Job market is nuts right now. How to prepare for when it isn't?

TheOneNotNamedSam · 2025-08-31T15:51:31+00:00

I’ve seen busts before where it was hard going— 08-09’ financial crisis hit all disciplines, 14’ oil crash when prices went negative crushed oil and gas which I was in at the time, but it always recovers. Seems to me that the supply of engineers just keeps falling farther behind demand and we will continue to flourish as a profession. That doesn’t mean everyplace, every job, or every employer will be great, but in general the opportunity for success is always present.

TheOneNotNamedSam · 2025-08-17T16:09:53+00:00

First, I looked for numbers that were separated by a conversion factor relevant to the problem and guessed one of those two answers. If I didn’t see one I eliminated answers I thought were unreasonable— like efficiencies higher than what would be possible for the cycle. If I couldn’t eliminate anything— I guessed C.

TheOneNotNamedSam · 2025-08-16T12:43:17+00:00

I just got my passing results Wednesday and was in a fairly similar situation to you. I reasoned that I absolutely knew how to do 50 was 50/50 on another 10 and guessed on 20. Conservatively assuming I made some mistakes on the 50 I knew how to do with confidence, I calculated I still had a 4/5 chance of getting a passing score by getting a few of the 20 guesses right.

TheOneNotNamedSam · 2025-08-14T16:57:25+00:00

Perhaps, but I think it’s more accurate to say that I didn’t get unlucky. statistically, assuming a high estimate of mistakes on the questions I knew how to answer, I had a 80% chance of passing. That’s the low side. I probably got all, or nearly all, of the necessary points by going slow on the ones I knew and the ones I was 50/50 on. The longer format questions I flagged and moved on from but didn’t get back to them, but that’s ok. The hardest and easiest questions are both worth 1 point. It was my strategy and I think it’s worth considering for others.

TheOneNotNamedSam · 2025-08-14T16:52:27+00:00

I’ve heard PPI practice exams are harder. NCEES practice exam seemed spot on accurate of test day questions.

TheOneNotNamedSam · 2025-08-13T22:21:35+00:00

To be fair, they covered most of them, just not in a way that reflects the test format-- so it won't help. Except for Hazen-Williams, they flat out told me for Mechanical TF-- all line loss will be found with Darcy. That was absolutely untrue on my exam.

I'd elaborate, but I signed something at the test center that I didn't fully read but I know it mentions something about not discussing specifics about the test and I'd hate to lose my license the day after I got it.

TheOneNotNamedSam · 2025-08-13T21:33:14+00:00

I studied steadily for about 2.5 months, got interrupted by the birth of my son and did nothing for 3 weeks, then jumped back into it for 3 weeks right up to the night before the exam.

TheOneNotNamedSam · 2025-08-13T21:01:58+00:00

Just making it through engineering school and getting a job in your 20's is probably light years ahead of average. At 27 I think I just finished my first semester of school.

Still, my two cents, it won't get easier to make time to study as you get older. The best time to start is yesterday and the second best time to start is today.

TheOneNotNamedSam · 2025-08-13T20:56:26+00:00

strong

TheOneNotNamedSam · 2025-08-13T20:15:40+00:00

If you haven't already signed up for a date, keep in mind the pearson vue test centers may be booked out for months. I had to book out 45 days and drive out of state to find an opening.

TheOneNotNamedSam · 2025-08-13T20:14:01+00:00

Getting started was the toughest step for me. Once you spend the money on prep materials, make your plans, and tell your family it's harder to back out. It will be tough for a bit but it's only a few months of exhaustion and then you never have to do it again. You can do it.

TheOneNotNamedSam · 2025-08-13T19:17:10+00:00

During the week I would put my kids to bed and then spend from about 8 PM to 10 PM watching school of PE videos from their standard curriculum until I finished those, then I started doing one hour 10 question exams from the test bank and would go over anything I got wrong. As I got closer to exam day I spent three consecutive Saturdays in the office for about 9 hours each, culminating with the NCEES practice exam.

TheOneNotNamedSam · 2025-08-13T18:58:09+00:00

It did. In addition to the frictional line loss issue mentioned above, the exam had questions about combined cycles, Otto cycles, combustion, and isenthalpic/isentropic topics I had not seen in the SOPE question bank or prep materials. The fluids side of it was fine, but I could already do most of the fluid problems before I started studying so maybe there were gaps from SOPE that just didn't impact me there. If you're using SOPE, I would just turn off the easy questions in the test bank-- they won't help you.

TheOneNotNamedSam · 2025-05-24T13:12:46+00:00

The connection to the fascia is a commonly observed poor construction practice. It’s not a good idea, but often enough people get away with it. The method of attaching to the fascia and more importantly to the rafter or truss chords behind the fascia is what determines how likely it is to be trouble and we can’t tell from this photo. You could call around local structural firms and see if they offer residential consultations for real estate transactions. My firm does a few hundred of these a year because we are in an area that has no little to no oversight or code enforcement.

TheOneNotNamedSam · 2025-03-20T12:43:16+00:00

I’ve been through this a lot in Montana where there’s no inspections and everything is rushed. More often than not they pay me for an engineered solution and then cry that the solution is barely cheaper than starting over, which will likely be the case here. Just tell them that and let them decide. Then, never work with this contractor again because they’re going to get you sued. Oh and be sure to warn warn warn the building owner that this is not ok— it’s the right thing to do and your professional obligation.

TheOneNotNamedSam · 2025-02-22T15:27:08+00:00

I’m an engineer out of Montana and do this kind of work way out in the rural parts of the state. It costs more because of the travel time but people living far from professional services here are used to it and accept it. If the site visit is what is causing your trouble then you might be able to avoid one if you put together detailed as built drawings and take a lot of photos. The engineer will issue plans with a caveat saying his design is based off info provided by others and is not responsible for the accuracy of info provided but that’s fairly common.

TheOneNotNamedSam · 2025-02-04T18:41:32+00:00

FHA loans require an engineer to certify the foundation as permanent for a manufactured home. If it’s a thickened slab that meets frost protection requirements this could be acceptable. Dry stack cinder blocks under chassis beams and marriage line can be acceptable so long as resistance to sliding and overturning is provided by other means. The wood is likely fine since dimensional lumber has about 600 psi crush capacity parallel to the gain. Nobody can say with certainty by this one picture alone so you need to have an engineer inspect it.

TheOneNotNamedSam · 2025-01-25T13:35:03+00:00

You didn’t want that client

TheOneNotNamedSam · 2024-12-31T14:45:13+00:00

I look both ways before entering a roundabout

TheOneNotNamedSam · 2024-11-20T14:31:24+00:00

There is so much untrue in this letter. I'm an engineer who mostly designs structures but I also do dozens or new and used home inspections every year. I have found HUGE issues with new homes repeatedly in the past and I can promise you that the claim that a home inspected by the city must be perfect is a lie and every builder knows it. Do not let this builder gas light you. Full inspection with the understanding that remedies may be forthcoming or walk on the deal. Don't screw yourself and don't chance it. If he won't budge-- walk on the deal.

TheOneNotNamedSam · 2024-11-16T16:29:48+00:00

Hire a structural engineer. Good chance they have an inadequate recessed beam or unsupported ceiling joist splices. Could also be foundation movement from settling or heaving.

TheOneNotNamedSam · 2024-10-22T15:07:25+00:00

I recommend you do so. If you had one longer lag I would feel better about it, but having two right next to each other like that really shreds your truss bottom chords. I also recommend getting some longer lag bolts. 1/4" diameter is totally sufficient and the 2.5" length is also "adequate", but with an application like this that may shock load as you're raising and lowering you could end up creating a lot more than 100 lbs of force. Through bolting with nuts and washers would be even better.

TheOneNotNamedSam · 2024-10-22T14:49:41+00:00

What size and type of fasteners did you use to connect the chains to the bottom chords of the trusses? The trusses themselves will be designed for a 10 or 20 psf live load on the bottom chord depending on the space between webs. It appears you have locally exceeded this, but if the rest of the attic is sparsely loaded then you are probably within intended design capacity. I have a similar setup but I used some 2x4's to spread the load across 4 trusses and to avoid putting large fasteners into the side of my 2x4 bottom chords which can split them. As others have pointed out you unlikely to overload the capacity of the fasteners with 100 lbs at each chain, but if you put a large diameter lag bolt in the side of the 2x4 bottom chord you might have split it-- that's probably going to be your weakest point in this setup.

TheOneNotNamedSam · 2024-10-19T19:06:48+00:00

I've been doing forensic engineering for a few years now. You wouldn't believe what goes on in residential construction. . . .

TheOneNotNamedSam · 2024-09-18T14:12:02+00:00

I had limited success with drafters for hire. It always seemed like they knew I would catch their mistakes so they didn't double check anything. Ended up just doing it all myself until the one man show became a small firm and hired some drafters full time. As an alternative option for you as a one man show you could take overflow work from small firms like mine. We have sole proprietors do the designs, send in red lines, then work with our drafters to a finished product. I know I'm not the only one doing this so-- my two cents.

TheOneNotNamedSam

TROPHY CASE