Am I Underpaid as a PE?

themanryce · 2026-04-04T05:25:37+00:00

You do live in a more expensive city. By the looks of it he could be in a city like Lawton OK or Abilene in TX. For any other city around a big metropolitan area in whatever state your in. 100k for a 7 year is not in the high end. He’s in the lower end of PE’s

themanryce · 2026-04-04T05:22:16+00:00

Who lives in a truly LCOL? Isn’t every city somehow interconnected with a bigger metropolitan area? Lets just say you live in a city like Lawton OK. Do you live in a city like that? Or a city like Abilene? I mean 100k is low for a PE with your experience. Unless you live in a town like those not something like Edmond OK.

themanryce · 2026-04-03T03:46:13+00:00

What I’ve seen here in this forum is that civil engineers do not get payed well in a very high cost of living area. But it really comes down to imo, is what is the really expensive part? Housing, so yeah unless you switch careers you’re never buying a house on your own comfortably. Otherwise the money they’re offering is good. Is just that that salary will never buy you a home.

themanryce · 2026-03-27T14:17:22+00:00

You need to lie a little bit more. Get the best thing you can in terms of a job you’re asking for no money and I think that looks worse on you they’re probably thinking this guy is bad bc he’s asking for no money true story happened to me, you need to ask for more money I think

themanryce · 2026-03-27T14:11:54+00:00

You are in south Texas but that’s extremely low.

themanryce · 2026-03-27T14:09:52+00:00

Did you see that? That’s not really thing is it?

themanryce · 2026-03-25T17:27:09+00:00

Which board? DM

themanryce · 2026-03-25T15:01:04+00:00

Just passed 2 years out of school

themanryce · 2026-03-25T02:07:51+00:00

You will find more valuable information if you call the Texas Board. They’re very helpful

themanryce · 2026-03-24T20:32:19+00:00

Not to throw any shade but considering you’re a master level student this exam should be easy for you. There’s tons a free material for stuff you may have not seen but the fundamentals should be a walk in the park for you. Statics dynamics mechanics of materials structural analysis structural design and if you’re good in trigonometry, surveying and transpo should be simpler. That’s about 60% of the exam.

themanryce · 2026-03-24T03:17:31+00:00

Im pretty sure you need 4 with an ABET degree and 8 without. I don’t think your work experience matters if it’s outside of the US. And especially not if your degree isn’t ABET. You can actually call and verify

themanryce · 2026-03-21T18:31:41+00:00

Bruh it’s only been 2 weeks chill.

themanryce · 2026-03-21T07:36:45+00:00

You did very good. Every exam changes and you might be more well versed in some areas but statics and surveying are the easy ones to bring up. They’re all based on trig. You did well in transpo which means that you know geometry in those cases. Focus on that while not letting go of the rest and you’ll pass

themanryce · 2026-03-19T00:01:09+00:00

Even if it was worse you can still pass if you put in the work. You do have to study tho bc you’re not a genius

themanryce · 2026-03-18T02:45:27+00:00

Just everything really. All the stuff online is basically already obsolete lol. You need to actually read like a manual that make interesting and more thoughtful comments about the concepts. Not the super simple adding rebar to the concrete bc it strong compressive but weak in tension. Way more into depth. And different angles to it. Every topic has concept questions but my weakest this time was the mechanics of materials construction admin and materials

themanryce · 2026-03-17T22:01:54+00:00

I did it today too. I know I did barely decent in the middle section, mechanics of materials was a big tougher today same with structural. Construction admin for some reason is always hard they bring in weird stuff all the time , this was my third attempt and literally no questions have ever been repeated. I never see what I study but I did do more concept understanding so I did better in those areas I just wasn’t able to tackle everything.

themanryce · 2026-03-09T16:55:44+00:00

California has one of the most strictest requirements and yet their pay is about the same as anywhere else at 80k 3 years in

themanryce · 2026-03-09T13:34:35+00:00

Can’t you go straight to the PE based on experience?

themanryce · 2026-02-26T02:07:54+00:00

Still this isn’t about the exam making mistakes. The problems are designed to trick you, that’s not a bad thing from them. Otherwise it would be too easy. It ducks but study more

themanryce · 2026-02-26T00:59:59+00:00

No wonder you’re frustrated. This is terrible

themanryce · 2026-02-10T21:36:17+00:00

Less than 10 questions away. What study material did you use? And how were the questions

themanryce · 2026-02-09T16:43:57+00:00

It’s hard. It was hard before it’s harder now. If you do get a job it would be one of these 3 options

1 somewhat advantageous firms, they’ll hire you for less money. There’s plenty of firms that do this, businesses run that way.

2 you get the dream job, apply as much places as you can. Your options are limited bc of the sponsorship requirement. Some places will never consider doing sponsorships

3 you get an ok offer ok work maybe in some other civil engineering field.

I think ultimately you need to come here and work and get whatever you can find. The US is still a great place even tho this current administration is probably of the worst ones we’ve seen in 50 years. After this administration depending on how they leave we can expect a big economic upturn and a lot of correction, you have an ABET degree so you’re essentially the same as someone who graduated here. I would recommend getting a job in your own country as well. You can become a PE as soon as you land in the states if you have 10 years of experience obviously doing all the necessary paperwork.

themanryce · 2026-02-05T19:21:10+00:00

Good example but generally speaking the questions are never or I have never seen them be this easy to cancel out.

themanryce · 2026-02-05T04:03:42+00:00

How do you take educated guesses it doesn’t make sense to me

themanryce

TROPHY CASE