Projects, and manufacturing. Then you can take 3 hour classes in the MBA, Finance or other departments as you wish. Everything is online, so you can listen to classes at work while working on projects.

I just got done with a corporate entrepreneurship class that covered what SPCE mentioned. IT is about building your own company or department on someone else's dime. Maybe you could justify getting a small risk funds to attempt to get work in your new area of interest. Work it out so that if you can grow a new department that you get a percentage of the ownership of the new department where you can take profits. These precentage generally range from 30% to 75%. If it takes off, your new department could return big divendends. This is how DOS for Dummies got started, also Apple, and Microsoft both got capital venture funds from Xerox.

Of course your area will be lower risk, and therefore lower percentage returns than an Apple computer or Microsoft startup. Besure to set your new department or venture up where it has a strategic advantage over the competition.

Here is an internal article from my company on Venture Capital (VC Link.

Good luck!!!!!

I hear you, from the other side (regulator). I am sick and tired of commenting on applicant's crappy plans, and inspecting and enforcing on the same stupid mistakes in the field. I feel like a tired old babysitter whose kids just aren't growing up. (Of course, my location probabaly has something to do with it - I am sure your company's land development plans would look flawless compared to the napkin drawings I regularly review).

Similarly, I also have very little direct supervision, and am stuck in my job, for a number of reasons. What I have done to keep my attitude from disappearing into the toilet is to work on various "fun" projects in my spare time at work - all work related, of course.

The ultimate answer is to find a new and better job, though. And if I understand your situation correctly, it doesn't seem to me like you're really all that "stuck." I suggest you start looking around.

GCIII said:

I received my PE a couple of years ago. I have about 10 years CE experience - mostly land development. I also have about 5 years experience with the dot com world doing programming in C, and various LISP(s).
Anyway, the point is I thought that getting my PE would also mean that I would get more interesting work. All I do is minimal design and spend most of my time answering various regulatory agencies and local boards with comment/response, etc. for getting plans/projects approved. This work is killing my brain - what is left of it.

Is there anyting exciting out there? Or, is this how the next 30 years will play out? Answering the dumbest most bureucratic BS I can imagine? I think I am due for a career shake up but do not want to waste the PE/experience I do have.

Suggestions?

Click to expand...

I think a lot of us end up finding ourselves in the same rut and end up spending more hours on a message board coming up with quirky content to post.

I totally feel your pain - I am in the same boat. I think you need to evaluate your job prospects but also consider how you like your PERSONAL life as well - their needs to be balance in ALL aspects of your life.

I am also seeking out what I want to do when I grow up. My graduate work is a split between geotechnical analysis and coastal engineering. I am seriously thinking about doing something within THESE areas even if it means less responsibility to start off with and build into a career.

I noticed you seem to have something of a geotech background as well - have you thought about doing something slightly different?

JR

I just woke up from a 45 minute nap at my desk. At least I feel better now.

Dleg said:

What I have done to keep my attitude from disappearing into the toilet is to work on various "fun" projects in my spare time at work - all work related, of course.

Click to expand...

Oh, this caused an awful flashback to my previous job. I was in a rut and bored out of my mind doing endless piles of meaningless paperwork and filing. Someone suggested that I work on a "fun" project in spare time. I was in product design, so I found a "wish-list" product that nobody had time to develop. I only worked on it during my lunchtime, after working hours, and weekends. To my amazement, my @$$H0L3 of a boss wrote me up for "doing unauthorized project work". I was called into HR and reamed. That was probably the low point. It was about a month later that the @$$H0L3 got demoted and was no longer my boss. That environment was SO demoralizing.