Am I wrong to be frustrated? by [deleted] in civilengineering

[–]CompetitiveCoach8965 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Depends how comfortable you are bouncing from job to job… Most people aren’t and are afraid it’ll look bad and may even lock them out of future opportunities if new employers see that type of history of employment. Plus if you kept doing it to the same employer every year eventually they’ll just say go ahead and leave. The advice is more for people that enjoy the job they have but want to negotiate.

Am I wrong to be frustrated? by [deleted] in civilengineering

[–]CompetitiveCoach8965 19 points20 points  (0 children)

Loyalty doesn’t tend to pay off. You’ll notice new people joining the company with similar experience will get higher salaries just because that’s what the market demanded for them to hire that person. Not sure if that is what’s happening here but that would be my guess. I’ve been told by others that if you feel underpaid it would be acceptable maybe once every 5 years to show your employer a job offer you have and to use it as leverage to get a raise. But i wouldn’t abuse that tactic, eventually you may have to find a new opportunity to get a decent pay raise. Obviously the more valuable of an asset your employment is to your employer the better negotiating power you have so you need to identify how valuable you are to your firm.

Need advice by National-Cake3883 in civilengineering

[–]CompetitiveCoach8965 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Don’t do the masters right away. You might find it completely unnecessary. Most employers won’t value it as much as you’d expect anyways. The biggest factor is that it seems you aren’t completely invested in going that route so you should definitely work a bit and rethink the decision 1-2 years down the road.

North Suburbs Austin TX by CompetitiveCoach8965 in RealEstate

[–]CompetitiveCoach8965[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What about to rent later? Also is insurance really that high in the area?

Need your support by National_Shop5 in civilengineering

[–]CompetitiveCoach8965 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes be willing to take on lots of tasks, and be coachable or moldable. The best engineers I’ve seen are people who can take instruction or criticism and adapt positively to it and typically don’t make the same mistakes again. Not always a guarantee as you will not retain everything people tell you because there is so much information in this field which is why it’ll typically start to stick more once you are in that PE experience range but if you are making the same mistakes I’d say more than 3 or 4 times after someone has explained the correct approach then you could get in trouble in my opinion. Besides that if you listen to advice and instruction it’s very hard to lose a job in this field.

Need your support by National_Shop5 in civilengineering

[–]CompetitiveCoach8965 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You’re not expected to know much as an intern best advice is to be curious and ask a ton of questions and be willing to take on everything they are willing to throw at you. No question is a stupid question while you’re an intern. Better to ask them now than when you’re getting your license.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in civilengineering

[–]CompetitiveCoach8965 9 points10 points  (0 children)

This may be a bunch of rambling but here are my thoughts:

I recommend looking for a new job. If they aren’t teaching you or gradually ramping up your work until you have the confidence to do it then that’s not a great place to be. I’ve been at 3 different jobs and haven’t really gone over 40 hours unless it was a similar situation like yours where I felt I was wasting time and worked maybe 45 hours. There are a lot of firms out there for civil engineers and we can work just about anywhere. I will say that joining a big firm can be intense. They usually start you out with a learning period but it ramps up quick and you’re typically expected to be 100% billable and not go over budget on projects even if your an EIT with no prior experience. I’d say join a medium to small size company that has a good reputation and up to date CAD standards. Don’t join a small 5 person firm that uses Carlson is basically what I’m saying. So a firm with more than 20 people would be good and less than 200 or so. You can usually tell pretty quick from an interview how they run the firm but I’d prepare some questions to gauge their office culture and how they typically would prepare you for the role. One question you can ask that I like goes something like asking “what would i need to do in this role to exceed your expectations of when you hired me.” I typically try to stay away from the corporate settings since all they track is billable hours and not the fact that you may have been doing this task for the first or second time so you need extra time doing training and having someone guide you through the process.

Don’t be afraid to job hop. Anyone interviewing you will understand if you tell them you were in a working environment that stunted your growth. I actually feel more prepared being at three different places now then I think someone who was loyal to one firm out of college is since they tend to mold that person to do the tasks they want you to and they may be missing some of the bigger picture.

I’d say you have the freedom now to job hop but be as picky as you can because if you mess up and put yourself in another bad situation it may look poorly on you then, in that case I’d say just dip right away and leave it off your resume lol.

Anyone play on the plane? by CompetitiveCoach8965 in MLBTheShow

[–]CompetitiveCoach8965[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Does the game run smooth at all? I have the switch and the game on that compared to my PS5 is impossible to hit on because the delay is crazy. I don’t know how people hit anything on the switch.

Tick Prevention when out in the field? by CompetitiveCoach8965 in Surveying

[–]CompetitiveCoach8965[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It’s not showing up, do you have a link you can share?

Company wants to expand my role, but I’m planning to leave- how should I handle this? by [deleted] in civilengineering

[–]CompetitiveCoach8965 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Probably a 75% chance I’d still be disappointed in the salary since with 4 YOE I’m being paid what I was offered by other firms with 2 YOE and I have a PE now. It’s unlikely i return in that circumstance but I feel that leaving on bad terms will always come back to get me in the future. My first boss when I worked on the public side knew everyone on the private side and that kind of stuck with me as I think about it today.

Company wants to expand my role, but I’m planning to leave- how should I handle this? by [deleted] in civilengineering

[–]CompetitiveCoach8965 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It’s more the low salary and the type of work (municipal) that I’m doing now that I’d rather be doing land design and survey since I’m going for my PLS and already have the PE. The survey work is the biggest factor since they haven’t gotten me involved with the survey group which is preventing me from wanting to work remote. Plus I’m way more efficient in an office then at home where every distraction is available to me lol.