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Course Correcting my Career 1

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Storm-water

Storm-water

Civil/Environmental
Apr 2, 2018
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Hi guys, I'm 10 years into civil engineering (geotechnical) but it's not paying much so now im trying to course correct with the least amount of financial damage. What's the best thing i can do now to boost my salary or go into a different field?

I feel like with covid, i have an advantage because most unis offer online degrees/programs that i could enroll in in the fall while holding down a full time job. I want to take advantage of location being irrelevant at the moment.

For example I'm thinking of transitioning into a civil software design firm..for those who are from the world of tech, what kind of courses can I take on my own now to give me the right skills? (i have zero computer science background).

Any ideas would be appreciated.

Cheers.
 
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Get some mining education, transfer to a producing mine operation ( hint , this will be in the north somewhere ) and really apply yourself for 10-15 years. This should give you a decent salary
 
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In your current field getting a Masters is likely to do a lot for you. Are you now in charge of a company unit or just a grunt? There is a difference. Your experience can then also be a boost.
 
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@oldestguy... i have a masters..im not in charge of a unit just project manager of small-medium sized jobs..so basically just a grunt..i was thinking of getting an executive MBA or going in the tech field to get a salary boost. I feel like geotechnical consulting is a dead end in terms of pay.
 
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@miningman...i have a bit of mining expereince but not a ton (deformation assessment using FEA). what kind of mining education are you referring to?
 
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Something we aren't aware of may be in the picture. Myself and others with a master's have done darn well in this field. Of course we moved on with more responsibilities as well as buying into the firm. I tried.
Edit: With this statement these days, I wonder why? "(i have zero computer science background " In these forums we get all sorts of questions but many times the post starts of with lots missing and it my take 20 postings on the subject and comments here to do the poster any useful info.
 
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An executive MBA is a waste of time as you will not see an increase in salary. You would be better off with a masters in geotechnical.
 
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In your present job are there things you need to improve? In your reports do you suggest ways to save money for the project? Do contractors comment on your work as useful, etc?. How about work habits? How long does it take to write a typical report? How do the reviewers like your work? Work habits. rag chewing? long break times? Stay on at night to get the job out? Who is the last one to leave at night? First in morning? Do you regularly hear from drill crew on the job and if so what do they think? If they have problems can you handle the task of helping? I could go on, but you get the idea.
 
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What are you wanting to make salary wise?

If you are in the private sector, you will have to work yourself up to a geotechnical department manager position or branch manager position to bump up your salary. Staying as a geotechnical project manager is not going to make a lot of $.

You could also make a move to government work. You can make around $100k as just a geotechnical engineer in my area of the states. Moving up to a lead geotechnical engineer position would bump you up $15-20k more.

It is easier to work your way up in the private sector than the government though.

And if I was only focused on $, I probably wouldn’t have chose geotechnical engineering.
 
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yeah, unfortunately i didnt do the research and didnt go into a field that was gonna make me good money (150k plus). I'm willing to back tack and do something completely different to course correct though. I have the time and money to go back to school or study part time. Any ideas on what I can do with the least amount of back tracking (something with a bit of ovrelap with civil/geotech) would be good.

I'm with a private employee owned consulting firm...hard to move up I find within an employee owned company as they require you to sink in alot of cash. This scares me as one of our top associates got laid off during the pandemic right after they announced the company stock price had fallen by 50%. if she invested 100k (which is what is required roughly to make associate/partner) she would have been out 50K and unemployed. At least if i take that cash an invest in a diversified fund of my choice I can chose when to sell and will stay the course during economic downturns.

government work isnt for. I need fast paced exciting work.

Mining in private consulting (Golder, Kleifelder, Coffey and the likes) pays 10% more but not much.

I'm thinking of starting my own geotechnical engineering support services firm (traffic control services, utility clearance etc) as I see how expensive these subcontractors have become. I'm just not sure if legally i'm able to explore this idea while being employed.
 
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Look outside of engineering. One of my classmate, who had PH.D in Civil Engineering, but decided to quit and switched to programming for an insurance company. Also, a few PH.D's have successfully became restaurant owner and made good living. Government position is a good choice, but the mobility/promotion is slow, and your market worth somewhat decrease with time, unless you want to be a lobbyist later in your career. Note that in the US, your education level counts only for entering into the job market, most often it won't payback if you have already on the job for a lengthy time. Technical certification/licensing fare better though.
 
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Bear in mind that contract rate is often NOT EQUAL to pay rate; we have a thing called "wrapped rate" which includes EVERYTHING beyond basic salary that must be covered, like rent, utilities, equipment, compueters, health insurance, payroll taxes, non-direct charging support staff, management, etc. Our typical wrapped rate can be 300% of salary paid; %200/hr contract rate is often only $66/hr salary. A good check of that is to see what these contractors offer as salary.


Only figuratively related is possibly data mining (bad pun); starting salaries are upwards of $100k


TTFN (ta ta for now)
I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert! faq731-376 forum1529 Entire Forum list
 
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If your goal is to make more money then wok in money, financial consultant, mortgage broker, insurance salesman.

My mortgage guy tells me he had to work and chase for about 2 years before getting a steady client flow earning more than $150K selling mortgages. If you want to go big you can also look at real estate sales which are paid on commission, selling $10 million in properties per year gets you a decent payday.
 
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A guy I know from high school (he graduated in 1977, a year behind me) has a PhD in Physics from UC Berkeley and is the son of a physicist. He got bored with particle physics and the relatively low pay of a university professor, so about 20 to 25 years ago he switched to computer programming in the financial industry. I don't know exactly what he does or who he works for, but I know from our communications on Facebook that he is happier with the work and makes more money.

============
"Is it the only lesson of history that mankind is unteachable?"
--Winston S. Churchill
 
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Professors, nowadays, don't exactly make chump change; but probably still less than a fintech/machine learning expert.

I graduated in 1979, and my excuse for not pursuing the PhD that my father craved for me was the low salaries of professors, at that time.

TTFN (ta ta for now)
I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert! faq731-376 forum1529 Entire Forum list
 
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"deformation assessment using FEA". When I was back in the business, my boss called it analyzing a semi-infinite solid. I always liked the term semi-infinite.
 
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