Course Correcting my Career 1

[Storm-water]

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.

 

[miningman]

Experience and knowledge re blasting and explosives would be a lot more usefull. Its not what you think you might want to do...... its what prospective employers might need.

 

[IRstuff]

It might be unexplored ;-) territory; I can see an interesting topic for research like machine learning applied to soil analysis. Schlumberger made(makes) lots of money in oil exploration by measuring the local electrical resistance of the earth; the founder came up with some sort of correlation between such measurements and the amount of oil underneath. Seems a bit black magicky, but it seemed to work. Another possibility is better prediction of flooding potential, possibly? Having slightly better foreknowledge of flooding in the coming rainy season would presumably be useful.

As for the original question, lots of analysis is done by finite element analysis (FEA), which involves discretization of partial differential equations.

TTFN (ta ta for now)
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[miningman]

After 45 years in mining, I never once saw a partial differential equation. And as for flooding, knowledge of pumping systems and the associated power distribution systems always served me well[

 

[oldestguy]

What sort of education or training is required to provide consult8ng services to companies, universities, etc after the crisis now by substituting computers for people that are laid off from work. One thing I believe there will be a number of professors losing their jobs. They can be replaced by other methods. Teaching one class a day just won't cut it.

 

[phamENG]

oldestguy - that'll depend on the university and their focus. I did have a couple of professors who only taught one or two classes a day, but if that class and associated office hours with students took up 3 hours, they were typically spending 5-8 hours a day in the lab or chasing down grants to fund the engineering college. The others were assistants and adjuncts who were already working for peanuts anyway.

A teaching university that doesn't engage in much heavy research - you're absolutely right.

Storm-water: Have you looked into getting out of design and into industrial work? You can get a job as a staff/site engineer for an industrial facility and do pretty well (depending on the industry, of course). If you have a lot of experience in storm water already, going into an environmental compliance department at a large industrial site is probably a good way to go. Those spots can pay pretty well. Then you can move from there to environmental compliance consulting. Insurance is outrageous, but the pay is pretty nice, too.

 

[Mohanlal0488]

@Storm-water

What country are you from?

I think that maybe the salary is linked to were you are living.
For instance I know that in South Africa engineers are generally well paid and when you look at the top earning fields there are a number of engineering jobs present, haven't seen geotechnical engineering in the list ever. I have heard that in many other countries engineers are not as well paid. Would like to other peoples opinions on this?

With regards to the software development if you are starting your own company I think you should be fine, however going to work for another company would probably require dual doctorate in many cases (for the companies i'd love to work for), generally one in engineering and another in applied mathematics or something along those lines. I was previously given the opportunity to interview at a firm that did software design where they didn't ask for these types of qualifications but in the grand scheme that company made little Mickey mouse software.

If you are going to do this professional I would suggest looking into a graduate diploma in computer science and maybe post graduate courses in applied mathematics (the honors level courses generally include some good stuff that is used in engineering software, these can generally be taken as a causal student since you obviously don't have the correct degree to get into the course).

 

[Storm-water]

@Mohanlal0488 - Toronto Canada but I have also worked in Australia and the salaries were similar albeit slightly adjusted for higher cost of living in Aus.

@phamENG - my user name is misleading..most of my experience is geotechnical design in the transportation sector. I have done some construction phase services during construction...is that what you mean by site engineer? Do you mean working for the contractor? honeslty I'm a little sick of dealing with contractors.

 

[phamENG]

No - by site/facility engineer I mean an engineer on staff at a large commercial or industrial site to manage internal engineering affairs. You'd become the "owner" in the generic A/E/C relationship spectrum. It's a blend of minor design work, project management, administration, and whatever else management throws on your plate. Depending on where you are and what industry you go to work for, it can be very fast paced and exciting - or it can be slow and methodical. There's limited demand for geotechs in that role, but most of them are more multi-discipline anyway. So you can throw your resume out there and see if anyone bites.

 

[Storm-water]

@phamENG thanks! can you send me an example job listing for what you're referring to. I just want to make sure i follow as roles can be called different things in various parts of the world.

 

[phamENG]

Try searching your area for facilities engineer, plant engineer, or project engineer. There's almost no limit to the variability of these types of positions. And don't be afraid to apply for something outside of what you typically do - just be open about it when you interview while also not saying you don't know anything. It can be a tough line to walk, but I've found it necessary to learn how if I want to set my own growth pace.

A lot of these types of jobs are looking more for high functioning and self starting individuals who have a background in quickly learning and mastering technical material. They may define it differently, but most of the good ones are willing to blur some of the stated requirements to get the right people.