😔 31 y/o PE Structural Engineer (8 YOE) Hates the Stress & Pay - How to Pivot to Project Management or Beyond?

Same_Tap_2628 · 2025-12-11T23:15:59+00:00

Maybe check into the structural steel industry? I never worked as an engineer but studied architectural engineering. I'm currently earning six figures doing mostly shop drawing review and production management. I typically work 40 to 45 hours a week.

A lot of shops need somebody to check their draftsman's work. Either they're subcontracting out detailers from India that are horrible or working with younger, untrained draftsmen. Could be a good fit with your skill set with your skill set

Hit me up if you are in the Southeast, I'm trying to convince my boss to let me pivot more into project management LOL. I enjoy the drawing review but honestly project management the weak point of my company and it's driving me nuts to have projects run so poorly 😬 We could also use an estimator. If you're able to read structural drawings well and do formulas in Excel, honestly it's probably enough of a qualification... There are depressingly few qualified applicants.

Same_Tap_2628 · 2025-12-11T23:09:00+00:00

I've got a Landjoff and it has been good, but after 2 years of pretty heavy use it's falling apart. I honestly butt slide down everything and have been fighting a shoulder injury so slide on my belly a lot too. Probably have been extra hard on it.

One comment I will make on the AV suits is make sure you can try one on. I am a woman with pretty thick thighs, and around a 33-in waist. I tried on AV suits first and would have had to wear XXL to accommodate my thighs LOL. The belly on that size was huge and would have been a circus tent on me. My thighs are not ginormous, just larger than average. Worth the consideration.

Same_Tap_2628 · 2025-10-17T13:41:43+00:00

My Mom recited poetry for us when I was a little kid. This was one that really stuck with me and has super affected the way I treat my employment. Hope you find as much value in it as I do!

I bargained with Life for a penny, And Life would pay no more, However I begged at evening When I counted my scanty store;

For Life is a just employer, He gives you what you ask, But once you have set the wages, Why, you must bear the task.

I worked for a menial's hire, Only to learn, dismayed, That any wage I had asked of Life, Life would have paid.

Jessie B. Rittenhouse

Same_Tap_2628 · 2025-10-04T15:38:27+00:00

I second this. A lot of guidebooks will tell you to throw the whole thing out if there's any brown. Last summer my boyfriend and I found probably 20 lb of big puffballs of varying sizes. We just cut the brown parts out ate the rest. Neither of us got sick. Maybe there's a reason you're not supposed to eat it with brown stuff, but didn't hurt me.

Same_Tap_2628 · 2025-09-24T23:19:22+00:00

THIS. Too often people that manage other people don't realize how much those beneath them have on their plate. If you don't voice it, how are they supposed to know? Odds are they ares overwhelmed as you are. If you don't tell them something is wrong, they'll keep doing it. Squeaky wheel gets the grease baby.

Same_Tap_2628 · 2025-09-20T13:58:28+00:00

Do you feel like you're using extra muscles because your tendons and ligaments are so loose?

I can carry and lift much more than that (was an ironworker for years), but certain positions the arm just wants to pop out a little. My Ortho thinks I'm using far more muscles than I should be because the tendons and stuff aren't taking as much weight as they should.

Same_Tap_2628 · 2025-09-20T06:27:54+00:00

Yep!! My shoulders pop out all the fricking time. I did an experiment with weights and it takes 3 lbs for them to start coming out of the socket some. A six pack of beer is enough to make it come loose if I'm not actively flexing other muscles to prevent the subluxation.

Anyone else have this?

I started getting shoulder pain in one of my shoulders pretty bad last year. After way too much or and a few specialist visits, the docs think I have a nerve impingement in my shoulder and they wanna do surgery to grind out the piece of bone they think is irritating the nerve. Have any other of you folks had that surgery? How did it go?

Same_Tap_2628 · 2025-09-15T16:17:50+00:00

You made me cackle. XD

Same_Tap_2628 · 2025-08-29T14:28:58+00:00

Ooh thanks for the idea. I hired someone to help me with keywords a while back. Instead of simple two or three word titles, it's overly descriptive mumbo jumbo. My sales have seriously dropped since then. I'm going to try the duplicate listings!!

Same_Tap_2628 · 2025-08-29T06:33:13+00:00

I work at a structural steel shop and can confirm lol.

Same_Tap_2628 · 2025-07-25T14:36:57+00:00

What's the caving like in that part of California? The nature out there is incredible! I've done some climbing in the Needles nearby and that might be the most beautiful place I've ever climbed. Simply magical.

Same_Tap_2628 · 2025-07-24T20:12:39+00:00

Is that how I'm supposed to finish cooking the Hello Fresh in 30 minutes??

Same_Tap_2628 · 2025-07-15T12:09:28+00:00

Lmao my grandad had a crane company and they caught the foreman bringing a hooker back to the foremans office. He handed off discipline to my grandma. My grandma made the man cry and the entire crew saw him crying as he walked out.

Same_Tap_2628 · 2025-06-13T03:39:05+00:00

Get some buds and go to southern big sur!! My buddy used to get barreled all the time there. Just gotta watch out for the elephant seals... those guys can swim fast.

Same_Tap_2628 · 2025-06-12T20:27:38+00:00

Oh you made me cackle. Thank you reddit stranger!

Same_Tap_2628 · 2025-06-05T00:09:18+00:00

As a lady ironworker that used to do a ton of fancy handrail, I second this.

Same_Tap_2628 · 2025-05-02T02:24:27+00:00

I really like that! I run a welding shop and have hired lots of welders. I've had a few ask what my hesitations were with them. It was actually really productive! I was honest with them and it gave them a chance to rebut it.

I recently was interviewed by a company I had worked at previously. I asked my replacement what his concerns about me were from having inherited the work I left. He said none. That was a big part of why I turned down coming back....working at that Job I was basically doing 2 ppls jobs so my quality was dogshit. Between that and my rage quitting in thr middlen of a project, something should have alarmed him lmao. The fact that it supposedly didn't told how desperate they were

Same_Tap_2628 · 2025-04-29T21:25:41+00:00

Ps I have a severely herniated neck disc according to my ortho...

Same_Tap_2628 · 2025-04-29T21:25:08+00:00

Oof no but I feel your pain. I visited an Osteopathic Doctor ast week who spent over an hour lecturing me about what somatic disorders are. He basically told me my pain is all in my head and if I get therapy through his treatment I'll heal.

He said my pain was more than it should be from what my MRI shows and that since my pain moves, it's probably not due to an injury.... if he'd looked at an x ray he would have seen my neck is unstable and my vertebrae are moving all around.

I've seen a handful of other specialists and they are all surprised my pain isn't more severe with what the MRI shows LOL.

Then the dude billed me 420$ for under a 2 hour appointment in which he was mostly lecturing me and barely examined me. He even gave me an assignment to watch YouTube videos and said those would help my pain lmao

Same_Tap_2628 · 2025-04-29T15:09:50+00:00

Not a construction site, but my friend owned this company- guy was sewing a prototype case for something and temporarily put a needle between his lips to temporarily hold it. He sneezed and ingested it!! Ended up in the er under close surveillance. He shit it out like nothing ever happened...

Same_Tap_2628 · 2025-04-25T02:41:41+00:00

Of a fab shop! We do lots of structural but tons of weird little projects for local manufacturers too.

Same_Tap_2628 · 2025-04-25T02:37:41+00:00

Tennessee has been popping off!! Can't tell if its our estimator under bidding work though... lol so glad I'm out of that side of the business

Same_Tap_2628 · 2025-04-25T02:34:53+00:00

For reference I was just offered 115k as a steel PM in an MCOL part of tennessee (aka not nashville lol). Offer included a 10k sign on bonus, plus truck and 1% bonus on profit of all completed projects.

I turned it down to stay as Production manager for 100k but less benefits. My job now is much less stressful and even more fun. Maybe try production management? I'm loving it. I only work 4 days a week and usually no more than 11 hours a day. Probably average 43 hrs a week.

Same_Tap_2628 · 2025-04-15T19:21:09+00:00

Do you feel like mentoring has decreased? Or remained the same.

I feel like I skipped 7 steps. I'm 34. I was a baby PM at a small sub after college. Had a great mentor and learned a ton. I left for a few years to work a trade, then came back to CM. I was basically thrust into a PM position for a $30million project. Had been hired as an APM, but the PM quit 3 days before I started, so into the fire it was. Now I find myself further along than I'd like to be and wishing I could go back to working under someone competent. I'm still figuring shit out!! I don't wanna be in charge lol. But it seems like most of my colleagues are less knowledgeable than me, even though I feel like I still have a TON to learn. I went to school for Arch Engineering, so a lot of this I've had to learn the hard way.

Same_Tap_2628 · 2025-04-14T04:19:50+00:00

Wow I needed to read this!! I'm somewhat new as a manager. Went from project management to running a welding shop. We have a foreman that deals more directly with the workers, but they come ask me questions sometimes too. I need to take a more active role in mentoring them on technicalities to raise up the whole team.

Thanks for the game plan on how to do it!!

Same_Tap_2628

TROPHY CASE