# Career Rant / Advice please



## JMC2194 (Sep 23, 2011)

Hi everyone.

Sorry in advance as this will be somewhat of a rant followed by me asking for some career advice.

To give you guys some background about me and my situation; I work for company of roughly ~500-600 people on the east coast. My office consists of roughly 20 people of which I’m one of the few w/ an engineering background. This is my first job out of college and I’ve been here about 4 years. I’ve passed the FE and I’ll be taking my PE exam in April 2012. My office manager is someone who attempts to lowball his employees for the most part, has his favorites and it not shy about people knowing it.

The office dynamic is an easy going one where people fall into one of two categories. The first category is made up of roughly 60% of my office. These people do little to no work each day, show up late and will throw anyone under the bus to make themselves look better. One person in particular is my office manager’s favorite employee. He shows up roughly an hour late daily, wanders the office like a lost child, and does at most 1 hr of work a day. I’ll call this person SlowJoe. The other group of people is hardworking individuals with good work ethic. I fall into this group myself and we are left to carry some of the burden and fix the mistakes of SlowJoe and the others.

As of a few weeks ago we had some turnover and changes in my office. One of our best employees in my office left for another position that came with a 30% raise. Another person of similar work ethic is on his way out the door shortly as well. On top of all this, a few weeks ago I stumbled upon a paper in our copier that shows exactly how much everyone makes and their multiplier for every year from 2007-2011. What I learned from this is that although I may be making more than many of my peers, this is attributed to my degree (Civil/Env Engineering) and refusing to accept a lowball offer out of college. Not my raises. SlowJoe for example, received on average a 9% raise during this 4 year period. Another 2 people, who don’t carry their weight, received an 8% average raise each over the 4 year period. I was promoted once during these 4 years and only received an average of 5.2%.

Needless to say finding out this info and others leaving has left me very dissatisfied with a job I was pretty happy with a year ago. I’m taking on more and more responsibility daily (since people are leaving) and I want to be compensated for such. Would I be out of line asking for ~10% raise given the current economic times? And should I shop myself around to see how much I’m realistically worth before doing so? I think if I do this my boss will tell me to wait till I pass the PE and then he can give me a raise (w/ a promotion). This doesn't work for me though. What he's doing here in my opinion is combining 3 raises into one. A raise for getting my PE, a raise because I'm a disgruntled employee he wants to keep, and a raise for a promotion. Then when it comes review time I'll get no raise (normally a 3% cost of living raise) because I just recieved one for passing my PE. Am I just being greedy here?

Also, I feel I shouldn’t switch jobs for at least another year to year and a half with my PE exam looming, but I've seriously considered it just for piece of mind.

Any opinions or thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks.


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## MGX (Sep 23, 2011)

I'd get my PE and bail.

You can't fix the leadership if you are an underling.


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## Jacob_PE (Sep 23, 2011)

I'd say shop around but do nothing that will jeapordize priority # 1 (PE).


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## Peele1 (Sep 24, 2011)

Three things:

PE

PE

PE

Study, study, study.

Use vacation time to study, use holidays to study. Study your butt off.

Ignore all office politics and favoritism until you pass the PE.

7 months seems like a long time, but it's not. Since you'll be studying all the time, it will go quickly.

After you get the PE, see what they offer, and maybe look around. Maybe start your own firm, or join a start-up.


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## tmacier (Sep 24, 2011)

Grass is always greener! No good comes out of knowing what others in your office make for salary -

Stay until you get your PE and then see what is out there.

Good luck

Tim


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## solomonb (Sep 24, 2011)

Stay put, study your ass off and get the PE on the first attempt. THEN and ONLY THEN,after you successfully take and pass the PE exam, begin to look around and see if the grass is greener.

You have 4 years at your current firm--you know the dynamics, the politics and the expectations. Don't think that the next place is going to be much different-- there will be Slow Joe's there as well, maybe even Slow Betty's. Trust me, they are everywhere.

You will be a more employable engineer with your PE in hand than now. Why? Well, you have the PE completed, you will have 5 years of work experience and you will be ready to get going.

If you bail out now, you not only have to learn a new company, new colleagues, new system, but also have to study for the PE exam. Doable, but tough. More difficult if you have a wife and 2 ankle biters.

Stay put, study hard, pass the first time, then look---there will be lots of folks that will be willing to pick you up and pay you what you are worth. Study hard-- pass the first time-- I have great faith, you can do it.


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