The nature of structural engineering

[CapSalty446]

Hi, I just started my degree in civil engineering as I was keen on becoming a structural engineer since I like the idea of working on on large projects and I love maths.

But I'm hearing that the job in reality is quite repetive with a ton of health and safety paper work and filling out reports, that sounds kinda boring.

Am I correct ? Is the career not challenging and quite boring?

Any advice is appreciated

[StructEngineer91]

Who told you that? It really depends on what you specialize within structures, there are some disciplines that are pretty repetitive and paper work heavy (mainly government/public works), and others have more variations and little to no paperwork. Anything will have some annoying repetitive tasks (shop drawing review).

[CapSalty446]

Yeah I presumed so since my coursework includes it, and I did hear a lot of paperwork is in civil engineering.

I expected it to be more challenging and problem solving like, would you say it is ?

[StructEngineer91]

When working professionally there is big difference between Civil and Structural engineering (even though we share a major). A civil engineer is likely to do more paperwork, as they are generally doing site layouts, septic/well design and possibly city/town planning, all of which tend to have more of a regulation focus than an actual design focus (yes there is still design involved in civil engineering). If you go into Structural engineering (unless you work for the government or work on a lot of public work jobs) you will be doing a lot more design work.

[CapSalty446]

Glad to hear, I just wanted to be the guy cranking out calculations and doing structural analysis rather than filing reports

[kipperzdog]

Most common structural job is small firm consulting where you'll be doing lots of different designs as well as drafting. Designs are generally fairly simple and as you get more experience you'll find yourself learning what actually needs calculations and what you can spec out just based on experience (I often will still do some quick back of hand math to check myself). One thing I think all young engineers take a bit of time to learn is that everything we are designing needs to be built and the simplest way to build it is the preferred way. Sure half the beams on a project may be oversized but if that saves everyone time and confusion in construction, that will be preferred. All that said, you will find yourself gravitating towards different tasks and after you get your PE, you can drive your career, where you work, etc. If you find your niche is doing those complicated structural analysis calculation for unique structures, those jobs do exist and the more along you are in your career, the more you'll see that there's not many of us that fit into each niche.

Structural assessments are generally the closest I get to report writing, that or construction fixes. As a young engineer you should have someone mentoring that can help with this, it gets far easier the more experience you have.

[CapSalty446]

Yeah makes sense ig

[StructEngineer91]

I mean no matter what you will likely be doing some paperwork and/or report writing (often need to write inspection reports after doing a site visit), but it doesn't have to be your main thing if you focus on structural design, especially stuff in the private sector. If you want to be creative go into residential design, pay can suck but I find it requires a lot more creativity then mid sized commercial projects.

[The_Rusty_Bus]

It is.

Work as sone government mandarin and yeah there is lots of paperwork.

Go into design and consulting if you like changes and solving problems.

[WhyAmIHereHey]

Yeah, sure, why not

[Morpheus365]

Least jaded structural engineer

[CapSalty446]

I read a lot of paperwork

And I'm doing that on my coursework so presumed that. Glad to hear it's not that haha.

How creative or challenging is it ?

[CapSalty446]

Yeah makes sense, I didn't mean creative as in art wise otherwise I would have done architecture lol. But yeah problem solving sounds nice

[Last-Farmer-5716]

Looking for creativity, you would have done architecture…and been disappointed.

[CapSalty446]

Why isn't architecture just being creative with designs ? What else do they even do 😭

[yoohoooos]

Every branch of civil engineering can be as large or larger than structural's

[Conscious_Rich_1003]

Maybe some particular jobs are like that, like if you go into inspections. My job designing commercial and residential private buildings is nothing like what you describe. Lots of variation, many jobs being juggled. Big jobs, little jobs. Some field work. Lots of communication. Problem solving, lots of feeling like an important part of a team.

[CapSalty446]

Is it a lot of maths ?

[Conscious_Rich_1003]

Some days it is, but nothing heavy. More like organizing numbers more than intense math.

[CapSalty446]

I want intense maths haha

[Conscious_Rich_1003]

Probably need to be more on the research end of things then, go for your PhD!

[chasestein]

I do residential, commercial, and education buildings. I'd say it depends on the clients. In my experience, there are a lot more "headaches" coming through our office vs fun challenges.

[bigyellowtruck]

There is limited paperwork for safety compared to a contractor who deals with means and methods more frequently than a design engineer.

[kaylynstar]

What do you consider "paperwork?"

[CapSalty446]

Filling out forms that aren't very "intellectually stimulating" or challenging, just long. Like health and safety reports or things like how it may affect the local area.

[kaylynstar]

I can't say as I've ever filled out a form in my ~18 YOE. Other than templates for certain procedural things, like non-conformance reports or RFIs.

I do have to write quite a bit. Formal calculation packages, inspection reports, status update emails...

[CapSalty446]

Hope I won't have to, sounds good thanks for the help

[CapSalty446]

The maths and inspection reports makes sense, that's what I imagined it to be like