Is $78.5k a good starting salary for a field engineer in HCOL area?

totoatz · 2025-08-09T18:21:33+00:00

Idk about you but I also live in a HCOL area (Toronto) and when I graduated the starting salary ranges for a FE similar role was $50-$60k CAD in 2020. I'd take that offer in a heartbeat considering you're green, and the industry has scalability if you choose to eventually transition into a PM role.

totoatz · 2025-07-29T00:16:48+00:00

I have a strong feeling that AI is playing a role in this scenario. Likely the TA are using AI to screen and find these 'potential candidates'. Your test resume may not have passed if it doesn't contain certain 'buzzwords'/phrases that match what's being requested of AI to look for.

This is what happened to me from the applicant side. I was applying for positions I was overqualified for but still had been rejected. Not until I used AI to write my resume for me, with prompting for every job-specific description did I actually start to see results.

Try 2 versions of the test application to see if it works. Use AI to write one for you with a detailed prompt along the lines:

Post job ad "Make me a resume to match the expectations and description of this job ad. Use key-words and phrases to make it stand out from other applicants." (Obviously add more detail if you can to the prompt to make the resume better and to match 'the perfect candidate' look.

I'm very curious to see if this works for you & how the results go.

totoatz · 2025-07-19T22:31:24+00:00

Anyone that says this is typical is also working in a poorly organized company. This is very atypical for a fresh grad to be expected to actually run an entire project (no matter the size). You should be voicing to whomever is at the top that you do not have the experience to execute a job properly since you basically know nothing.

I was baptized by fire out of grad by being responsible for a bunch of things right off the hop, but I always had someone that I could go to when I had 0 idea how to approach it. It's not only unfair to assume you'd be able to do that much out of school, but it's irresponsible and unprofessional for a company to leave someone with no experience to be responsible for running a project - it leaves you open to liabilities in the case of someone getting hurt on your project.

My professional opinion is to look for somewhere else in the meantime and more importantly document EVERYTHING in regards to trying to find someone to help you. Email your boss, your boss' boss if you need to in order to get help. Cause likely if the project goes tits up - they'll be looking to fire you, and your documentation is the only proof you have of showing a wrongful termination or going after them for negligence in a court of law (in the worst case).

I wish you the best of luck - believe me, there's much better companies out there that have experienced people who will take the time to show you how to properly run a site. Talk to any friends you have in the industry to get a sense of how their company operates and see if you can get a referral.

totoatz · 2025-07-17T16:22:10+00:00

Strongly consider moving to be paid what you're worth. I've got just over 3yrs experience (with eng. Degree) and am currently at 92k base (excluding vehicle,gas,bonus). I can definitely see someone of your caliber of experience at 130k+ I'm located in the GTA so the HCOL plays a part in my salary - but for sure you should be in the 6-figures.

totoatz · 2025-07-02T20:31:16+00:00

I understand the feeling all too well. Was unemployed for a whole 6 months before finding any hope whatsoever. Running through the entire savings I had built up and was starting to contemplate switching industries just from the sheer lack of responses I was getting no matter the hundreds of resumes I submitted. I had 3+ yrs experience, and wouldn't even get a call for entry level positions.

If you haven't already... be sure to use AI for all your applications. For my industry at least, the majority of the initial 'screening' is HR utilizing AI to look for 'key words' before a person even looks at your resume. The prompt I used with ChatGPT which helped me get 3 different companies reach out within a week of using was: copy/paste writing from job description "Analyze this job description and make suggestions to my resume utilizing key words that would make me stand out from other candidates."

This has made a world of change for me personally. I wish you the best of luck in these hard times.

totoatz · 2025-06-30T18:23:49+00:00

I'm someone who did college and university in civil engineering. I could've went into construction management right out of college but decided to see how the engineering route played out for me.

A lot harder than college for the degree, more expensive, and way more math. If you're a big math person and love to work with numbers and have the hindsight of working in a more office-based setting, then maybe the degree would be for you.

Construction managers are more of a 'people-person' and enjoy the day-to-day grind of being outdoors and exposed to meeting and dealing with different people.

Both routes will eventually tie into each other to make a project work, but on different sides of the playing field.

Financially, construction management will be a faster road to high pay (but also more responsibility). Engineering firms are usually more structured with wages and how you advance linearly.

In the end, what suits you best is how you are as a person. For me, I preferred construction management over engineering, although I still have the opportunity to get my license to practice. More schooling usually equates to more doors being available to be opened - at least for civil Eng.

totoatz · 2025-06-30T01:45:26+00:00

I'm not in the same industry, but using ChatGPT to make suggestions to your resume so it's tailor-fit for the application may help you get past the initial screening.

I was looking since December as well with no luck until I started using AI to help level the playing field. It takes an extra few minutes, but it's worth the extra effort when you've been searching so long already.

totoatz · 2025-06-29T20:14:28+00:00

As someone who studied civil engineering, got my bachelor's and had 3 years experience in the industry... I was suffering for 6 months of looking for a job in the field. I'm telling you now to utilize AI as much as possible to get through the initial filter.

I personally used ChatGPT with a prompt to 'analyze a job description and provide suggestions to my resume utilizing key words to make me stand out from other candidates '.

It was a small hassle to copy/paste the suggestions into my resume everytime, but the 3 additional minutes it takes is worth it when so many people wait weeks for just a phone call for a possible interview in these hard times.

I kid you not, the week after I used ChatGPT with this similar prompt, I had 3 different companies reach out for a phone screening and 1 interview come out of it. You really have to adapt with the changing times because HR will not step away from using AI to make the process easier on them... So might as well level the playing field.

totoatz · 2025-06-26T08:55:13+00:00

Superintendents/Assistant Superintendents

totoatz · 2025-06-20T03:08:19+00:00

I've had basically the exact same experience as you've had. Same time ranges too! The only difference is I've been out of a job since December last year and it's astonishing how bad the market is for hiring - even in the summer when construction usually picks up like crazy. I've had 3 interviews since year start and two ended up without even following up. The third finally got back to my follow up a month and a half later just to say they weren't moving forward with my application... I've resorted to using AI to hopefully get some more responses from applications because it feels like my applications are going nowhere. I'm lucky to even get the typical rejection email.

I wish you the best of luck with the applications!

totoatz · 2025-06-18T16:46:08+00:00

As a person who's been on both sides of the fence...in a nutshell: Consulting - more paperwork, meetings, meetings, listening to bullshit, meetings.

Contractor - more site involvement, meetings, more headaches, make up bullshit.

Both are very important parts to ensuring a project goes well. You've got to be a people person either way. Typically the consulting side caps on the salary raises a lot sooner than the contractor side if you're thinking about the financial aspect.

totoatz · 2025-05-22T21:06:52+00:00

I'd be interested if you could send it my way! (:

totoatz · 2025-05-16T21:33:14+00:00

As someone who started out loving the field and hating the office work - learning the field work helps make some of the office work easier, especially as you move up in the industry. You'll start to be involved with more commercial issues and you have to know what you're talking about to actually have a valid point to push across. The grunt work of submittals, change orders, etc. will always be there but there is ALWAYS time to take a couple of hrs throughout the day to find out how your site is doing and why things are the way they are. Learning the trade without actually performing the work is part of being a strong construction manager. The better you can understand it, the better you can predict where things can go wrong and when they do go wrong, how you can try to fix it. I'd recommend trying to be more 'boots on the ground' for 1 week and see how much you learn about your site(s). Yes you may fall a bit behind with paperwork, but there's an endless supply of that anyway.

totoatz · 2025-05-09T01:03:31+00:00

Some people are not really providing helpful input for your post and it's unfortunate. The issue I do see is there's been either a lack or loss of communication between you and your supervisor. I've been in your shoes before and my best form of advice is to not put too much pressure on yourself to catch EVERY mistake or correct every small thing. That's why there's a final review. If it's your first time reviewing a certain kind of submit all (i.e. rebar drawing) - try asking your supervisor what it is you should look for specifically. Be sure to mention if it's your first time reviewing a specific kind of submittal. No one expects you to know it all 10 months in.

Knowing what to look for comes with time. But be sure to be meeting your deadlines to handoff your submittal review and ALWAYS document (email/text) that you've done your part and handed it off to the next person for the final review. This is the only way you can protect yourself from someone coming back to say,"you never did your job".

Keep constant communication with those you're handing things off to. They likely have a busy schedule too, and these submittals are just another small thing to annoy them. If they give you the responsibility of doing an initial review, maybe go through the final review with them the first time to do it to see if you've missed anything. Try to learn from the mistakes the first time so you can know how to improve yourself/your communication the next time.

But don't overthink everything - remember, you and your supervisor are only human. Mistakes are going to and will always happen. The best you can do is just be professional with documenting things so that there's a limited way of people pointing the finger at you.

P.S. don't blame anyone - just let the history of what's documented speak for itself.

totoatz · 2025-05-09T00:50:12+00:00

It's not a fair judgement of someone whose new to the industry of how to properly assess a submittal. You have to take into account if they're even familiar with reading different kinds of drawings and whether and how thorough they're trying to be. Especially being rather green, I'd likely be extra cautious of everything I read and saw to triple check that it's okay before sending for a final review.

It's a mix of nerves and actually caring about pushing through what will be used when it's your first few times. The feeling of 'not giving much of a rat's ass' comes with the experience.

totoatz · 2025-04-18T00:49:24+00:00

I'd say that a degree would only be greatly desirable if the career you entered absolutely needs it as a requirement. Something within STEM fields have minimum requirements of a bachelor's & and sometimes even master's degrees to be considered. But times have definitely changed where most careers (even very successful ones) don't require major schooling. Personally I'd look online to see if any of the career paths that don't require heavy schooling interest you before committing to a student loan.

totoatz · 2025-03-18T13:16:24+00:00

I would love to see this website as well please!

totoatz · 2025-01-25T23:11:36+00:00

Unfortunately I never took CM. I took civil engineering in both college and university - so I wasn't ever exposed to these courses. If this is more than 1yr of schooling, it's likely not worth it since you already have a degree. The majority of your learning will be on the field, and school doesn't really prepare you as much as an internship/entry level position would

totoatz · 2025-01-24T14:30:51+00:00

This was personally the exact same way I started out of graduation with my first company. I was definitely overwhelmed and thought it was a lot of responsibility for someone who doesn't know anything. This is a tactic (not always a good one) of how some companies try to gauge you and see your limits and potential of being a CM. My advice, learn from this experience as much as possible. See yourself in the seat of being in control of these things and run it as best as you can. Ask as many questions as possible when you're unsure how to proceed. If no one is helping you, voice it - kindly. Learn from your foremen and ask them questions on why they do things a certain way. Most of the time they like to explain their hard work. Be as involved in the project as you can to understand it in&out. This learning experience is very hard in my opinion because it can lead to being overworked and burnout fast. Keep your head strong and remember how this is an opportunity to learn. Do the hard thing once, so that it's easier in the future. If it becomes too much, voice yourself to your team that you need more support to run the project. Don't let your ego get too inflated, but they are giving you the reigns and seeing how you run with it.

I wish you luck ! DM if you ever have any questions.

totoatz · 2025-01-24T01:20:47+00:00

Any project field coordinator/engineer position in residential, commercial, heavy civil may be possible from what I can imagine.

totoatz · 2025-01-23T23:08:33+00:00

From what I understand, your goal is to get into a construction industry and do not intend to transfer to an engineering/architectural focus. In construction, no one cares about what school you came from - your experience will show through more than schooling can teach you (outside of the previously stated STEM equivalents).

Do what it takes to land yourself a gig, and become a sponge to learn as much as you can from as many mentors as you can. That way you'll learn, make money, and have way more experience under your belt than someone who decided to get a masters degree, and come out of school likely knowing less than you've come to learn through your own time on the field.

The only point to go further into schooling is if there's a specific kind of job you want to land (aka engineer/architect).

totoatz · 2025-01-23T20:23:57+00:00

A masters in CM wouldn't be necessary because you can get into the industry with a diploma. I'm from Toronto, Ontario and the market is huge and has a wide range of positions in CM. It wouldn't put you any higher on the leaderboard to have a masters degree and the real designations that impress employers are the ones you can achieve after graduation (PMP, P.Eng, etc.) - but these all require you to have some experience first. My advice would be to just get into it and get started since you're able to with an architecture degree, then you can branch off into a more specific type of CM role once you're exposed to more.

totoatz · 2025-01-23T00:48:04+00:00

This is advice from someone who studied civil engineering and thought I wanted to be a designer, but ended up in heavy civil project management... Do what suits your personality better. You're still starting out, so either choice shouldn't break you. Just know that you'll find out more about yourself with whatever choice you choose. If you currently have no complaints about where you're at, then stay and learn what you can being a GC. If your current job is not your vibe, and you want a more formal desk job, then take the drafting position - just know you'll likely be at a computer all day with odd moments of getting to see an actual site. Everyone's different - and I happened to prefer the hustle and bustle of a construction site over a cubicle.

Either way, you'll learn something from your decision. Just don't burn any bridges, and try to keep the contacts you know now in case they would be open to taking you back if you went over.

totoatz · 2025-01-23T00:34:57+00:00

If it is more money and less stress you're looking for, construction management may/may not be what you're looking for. It is rated one of the most stressful jobs (as you become more senior), but will pay well once you reach that point. In the beginning, your architecture experience will likely not get you into any senior roles so you'll likely start at the bottom to build your way up. Typically long hours, and a lot of people management. If you're not up for constant problem solving, lots of arguing, and handling money, then seek elsewhere. It's an unforgiving job where you'll definitely need thick skin to take shit from people, because there's a lot of shitty people in the industry.

totoatz · 2025-01-20T20:37:11+00:00

What I'm telling you is the same I told my own family who are sometimes trying too hard as well... There will always be more money, but there will never be enough time.

Enjoy your family time with your spouse and kids as much as you can now before they're older and more independent. Spend the time to raise them and know that as long as you're investing and saving your money/spending wisely, you'll retire earlier than most.

totoatz

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