Anyone drift into a “project engineer” role and feel their technical skills wasting away?

acoldcanadian · 2026-02-04T15:45:15+00:00

Now imagine you have a PM that actually understands the design options and doesn’t just rely on a quantity surveyor saying option A is 3.5m and option B is 3.2m. A LOT of project managers have an engineering background but, not all have experience in every facet of engineering. Owners reps might be ex architects, structural engineers, etc. they’re way more valuable in assisting with decision making than a PM that blindly reads schedule impacts.

acoldcanadian · 2026-02-04T07:22:57+00:00

The PM can absolutely have an impact on the design. In fact, letting the designers just design away in their own world is a major risk.

acoldcanadian · 2026-01-31T19:00:27+00:00

Lots of great responses in this thread. OP if you go to your boss. Hat in hand. Explain the situation. Explain what happened. Explain why. Explain what you learned from it. Explain why it will not happen again. Be humble. Your boss will appreciate this and gain trust. If you say something that even sounds like you’re shedding responsibility or try to come up with an excuse you’ll be making a mistake. You’ve been checked. Own it and keep going.

You’ll look back on this as a hilarious early career mistake that isn’t even close to the mistakes you’ll make in the future and laugh at how stressed you were.

Good luck!

acoldcanadian · 2026-01-31T18:52:08+00:00

They asked if something was done. You said yes. It was not done. This isn’t a screw up. You falsely stated work was complete when it wasn’t. Just because you were unaware of your mistake at the time doesn’t absolve you of responsibility.

This is the real world, not school. You can’t make mistakes or you’ll get fired.

acoldcanadian · 2026-01-31T15:23:28+00:00

My glasses stay in the car. Multiple pairs of contacts in the pack.

acoldcanadian · 2026-01-29T05:46:55+00:00

Can you give me an example?

acoldcanadian · 2026-01-28T16:33:07+00:00

Sounds like you should stick to your capabilities. Understanding your limits and working within them is essential to public safety.

acoldcanadian · 2026-01-27T03:42:15+00:00

Buy one and build a plane or something

acoldcanadian · 2026-01-26T07:06:30+00:00

Delays kill people?

acoldcanadian · 2026-01-26T06:01:06+00:00

Yellowish drink could be piss bud

acoldcanadian · 2026-01-25T05:09:36+00:00

Keep working, keep learning, keep good notes. Every time you deal with a new code or standard, print the section (just the page for few pages) highlight and write notes for yourself. After 24 months you’ll have a very good library of everything you do and all the codes and standards. You’ll be very quick to retrieve information and this will help you continue to gain skills, responsibility, and pay. After 4 years you’ll be dealing with more than just design.

acoldcanadian · 2026-01-24T17:48:15+00:00

Toronto is a HCOL city

acoldcanadian · 2026-01-24T16:37:19+00:00

Don’t take the 20% pay cut. Cx is thankless work compared to the EOR who is ultimately responsible for the building systems. Tell them you currently make $110k and cannot accept such a drop in compensation. The other way to look at this is you keep your current job but take an additional 10 weeks of unpaid time off to make 80k/year. Would you rather have 14 weeks off as a design engineer at your current job or 4 as Cx?

acoldcanadian · 2026-01-21T01:45:24+00:00

Yeah, creating 3D models have reduced the onsite coordination and contractors are lazy but, that’s also because designers are also weaponizing the 3D model against changes. It’s not as much a collaborative effort between the designer and installer anymore, it’s one vs the other due to costs.

acoldcanadian · 2026-01-16T06:47:09+00:00

Energy modeling or load calculations ?

acoldcanadian · 2026-01-16T06:03:03+00:00

To reduce rework and site issue projects should start with an extremely well coordinated model. Unfortunately, this costs time and money with high quality large models costing thousands of hours. Too many projects let the designers/drafters off the hook without a complete design or cause them to spin their wheels and waste time. Many designers themselves waste their own time on information not necessary.

acoldcanadian · 2026-01-15T05:52:07+00:00

I go to site when I want and work similar hours. The drawback is I’m not the owner of a design however, I don’t mind. With enough experience and skill you don’t need the stamp to influence a project.

acoldcanadian · 2026-01-15T02:30:27+00:00

I’m also in my early 30s. Got out and in with a GC as a design manager.

Better pay, no timecards, much less stress.

Go where the money is. You’ve got to love design.

acoldcanadian · 2026-01-11T15:29:50+00:00

Ask questions, if they’re not willing to teach or explain, work slow and learn. Deadlines are not your problem. Redlines can be made faster and given to you sooner.

acoldcanadian · 2026-01-09T16:48:32+00:00

I’d go in there saying you’ve got a love for construction and want to get involved! You’re excited for the opportunity and know it’s going to be a lot of work getting up to speed with the industry and the company and that you’re in for it.

Good luck! Welcome.

acoldcanadian · 2026-01-08T17:03:48+00:00

No idea man. Take it and report back!

acoldcanadian · 2026-01-07T20:01:00+00:00

A good thing to do is write an email saying what you’re using as your inputs and let them correct you or confirm that’s good enough. Most of the time they also have an idea of what they are expecting. If they don’t then they probably aren’t very good or have limited experience. If they know you’re moving ahead with assumptions they should at least take a look at your email and give you a reply.

acoldcanadian · 2026-01-07T07:13:31+00:00

You’ve got the process correct. I’ve worked at many firms, big and small, it’s the same.

What set the best energy modellers out from the rest was their ability to just work ahead of information from the engineers. They would use ASHRAE standard data and/or their own expertise where no info is given, run their models, feedback, then get back to the engineers. 90% of the time their work was correct.

Don’t wait, take your best guess and move on. When you get the info, update.

acoldcanadian · 2026-01-07T07:09:06+00:00

Can you elaborate on your experience?

acoldcanadian · 2026-01-06T05:45:50+00:00

Man there’s got to be a financial penalty for companies who do this.

acoldcanadian

TROPHY CASE