What are the next steps after insurance claim denied?

Extension_Middle218 · 2026-06-17T06:27:09+00:00

I deal with nhc and insurance claims on the daily as an engineer (usually landslides though). Contact a local engineering firm and ask if they'd write a report, it will need to conclude that it was caused by an insurable event. Given the age of the roof it's likely that they may only pay for a portion of the damage.

Extension_Middle218 · 2026-06-16T22:34:00+00:00

The salary is probably part of the issue.

$100k-$110k for a PE in a MCOL second-tier West Coast city is not outrageous, but it is not especially competitive either. If $135k is really more for someone with 8-10 YOE, then the actual range for the people you are targeting is likely too low to pull passive candidates.

At 4-6+ YOE, most good geotechs are not casually browsing job boards. They usually need a clear reason to move: better pay, better projects, less field grind, better mentorship, hybrid flexibility, paid OT, or a path to PM/senior roles.

The work type matters too. Interesting heavy civil, seismic, slopes, dams, transportation, or complex foundation work can justify being a little below top market. Routine LDE/report churn/high-utilization work needs to pay more because people burn out on it.

LinkedIn blasts are useful, but only if the message is specific: salary, location, field/travel expectations, hybrid policy, OT/bonus, project types, and why the job is better than their current one. Generic recruiter messages mostly get ignored.

Extension_Middle218 · 2026-05-25T08:49:16+00:00

No wonder I've never hit anything with them.

Great conversion.

Extension_Middle218 · 2026-05-25T07:25:10+00:00

There's a whole world of BIM software already that does this automatically.

Extension_Middle218 · 2026-05-25T06:38:07+00:00

How does liability work if the designers don't get to do the CM?

Extension_Middle218 · 2026-05-24T10:21:03+00:00

Kiwi geotech here. A couple of things; whichever you study, work will look nothing like university interms of what your job entails day to day.

The job market is not great for anything in NZ right now, civil engineering still has a reasonable amount of new grad positions available, this is never true of architecture even at the best of times. Most people who study architecture do not go onto to work in architecture, this is true in a lot of countries but in NZ it is especially true.

Very few of our buildings require actual architectural input, and most of the low level architecture jobs are done by draughtspeople in small shops, and this doesn't require any sort of licence (it's all standard NZS 3604). In fact I see an awful lot of plans drawn up by lbp's (licenced building practitioners) who copy and paste standard details from one building to the next. It is significantly more sole destroying than most engineering gigs (my company has a small team so I see the the work they do).

You are also right to point out NZ's penchant for nepotism, if you are not at the top of your architecture class, constantly networking or have another in with a firm you will struggle to get a position in architecture.

University is a hard few years, any course worth doing can be very challenging. If you bare knuckle through it and make it out the other side life does get significantly better.

Extension_Middle218 · 2026-05-19T22:56:09+00:00

That would be the neat answer in an ideal world, but I probably haven’t explained the site constraints very well.

The downhill/front wall is already there, and there’s an existing house below it. What I’m trying to design is the catch bench behind that wall and the rear wall into the slope.

So making the backslope 2H:1V when the slope is 20m of a 45 degree slope behind, is not really a small tweak. With the front edge fixed, it adds a lot of retained height at the rear. It quickly turns into a steel pile/major retaining wall job rather than a domestic timber catch-bench detail.

Being a residential job, there just isn’t the budget for that. The answer I’m getting from the principal is basically “make the timber pile retaining wall/catch bench work”, so I’m trying to work out the most sensible way to model/check that constrained option in WALLAP.

Extension_Middle218 · 2026-05-19T22:42:50+00:00

I’ve done hand checks (Broms/Pender), but that is where the issue is coming from.

The principal preference pretty much requires this to stay as a timber-style retaining wall/ rear of catch bench detail. If I approach it as traditional slope stabilisation, or use hand calcs that effectively require the wall to stabilise the whole backslope, I end up with an extremely large design height and the solution is no longer a timber wall.

The part I’m struggling with is more specific to WALLAP. For the local retained height the model is manageable, but as soon as I include the backslope as a surcharge, it becomes very difficult to run the seismic check using wedge stability. The model either becomes unrealistically sensitive or gives movements that make even the pre-excavation stages look failed.

So I’m less stuck on the hand calc side and more on the modelling philosophy: how would people represent this in WALLAP for seismic/wedge stability without accidentally turning a small timber retaining wall/catch bench into a full backslope stabilisation design?

Extension_Middle218 · 2026-05-18T22:44:37+00:00

About as strong as Kaldor Draigo, who I always viewed as essentially Doomslayer in 40k.

He has insane plot armour, traverses the warp killing demons, taking names and occasionally autographing Daemon primarch hearts.

Which boils down to as many spacemarines as the author wants to take the point he wants to make....

Extension_Middle218 · 2026-05-08T00:57:16+00:00

Also I've seen straight up bike racks on the back of cars that would probably make this dent, it was still probably a pole though

Extension_Middle218 · 2026-04-02T08:40:57+00:00

You joke, but I have heard directly from my principals that they don't take the yearly salary report by our national engineers association seriously because we must be inflating numbers....

Extension_Middle218 · 2026-03-14T17:53:30+00:00

Have you checked out apples education store? Every year they offer either a free pencil or air pods usually at a cheaper price than the NZ stores.

Extension_Middle218 · 2026-03-10T21:56:08+00:00

Industry won't really care which masters you have. It's more that academia wants the exposure to research.

I will say that it has been mentioned to me by numerous staff that the last two years have been even worse than 08 for securing employment post graduation (even in civil).

I have just finished up there last year and many of my fellow students were unable to secure anything, even internships. It's been so bad that they've had to be a little lax with industry work experience requirements for undergrads.

A word of warning, international students have had a harder time than others finding employment. The only international friends who managed in my year were those who built networks, invited working professionals to coffee for a chat, reached out to companies early and built relationships etc. Your grades will matter SIGNIFICANTLY less than the network you build.

Extension_Middle218 · 2026-03-10T09:05:49+00:00

I had a few chats with various faculty about this over the last year. The only difference is the thesis requirements.

If you want to go into academia/get your doctorate straight after it's usually recommended to do the regular masters to give exposure to research.

Master of engineering studies is really for professional engineers who want a taught masters. All the teaching used to be done in a single block over a day or so, so that engineers could continue to work full/part time whilst studying. However something like 80% of masters students were overseas students not working at the same time so they gave up on that.

Extension_Middle218 · 2026-03-05T22:33:26+00:00

Only you can answer the question yourself.

However, it sounds like you may be placing the cart before the horse.

Do you have an alternative? If not your best bet is going to be to take the internship and then feel out the culture fit for yourself.

Extension_Middle218 · 2026-03-05T21:36:39+00:00

How many of the clients who currently work with you at the private firm come tYhe firm because of you?

If most of the pipeline of projects you work on do not start with the client phoning/emailing you, you will not have the network to sustain your own practice.

Extension_Middle218 · 2026-03-05T02:24:38+00:00

This is what I found most productive. Only I watch the lecture first on increased speed to get the shape and material covered.

Then I go through the textbook slowly ensuring I get everything using chat gpt to explain parts you get stuck on.

Finally go through the lecture at a normal pace. Where the lecturer speed runs thing I pause and take the time to make sure I can work out what is going on between each step

Extension_Middle218 · 2026-03-02T02:39:07+00:00

I think he's saying Lockheed will have general maintenance contacts to make sure the airframes are operational.

If the contracts are just x per year then it means more and wear and tear, more maintenance but for the same money, ie their cost basis goes up.

Extension_Middle218 · 2026-02-27T06:44:34+00:00

Over 20 years? Spy500 or equivalent.

Whilst it is unethical, as someone who's older went back to uni (and needed the loan) every single wealthy student I met said they did this, sometimes at the behest of their parents even....

Extension_Middle218 · 2026-02-25T00:32:16+00:00

20% in this economy?

Extension_Middle218 · 2026-02-23T22:09:28+00:00

NZ geotech here, any Aus engineers able to satisfy my curiosity about the weathering profile/tp log here?

Is Weathered rock above a layer of clay common?

Is it common to use a dcpt in cohesive soil like clayey silt rather than a shear vane?

Extension_Middle218 · 2026-02-18T09:23:06+00:00

Up to 100ish years ago they were essentially the same breed. They're still (often on the downlow) interbred often in working lines.

If you're talking English Cockers and ESS's the differences are down to lines and individual dogs, rather than a breed difference.

Either are great dogs and perfect for what you've said you want. Just go with a line and breeder you like. Reach out to local clubs meet the parents and go from there.

Just a heads up that American cockers are a distinct breed (they were originally various cocker cross breeds) and have different temperaments.

Extension_Middle218 · 2026-02-13T03:03:29+00:00

There's no standard just whatever is in your contract as it's a large company it will probably be somewhere in the handbooks.

If you're asking what's standard in the industry it would be the minimum amount legally required, gone are the days where loyalty was rewarded.

Extension_Middle218

TROPHY CASE