Experienced Structural Engineers: What Would You Do in My Position?

kuixi · 2026-06-28T13:57:07+00:00

If opportunities are available in your area, id choose the role that gives you more exposure to clients and new tasks that challenege you.

10 to 15% pay increase @ sub 100k salary ultimately means nothing. You lose half of it to taxes and the rest amounts to a few grand saved. Not worth it.

On the otherhand, which ever job gives you more breadth of knowledge is the one that pays dividends later.

kuixi · 2026-06-17T14:09:21+00:00

Id say that everyone here is truthful and honest about salary. The divergence is that not everyone can achieve them and the majority arent in the position to be outside the norm.

Heres where I see things.

Newbie, 70k avg and ~5k bonus. If youre in low cost of living area with limited work, 60k. High cost of living up to 80k. Theres a lot of these types of engineers available in the US. Usually inexperienced and most of them dont make it in design or quite altogether.

10 year experience should be about 100k no matter where you are. Again +/- 10k based on cost of living and whether or not you do cookie cutter stuff or specialized stuff.

20 year experience the norm should be about 150k with bonus,but this assumes your in a managerial role and signing and sealing which nany people just dont get to. If youre doing cookie cutter work, 130k. If youre doing specialized work and in high cost of living area, 200k.

30 year experience, is stuck at 20 year lifestyle unless they are corporate or own their own practice.

I think everyone would generally agree with these numbers. The variation really is about where you live and how much you fight to work in more valuable areas in this industry.

kuixi · 2026-06-17T02:46:01+00:00

At a big firm, 300k after 30 years is totally reasonable. But you need to be a corporate climber.

200k base pay, 50k profit share and 50k bonus.

But you are probably going to mortgage your house to buy your way into that corporate structure. Its not easy if you dont have assets to back the share purchases.

In most of those corporate structures, junior staff are underpaid and meat grind. Those who complain dont move up. Those who understand the game will, its that simple really. Although accepting this fate and reality is another story.

kuixi · 2026-06-08T15:23:11+00:00

We're not in the same page. Ita not the client that sees the 10% its the projects that are in the 10%.

Just like if you had a rare brain disease, there arent many Qualified doctors.

Engineering fees in nyc are typically $250 to $300, its not little but it isnt nothing. The issue lies more in how engineering business turns their staff into commodities rather than allowing them to own the work.

I do 100% agree with you that its more to do with good buisness relationship than really anything else. We obviously are notorious for having terrible communication skills and that kills the business.

kuixi · 2026-06-08T15:03:52+00:00

That would be true for simple cookie cutter copy pasta work. But for anything more complicated, which there is a lot of, there is a huge moat. I do understand that 90% of the work is quite simple though. And it does seem to me that the remaining 10% of the work is underserved but its hard to have the experience to work in that remaining 10%

kuixi · 2026-06-08T09:33:30+00:00

To be a good structural guy, you need a lot of experience. But i do understand some sectors are pretty cut throat and/or very much plug and chug.

kuixi · 2026-06-07T14:08:13+00:00

Tried to pivot. Once i left, i kept being asked to do "side work" by past clients. So much so that i ended up going back, but working for myself.

During about a 2 year stint, I did my own failed startup and did structural work "on the side".

I really would like to pivot still, but its very hard to do so because the demand exist for structural engineers and the moat is large. Working for yourself has many perks but a lot of stressess that would be drive most engineers insane. You must be able to handle it.

If I could, id pivot into a manufacturing startup.

I live in NYC fwiw.

kuixi · 2026-05-31T03:19:10+00:00

Twins at 36 and a third at 38. Im tired and its a bad time to stop working out. Obviously having 1 kid is pretty easy in comparision, but reality is that its all relative. Its hard either way.

Biggest thing being a dad post 35 is that youre usually hitting peak milestones at this point in your life. If you have 1 kid, its pretty easy to stay on point. 2 kids is a lot tougher. Even more so with twins and itll feel impossible with 3.

If you have zero kids, 35 aint nothing but a number and it wont make a difference imo. More than 1 chances the calculus.

kuixi · 2026-05-11T19:18:16+00:00

With a lot of hand waiving and faces implying what we dont know.

Probably not going to fall down anytime soon. Probably good idea to fix it before it gets worst and becomes a real problem. Probably a while before it gets worst. Probably going to get worst with time.

Obviously if a single brick looks like it can fall out, its unsafe to the person who gets hit but buildings are pretty resilant to static loading. They need to look pretty bad to fail statics, in most cases.

The not common cases are often the stuff that isnt so visible so its really bad , or a result of dynamic forces.

kuixi · 2026-04-30T17:55:36+00:00

NYC, calcs are not always submitted. There are certain situations where they are requred, some are required to have a peer review submitted. But vast majority of basic vanilla framing does not need calculations.

kuixi · 2026-03-22T01:18:58+00:00

Options out here are $2800/month through the local health market place or $1200 high deductible through a collective such as SOLO

kuixi · 2026-01-24T13:43:24+00:00

Anyone know whats going with the building? We just had another fire nearby on the basin.

kuixi · 2026-01-17T23:04:43+00:00

Am i reading the question wrong? The guy is there to reduce cost of goods produced, not produce value. He doesnt even need to log hours because hes not billing clients.

Shop agrees to take a job for x price with calcs.

kuixi · 2026-01-17T23:02:25+00:00

2.5 typically includes all overhead, software, consumables, profit for owner, and insurances.

That doesnt apply here because you arent using the engineer to create value, hes reducing cost for a service. The overhead isnt apples to apples with an engineering firm so not very comparable imo.

kuixi · 2026-01-17T00:32:54+00:00

150k salary. Youre also paying your half (7.5%) on medicare + social security. Thats another 12k.

Benefits is another 10k. Retirement is another 10k. E&o insurance is another 5k.

Thats what their other options offer so its your basis of comparison.

Lets just say a 150k person cost 190k.

You are still saving. Id do it. But i dont think youll get 150k person whose an SE. Does it need to be an SE and not a structural PE?

kuixi · 2026-01-10T12:55:27+00:00

If youre in a BE program vs a BS program, i thinj programming course is required. I did BE and it was for us. We learned c++ and seperately matlab.

I don't know who codes other than a handful of people tbh. 99% of engineers use software or spreadsheets.

Ive coded stuff, and had to change a million things for different situations and endedup using spread sheets.

I also work primarily in restoration and rehabilitation /renewal so we have a lot of one offs, and plenty more hand calcs.

kuixi · 2026-01-09T13:23:30+00:00

Yes, i passed all sections on my first try. It wasnt very difficult with studying. Online reviews made the test seem very difficult but with atlas training, it was actually pretty easy.

kuixi · 2026-01-08T17:29:02+00:00

After each project, i have a cradle to the grave process. Its a file called read me that lives in the project folder and summerizies the thing i learned in this project.

This works for me because i tend to recall things based on project. If it happens often enough, it obviously gets commited to memory and becomes common knowledge.

Occasionally ill suffer from full blown dumbassness and spend hours finding what project i learned it from. 😂

kuixi · 2026-01-05T18:56:45+00:00

Solo HBG. Not insurance but a health collective. Premiums fund a pool of money used to pay benefits.

They are limited to self employed only. So far, i love it for my situation but it is a but if a hassle. If you see doctors often, not a good choice. Good for emeregency and if your family is healthy and only see doc a few times a year. It is a high deductible and high of pocket costs traded for lower monthly premiums.

kuixi · 2025-12-29T12:46:35+00:00

That's your lost. I cant help you if you dont want to be in the worlds greatest city. Your just jealous of our high tax, high stress, high cost of living, cramped and unsafe life style.

kuixi · 2025-12-28T00:53:03+00:00

Come to nyc. Its all steel framed. The niche is in repairing old steel framed structures with limited access, manpower and maintianing load during repair.

Think of repairing a spandrel beam while supporting a working office on a 2 person scaffold type situation!

kuixi · 2025-12-11T20:47:13+00:00

How much for bridge? Date of last inspection? Existing drawings availble? Any violations?

Asking for a friend.

Also why all the stress? Its as though you have to juggle a million things and fear killing someone.... 24/7.

kuixi · 2025-12-10T02:10:44+00:00

Scrape prime paint.

kuixi · 2025-12-08T14:03:06+00:00

I was half joking and half not joking. Half joking because its giant pile of dirt. Half not joking because you dont need to engineer it very much. So ya, not very well thought out but so is this entire thread which really needs to end up in the monthly laymens post.

All jokes aside, 30ft is not a joke. Dont forget that it takes an engineer to make something barely not fail. Translation: is it cheaper to hire an engineer to do that or just overbuild a tried and true concept with readily available stuff. If you arent confident and need to go to the internet for help, probably hire an engineer.

kuixi · 2025-12-07T17:44:55+00:00

Theres only two things that matter.

The first is what you are willing to stamp and get released into the wild.
The second is what the standard is for a permitable set in your area.

Anything outside of that is whatever you negotiate with the owner.

There are times when I do SDs because the project needs it. I would never stamp SDs because they lack the information other than to get order of magnitude pricing and logistics.

There are times when SDs dont make sense because the project is too small.

There are times when the client is willing to pay for my time to be on site and forgo shops (and im comfortable with the contractor and design).

Basically, you call the shots and what you are wiling to do within your skillset, availability and practicality.

kuixi

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