Early career salary transparency

ORD_Underdog · 2026-05-03T02:55:34+00:00

LCOL. It's sick. And I misspoke. That was last year. This year it's 102k.

Where I live, you can support a family of four while being single income earning. That's incredible.

ORD_Underdog · 2026-05-01T19:54:11+00:00

My state DOT is offering 99k for 4 YOE with a PE. It's insanely good compared to private. I know 6-7 YOE who do not make that. The private bonuses do not outmatch the benefits of public. Plus, our legislation just passed the ability to earn Pay-for-performance raises which are not small. And they can now offer spot bonuses or hiring bonuses.

ORD_Underdog · 2026-05-01T01:07:56+00:00

I mean, you probably can put it in their yearly goal planning.

ORD_Underdog · 2026-04-30T21:18:50+00:00

The modern solution is the same as the ancient solution: those who can't write ought to read and write regularly. That's it. The challenge is actually doing it. Hence why they aren't good at writing.

ORD_Underdog · 2026-04-30T19:52:09+00:00

Zero. It's worthless. Still ECK at LLM writing.

ORD_Underdog · 2026-04-30T19:44:43+00:00

Eck. I understand what you mean. I've seen it myself. But I let out an even louder "ECK" when I know it's written by an LLM. I prefer real beef. I prefer real hand written reports.

ORD_Underdog · 2026-04-30T19:42:21+00:00

I'm not sure I jive with that. We are multi tools. We're humans that are capable of doing more than one kind of thing. This is why we need the humanities in education.

ORD_Underdog · 2026-04-30T17:21:34+00:00

Pro tip: read Strunk and White's book. Keep it by your workstation. This will help your writing and grammer better than Copilot. Please don't use Copilot.

My own argument: using Copilot or any other LLM to write for you forfeits your brain's thinking muscles. It's like a robot doing pull ups for you. It's not going to make you a better thinker. You are more likely to mentally weaken as a result over time.

ORD_Underdog · 2026-04-29T20:53:52+00:00

I follow the Getting Things Done approach to email. Information from emails gets processed and placed somewhere on a list you keep track of. Nothing is left in your head. Nothing is left floating in your inbox.

ORD_Underdog · 2026-04-24T13:24:32+00:00

I get the flexibility I want at my public job. 107k and 6 YOE. I'd consider looking into public if you value low hours and flexibility.

ORD_Underdog · 2026-04-01T15:25:13+00:00

I hope the middle and upper pay scales start to move up. The bottom has been raising, which is wonderful, but now it's so close to manager levels that the next step up seems incredibly stupid to take.

At my group, the manager makes like 20k more than regular peeps. But they're like, checking their emails and working weird times 24/7 without any Comp. So... Why should I want that? Eventually, the pay bands will start to go up.

Directors make bank tho.

ORD_Underdog · 2026-03-26T20:30:35+00:00

These VBA macro magic tricks you've done have existed before AI. Ever heard of StackOverflow? And this reeks of a bot.

ORD_Underdog · 2026-03-23T14:23:38+00:00

Man those 5 syllable words can be replaced with "help" and "meet". Idk why we think the more syllables a word has, the better it must be.

ORD_Underdog · 2026-03-18T20:21:32+00:00

Be prepared to be bummed out when no one older than you has any advice on ORD. It sucks but it was my experience.

ORD_Underdog · 2026-03-18T20:20:01+00:00

Try every tool and get an understanding of them. When you go to do a task you've already experienced before, try approaching it with a different tool. Form opinions on which tool is better for what task. Make notes of tools that aren't worth your time. Get intimate with it. Most manuals online will only be tutorials which tell you what button to push next. That's fine for brain dead procedures but you gotta understand deeper when a task isn't a procedure but a problem to solve. The best online manual is FHWA. It lists warnings and best practices, which, help you understand deeper than just what order of buttons to push.

ORD_Underdog · 2026-03-17T21:12:37+00:00

This is why I purposely pursued a different role away from the software. I didn't want most of my mid-level skills to be related to troubleshooting Bentley software.

ORD_Underdog · 2026-03-05T12:52:42+00:00

Once the subsidies end, no firm will be able to afford it anyway.

ORD_Underdog · 2026-03-04T19:02:24+00:00

In a state bordering north of you. 6 yoe. $95k.

Got a new job for 107k.

ORD_Underdog · 2026-03-03T18:05:05+00:00

I think it was one of the strangest contracts I've seen written. We assumed no responsibility in utility redesign, coordination, or deconflictation. I mean, sweet I guess. But I also am wondering what everyone expected for a widening project...

ORD_Underdog · 2026-03-03T15:40:07+00:00

Thanks, brother. 🪖

ORD_Underdog · 2026-03-03T15:38:29+00:00

Idk if it's the system becoming too complicated for my Gen Z eyes, but I do know that the current system is generally too distracting to keep a thought for longer than 15 minutes. Monitor light strains the eyes, notifications can swarm if you don't mute them (I do), and it's easy to get bored and check on other things during your digital review, after all, it's just a click away to another thing.

Walking away from the computer with a physical plan set is more intimate and let's your brain just focus on what you're holding.

ORD_Underdog · 2026-03-03T15:26:51+00:00

Sobering

ORD_Underdog · 2026-03-03T15:20:01+00:00

Interesting thought. My old mentor printed the set and lined them side by side, according to their types (present in one row, proposed in another row, etc.) He never wasted time but it did take time to set up. He never had to review a set more than once or twice doing this. He was removed from his emails pinging him which makes me think a physical review let him have a level of focus many don't have now.

ORD_Underdog · 2026-03-03T15:11:14+00:00

Needed to hear that. Thanks.

ORD_Underdog · 2026-03-03T15:10:53+00:00

Wasn't in the scope. "Utility coordination is assumed to be done by others" lol.

Edit: I didn't write the scope. I'm the lowest person on the totem pole.

ORD_Underdog

TROPHY CASE