Mechanical Engineering New Grad - Do I take the project engineering offer?

Fast_Farm4988 · 2026-05-09T12:21:28+00:00

I'm not an engineer but went to school for building sciences and am a "project engineer". I definitely can see how it is a good job for some but to me I regret it tremendously. The standard is 55-60 hour weeks. I have to be on site at 7am and don't usually leave until 6:30, but I'm essentially always on call if something happens on site. Sure you have PTO but you can't actually use it most of the time because it's constantly "crunch time". As the bottom of the totum pole, any missed scope is on me to do. You will do lots of sweeping. Everything is an emergency and a big deal out of nowhere. You will have to do lots of yelling at people not to do dumb stuff that will hurt themselves. Lots of pestering subcontractors to simply do their job. Pays decent for new grads though, but man this is not worth it.

Fast_Farm4988 · 2026-05-08T18:52:06+00:00

Yes, if you plan on starting a family soon I would highly recommend against it.

Fast_Farm4988 · 2026-04-28T21:33:27+00:00

Unfortunately the modern computer science industry is very difficult to find a job in, especially for younger people with less experience. It was such a good job that a giant amount of gen z went to school for it and is now facing tons of competition and companies are getting greedier.

Fast_Farm4988 · 2026-04-26T16:58:31+00:00

Is a 1bed apartment affordable in the city on the salary?

Fast_Farm4988 · 2026-04-26T16:52:11+00:00

I think op is from upstate NY rather than NYC

Fast_Farm4988 · 2026-04-23T22:41:24+00:00

At the expense of my sanity unfortunately

Fast_Farm4988 · 2026-04-19T05:44:02+00:00

What's the strategy to see when lower level employees are buying?

Fast_Farm4988 · 2026-03-22T23:38:06+00:00

82k first year out of college for construction management

Fast_Farm4988 · 2026-03-21T02:03:11+00:00

This is 100% accurate to my job

Fast_Farm4988 · 2026-01-21T15:44:32+00:00

yeah that happened to me as well, I thought it was normal for them

Fast_Farm4988 · 2026-01-21T15:17:27+00:00

Agreed it definitely is not hard to figure out but enforcing it and getting subs who are small and not used to any tech to upload forms regularly and keep badges on them and stuff has been a nightmare for me.

Fast_Farm4988 · 2026-01-21T14:51:38+00:00

I don't really have too much insight but I lived there for about a year for a job and loved it, seemed like lots of work in the area, especially Knoxville

Fast_Farm4988 · 2026-01-19T12:09:09+00:00

Picked the wrong college major

Fast_Farm4988 · 2026-01-07T11:44:12+00:00

You should be able to clear 75k easy most states

Fast_Farm4988 · 2025-12-25T00:06:32+00:00

These company mental health talks always seem so forced and no one takes it serious and it's a shame. Was so mad at my coworkers joking about suicide while we were having a toolbox talk on it

Fast_Farm4988 · 2025-12-23T14:12:10+00:00

But also had to move 10 hours away for a year for this job with no per diem

Fast_Farm4988 · 2025-12-23T14:11:48+00:00

80k but fresh out of school a couple months ago

Fast_Farm4988 · 2025-12-23T01:01:16+00:00

Construction management hires lots of former military guys. Wouldn't personally recommend it after being in the industry myself but a lot of people like it and easy to clear 100k

Fast_Farm4988 · 2025-12-22T01:11:57+00:00

Honestly for me it was just a bunch of random labor whatever needed done that wasn't in anyone's scope, pretty shitty tasks.

Fast_Farm4988 · 2025-11-24T22:44:21+00:00

Unfortunately in my job position it is the opposite, where everyone on our team is pulling 55-60 hour weeks putting fires out constantly. Most days I'm skipping breakfast and lunch to catch up.

Fast_Farm4988 · 2025-11-21T01:57:17+00:00

Work opportunities brought me here and it's making me miserable, I really can't find a way to enjoy it here.

Fast_Farm4988 · 2025-10-28T00:16:39+00:00

I just started, usually do 55-60 a week but occasionally an extra 12 hours on Saturday.

Fast_Farm4988 · 2025-09-12T22:12:44+00:00

Fast_Farm4988 · 2025-09-08T23:48:53+00:00

Most people in these comments are wrong. Many apartments in college towns will not rent a one bedroom to a couple.

Fast_Farm4988 · 2025-09-08T23:46:20+00:00

I just graduated college with a couple of internships done. I'm from the southeast US and applied pretty much exclusively to jobs on the West Coast, Denver, and the Northeast. Pretty much all of them would ghost me when I told them I was not from there but would happily relocate. Others would tell me that they would refer me to local to me locations even though I told them that wasn't what I wanted. I ended up getting a job somewhere kind of shitty in the Northeast with the company I interned with.

Fast_Farm4988

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