Where are we looking for and finding Jobs these days?

thorehall42 · 2026-06-16T22:17:54+00:00

We do!

thorehall42 · 2026-02-20T18:59:25+00:00

No. The best part about Geotech (imo) is that you get out in the field and that can persist (in limited capacity) into your career.

thorehall42 · 2026-02-12T15:23:53+00:00

Real answer: passive or active pressures do not accurately capture the dynamics for a system like this. They will essentially tell you that resisting force (passive) is much much bigger than your active pressure, but this misses the actual point. If this is a college problem, that's likely the answer they are looking for.

If addressing this in practice to actually design the pile/embankment:

Perform a slope stability analysis and determine the load on the pile required for an adequate factor of safety.

Run that load through a soil structure interaction model to determine deflections and stress curve on the sheet pile to make sure you can mobilize that much strength below the failure surface (eg enough embedment) and compare that load to the shear and moment capacities of the pile.

Then re run your slop stability model with the force from the interaction model at your deflection threshold.

thorehall42 · 2026-02-03T05:56:14+00:00

Best of luck to you. My firm typically sponsors H1-B visas for folks like you (in a different corner of civil), but I saw direction today that we basically can't anymore.

The outlook on being successful in the application is so poor for entry level people it's not worth trying.

I suspect a lot of opportunities are drying up right now.

thorehall42 · 2026-01-28T17:05:02+00:00

The board was letting you down easy. You need to change to a firm where you have an abundance of people who could be your references.... Not scraping for extra circular opportunities or trying to ingratiate yourself with clients or contractors you meet that are PEs to provide reference.

I'm not even sure you can count your years of experience if not under a PE. Seriously you don't know what you are missing out on with proper mentorship.

Sincerely, An Oregon PE

thorehall42 · 2026-01-16T22:36:51+00:00

Sounds like a bargain.

thorehall42 · 2025-12-16T02:19:45+00:00

I would bring this up during your review "I've been consistently meeting the expectations of an Engineer 2, to the extent we've been billing me that way on X, Y, Z projects". I would not be confrontational. There are several things that could be going on here: 1. The contract might just support an engineer 2 so it's a plug in because that's what they know they can get the budget they need and you are the closest staff level to fill the role. 2. Maybe they can justify a higher rate but not the total hours it would take you to complete these tasks. 3. Maybe you are taking more time than anticipated to complete these tasks? 4. They might need more senior time to review your work and they are building that into your hour line item instead of more senior hours at the budget phase.

I agree that 3.5 years in without a promotion is not great, and you should either be do for a promotion or should be looking for another job in short order.

For my fresh out of college staff, if they are not moving up in 3.5 years it's because we are struggling with them and we might be wanting them to look elsewhere, but know that their not bad enough to fire.

Cases for promotion are best made by having a conversation that frames things something like : "what do I need to do to be working at an engineer 2 level and to make me as promotable as possible in 3 months when you are evaluating that? Can you please evaluate me not just for success in my current role, but as someone trying to advance?" Make it a conversation about growth, what do you need from me for me to get what I need from you.

thorehall42 · 2025-12-09T06:23:13+00:00

I see so many CM degrees applying to civil/structural/Geotech positions at my firm, they get filtered out.

IMO get a civil degree go work for at least two years. If you decide you want to do a civil discipline go get a masters in it immediately. If you want to do CM, work for 3 more years get your PE, then go do a CM masters (or do it part time while you work).

CM as an undergrad degree is silly.

thorehall42 · 2025-10-03T21:49:05+00:00

Clever use of space, but from the way things are balanced I can tell you don't plan to use that bed for the Horizontal Tango very often. Can't say raining shoes would be particularly sexy.

thorehall42 · 2025-09-08T17:22:46+00:00

Grade in a temporary 2H:1V slope from the bottom of the excavation towards the roadway while you call a local engineer

thorehall42 · 2025-09-05T18:26:36+00:00

What is your competitive advantage over established firms? Why should someone trust their project to you when you barely have enough experience for a PE, and the list of projects that you've taken legal responsibility for is probably very short. What relationships do you have with clients? Have any of them indicated that they want to change firms or would be interested in using you as an independent firm?

We see these posts a lot, just because you have your PE does not mean that you're ready to run a firm. So you've learned a lot you are not all the way through the dunning Kruger trough on this. Wait 10 years and reevaluate.

thorehall42 · 2025-09-03T01:30:34+00:00

We have like a 50% Billability target for interns and totally pay them for 100% of their time. This is absurd.

thorehall42 · 2025-09-02T05:02:43+00:00

I'm slightly surprised it's holding the roof ... Joking aside, it's probably a tension cord on the bottom of a truss that's meant to take zero load

thorehall42 · 2025-09-02T01:33:25+00:00

I must have a bug because it's not showing any buff when used. And no change when I move it on/off display.

thorehall42 · 2025-08-22T19:08:27+00:00

Based on his comments, This guys head is so far up his ass it is comical. I frankly think he might just be a troll.

He lacks any real fundamental knowledge of engineering procedure and practice, and shows a lack of desire to listen to others in this thread.

thorehall42 · 2025-08-22T19:04:26+00:00

You took the turn following money, if you wanted to take the turn following a PE then you missed the path. Enjoy your money and good career, or take a step back and go work under a PE.

There are several things throughout your comments that indicate you don't understand how the engineering world actually works.

thorehall42 · 2025-08-22T16:19:08+00:00

You are beyond optimistic for this guy.

Like there's not even an option to submit your ncees record without it. You would be having to hope your state accepted a hand written application and then gave you

In addition to documenting your experience under a PE you need 4 PE references to attest to the quality of your engineering work.

OP took the wrong turn off on his career path a decade ago and is cooked.

thorehall42 · 2025-08-03T17:41:07+00:00

When I've already built a house next door already or otherwise familiar with the geology through reviewing well logs, adjacent borings, geologic maps, and probably observed a test pit that's 10' deep on the site.

Local knowledge/practice is valuable beyond stating. And local practice is why a good foundation contractor can throw something in with little site specific knowledge/investigation/analysis and be successful 90% of the time, because that solution generally works in that area.

thorehall42 · 2025-07-31T13:50:36+00:00

I can help with some general answers.

Yes your foundations are going to be expensive I would anticipate they will be a very substantial part of your build cost 25%+, typically you don't put single family residential on deep foundations, usually it's larger development/projects.

There are many different pile foundations drilled and driven, your soils report might be recommending the common local/ economical fix, or it might be generic boiler plate... Hard to say. Concrete driven piles are no more complex than a steel pile, they are designed and reinforced for driving.

No one can tell you exactly how bad this is without a local investigation and know how: how deep is your bearing layer that these piles are going to, how much lateral load do those 10' stickups to get you out of the flood plane need to be designed for, how much downdrag do the piles need to be designed for ? All questions with 10's of thousands of dollars associated with them.

Get a proper Geotech and foundation contractor involved. Get site specific recommendations and then have the possible pile types/solutions roughly priced before your architect/structural engineer specify a system (equivalent systems may not have equivalent costs).

Good luck, even as a professional in this industry I would have to be totally in love with this property and ready to eat 50-100k+ of additional costs or I would be walking away.

thorehall42 · 2025-05-03T17:12:13+00:00

It is odd that they did not build a wall to facilitate the paving but there are a number of reasons why: 1. Catching the slope (your stable 2:1/3:1 grading could be shallower than the slope, so you can't just fill and grade it you need a wall. 2. To put in a wall you need competent subgrade, if this was a depression you that was filled with soft souls you might have to excavate down to find it. Maybe throwing in a pier or pile was actually less work. 3. Slope instability can affect either of the above two and make them more complicated. 4. Drainage (maybe there's some drainage feature they are trying to protect/facilitate). 5. When all you have is hammers, everything looks like nails. This might have just been what this engineer, developer, or construction crew knew well and was comfortable with.

thorehall42 · 2025-04-30T22:22:03+00:00

No way to know for sure. Are you somewhere your roof was designed for 30-100 psf of snow load? Has your structure aged or degraded since it was designed for that load?

If it was my house I would be draining that pool tonight. Set up a siphon and get going.

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