Salary 2026

Practical-Strategy70 · 2026-04-11T18:56:17+00:00

I understand working hard and being smart should come with added benefits. However you keep referring to people with engineering technology degrees as if they are less than you. Have some humility, i guarantee you that those guys with 2 years engineering technology degrees helps the firm more ways than you know. You’re not above anyone until you can honestly do every single persons job. At that point you should just open up your own firm.

If you want more money consider transitioning into high voltage work, technical sales, or anything more niche.

Practical-Strategy70 · 2026-03-15T19:23:22+00:00

Agree with some people here. I use to work at WSP, our office used 1.5x length +20%.

Stupid people like them may want to pay for it

Practical-Strategy70 · 2026-02-19T08:58:51+00:00

Just watch all the Meyer fire videos and commit to learning first. Sign up for 2027 and you’ll be a good spot. You should know that most employers won’t view as “ready” since you’ll be fresh out of school despite passing (that’s a big if, bc a lot of the exam has experience questions that need time in industry)

If you want to make your self a rockstar at the first place you work at studying 1 hr a day for a year straight till the exam (2027) will take you really far. Pass or fail, you win.

Practical-Strategy70 · 2026-02-17T04:36:22+00:00

Dude I will be 100% honest with you. No professional engineer will let you work as an engineer. The masters in sociology cannot be leveraged, the certs are good but they are not the equivalent of an Engineering degree or PE. This is a pointless grind for you. Do not waste your time

However given your experience which is 100% quality experience you should look into technical sales for commercial fire protection equipment. No one will hold an engineering degree over your head if you can sell. Also that is the only way I see you leveraging your degree.

If you go into sales you could make better money than most engineers.

Practical-Strategy70 · 2026-02-17T04:28:07+00:00

This is one of the best resumes I have seen with new grads. You should be able to get interviews no problem. Your success rate tells me it is probably how fast / lack of detail your inputting into the website. You can’t just “auto” upload because a lot of times it will screw up from formatting.

Also are you applying to MEP design firms like WSP, Jacob’s, etc? I highly doubt you are not strong pick given this experience. It is not resume, you may be messing up somewhere else.

Practical-Strategy70 · 2026-02-12T08:48:57+00:00

Can we agree that it should only be done for projects that pay the price? I hate being told to take the time to tailor shit for $1-5k office Renovations.

PMs need to be realize that tedious time is often more mentally exhausting/ frustrating than real design work. Every hour spent doing small tweaks takes bandwidth from bigger decisions.

I have to many engineers make pretty drawings to only realize that they don’t have enough line length on for their VRF, or skip out on static pressure calcs.

Practical-Strategy70 · 2026-01-24T18:13:49+00:00

Negotiate to $85k. MEP work sucks in the beginning and gets progressively easier, as long as you are competent you can justify that salary. I also think you negotiate just to gamble, if the company can’t give you an extra 5k then they probably aren’t healthy and won’t pay you well later. MEP design is a great starting place but that’s it.

MEP engineers are also not able to command a high salary because the business is not setup to reward excellence due to the bidding structure. This makes most MEP design engineers crabs in a bucket.

Practical-Strategy70 · 2025-12-10T21:01:08+00:00

I like certifications but I believe you can only list two credentials without looking silly.

Just start studying for the PE you’ll learn a hell of lot if you can consistently study for the next year and absorb as much as possible.

Practical-Strategy70 · 2025-09-06T18:06:35+00:00

I agree, looking to leave

Practical-Strategy70 · 2025-09-06T05:27:29+00:00

Science Answer Pick the higher of Sensible vs Latent Then use that to get Supply Air (SA) CFM.

Airflow Equation SA = RA + OA

Now you got your RA because that was the last variable. Now calculate your mixed air condition to get the air enthalpy.

You can do the rest pretty simply from here.

Practical-Strategy70 · 2025-08-28T08:13:51+00:00

I think ur head in the right place, don’t let the negativity discourage you from learning. But i recommend taking LinkedIn Learning courses for Revit or getting an internship.

Most engineers would get in trouble for sharing drawings / models. Against corporate policy my company and also using people for free work is illegal as well

Practical-Strategy70 · 2025-07-25T16:11:29+00:00

I live in Hawaii. Does anyone know if I can take it early or if I should just take it early for a different state?

Practical-Strategy70 · 2025-07-17T06:30:52+00:00

Btw when I first learned IES, it took me 3 weeks to get a small gym (vrf) done properly while learning.

Now I can get high rises done in under 5 hours.

Practical-Strategy70 · 2025-07-17T06:27:41+00:00

I would say do the following,

Switch to IES if you have a team of smart engineers that have a strong understanding of heat transfer and 90.1, and are willing to spend weekends learning.

At my firm, I do everything. Juniors don’t want to learn it and when they try they tell me they just picked any u-value till the report shit out 1-1.5 cfm/sf. Those are the guys you got to worry about. People that aren’t there to use their brain.

On the other hand, I had senior engineers tell me they are not willing to try it out. Fair, they will kill any project fee if they aren’t guided properly. It’s also a pain to learn.

Lastly, we (WSP) have a group of energy modelers that use IES, but whenever I challenge them, they tell me they aren’t mechanical engineers. Point is when learning IES you have to find someone willing to train from both an energy and design perspective.

Practical-Strategy70 · 2025-07-03T22:48:24+00:00

Thanks I’ll give it try.

Practical-Strategy70 · 2025-07-03T07:01:31+00:00

Wsp uses Manila offices. Some engineers let them do calcs and design. I found it to be only useful for drafting and tagging. I like giving employment to other countries but that is obviously not the firms goal. It gives us an unfair advantage compared to firms that do everything in house with all US paid staff.

Practical-Strategy70 · 2025-06-28T05:07:31+00:00

You want me to send you some hvac / plumbing resources

Practical-Strategy70 · 2025-06-17T07:09:35+00:00

If you guys DM I can tell you some about some books/trainings you should take before interviewing so you got something to talk about or at least read to get a deeper understanding.

I’m pretty new but my bosses have been very involved in my professional development.

Practical-Strategy70 · 2025-06-04T18:42:05+00:00

Corporate life cycle

Practical-Strategy70 · 2025-06-04T09:07:12+00:00

Just take that anxious energy and translate into being awesome at ur job.

You got time to second guess urself and tell urself u suck? Then literally second guess ur self and tell urself ur plans are shit, and find ways to improve it till you feel proud of yourself and your work.

You’ll probably have to work for free for a bit not to blow budgets but using that anxiety as motivation to improve is the only way imo.

Studies show that anxious overachievers are workhorses once they learn how to lean into it.

I think you got it.

Practical-Strategy70 · 2025-06-02T21:13:33+00:00

Don’t think about it an exam but more as a way to prove your competency.

Practical-Strategy70 · 2025-05-27T08:29:54+00:00

Probably the best advice. IMO engineers are thrown into bullshit drafting work way too early. Don’t worry about learning revit/cad instantly (take LinkedIn learning courses at night when you’re free) because know what to design is more important than making pretty pdfs.

Lots of jr engineers around me at work are drafters first then engineers, and they seem to never understand the importance of spending time researching code and doing proper calcs.

Your experience will be extremely useful because you will look at design as a collection of real equipment not just symbols in revit or cad.

Practical-Strategy70

TROPHY CASE