Early Career Job Transition

[bbookz]

I'm considering a minor change in direction with my career and I would like some advise and opinions from other professionals. I am a structural engineer with 5 years of experience and recently obtained my PE (SE1 exam). I've worked at the same small consulting firm since graduating from college.

Throughout my career I've felt that my company did not provide much oversight, guidance or professional development. This has caused me some stress because my personality does not do well with the "trial by fire" atmosphere. I've made no major mistakes, but I struggle with the responsibility of ensuring life safety. I think it would be easier for me if I had peer reviews and if my company had a formal QA/QC process that I could follow.

I am a competent designer, and enjoy solving problems, but am feeling burned out. I am contemplating looking for a new job and am thinking about branching out into a project management role. I found an opening with Structural Preservation Systems which is a national company that does repair design/management/construction. Would taking a break from design to gain construction management/field experience be a good idea for me career. Does anyone know about the company I'm applying for and does it have a good reputation. They seem to have a great mentoring program.

Thanks

 

[moon161]

Working with good people can teach you regardless of the task. You do not need to constrain the idea of 'useful' to narrowly defined future or present roles. Things like good judgement, confidence and common sense are useful no matter what. Learning to spit out the Kool-aid and see the big picture is beyond value.

My discipline is mechanical, but I've learned better to solve problems and stand on my own two from EE's (pops included) other ME's, an IE, an electrician, etc. If you find someone to honestly mentor you in the way of taking others safety and money in your hands, go for it.

 

[Mr168]

Your personality type may be something to take into consideration here.

From what you've described, you prefer things to follow a regiment and are somewhat gun shy. In my experience and the personalities I've dealt with, this is virtually the complete opposite of what you look for in construction management. In managing a project, it's a constant barrage of issues, predominantly financial, from all angles.

If the company you speak of does in fact have a great mentoring program, then I highly encourage you to get some field experience as a field engineer. Not only will it make you a better design engineer in understanding what it is you're building, but it will afford you the opportunity to learn to make quick engineering decisions without an extensive review process, while still having the luxury of the more senior field engineers and craft provide feedback.

 

[B16A2]

Ha, you sound like me at 5 years. I was basically running the department with little oversight and we did big stuff, scary. I know how you feel. Now that you have your PE and can go to jail, it's even a bigger wakeup call!

I would recommend either going back for a masters degree or move to a design firm with better oversight. And you dont even need to stereotype large vs small company is better. Sounds like your current firm is just stagnant and cheap.

The comments about the manager personality are spot on, so beware about thinking the grass will be greener there. The field engineers I've met dont seem to get much out of it.

 

[bbookz]

Thank you everyone for the advice. I'm still not certain what my plans are and may end up waiting to make a move until the economy recovers because I have not seen a ton of positions available. I was having a really bad day when I wrote this post, so maybe today I'll feel less of malcontent. I was hoping to here back from someone with experience with a company involved in construction management. But I do see how stressful situations can arise in the field, and how the budgeting aspect and keeping up with paperwork could be a drag.

Unfortunately, I'm not sure if a masters in structural engineering is for me. I took one day of the grad math needed for the degree and found the accelerated course to be brutal, so I withdrew. I just don't know if I feel passionate enough about design to put myself through grad school part time. Only one other person in my company has a master's and he's not in a position of management.

Yes, my company is small and can be cheap, but do many other companies really invest in their employees by actually teaching, sending them to expensive seminars and providing solid mentoring and formal quality control checks (like going through a list of items as opposed to glancing at drawings cold). I imagine this takes a lot of resources and cuts into the bottom line. Thanks again for the comments feel free to send more.

 

[stanweld]

bbookz,
After 5 years in one job and you don't see appropriate oportunities for growth therein, you should be considering a change, especially if you feel you need more varied experience. Don't angst over it.

 

[B16A2]

Yes, other companies have formal QC programs with checklists. Many firms are aware of the risks of not having a proper QC plan.

You will find that many of the expensive seminars are relatively worthless. I've sat in a few and felt bad that my firm was paying a grand for it. You need to find a firm with an SE you can learn from on a daily basis.

I am surprised that your grad school requires a math course unless you didn't get very far in your BS. I went back after 5 years of working and jumped right into the analysis classes. Got so much out of those classes. You should reconsider.

 

[bbookz]

B16A2,

Thanks for the encouragement. The program I was briefly in was with Hopkins and they required an upper level math. Everyone in the class was a physicist and they basically drilled through the entirety of what I knew about differential EQ in the first 2hr course while skimming through a 30pg packet of class notes. I am looking into a program which is half management courses and half engineering. I do think a seismic course, another mechanics of materials course and a concrete course would be helpful. That program would allow me to learn about construction management and refresh a little on the technical side. What about grad courses did you find so helpful?

 

[PhilBW]

bbookz:

I recently started working on a masters degree. When I was looking at degrees, I found two types. The first type was a general degree (Mechanical Engineering in my case) with courses from a variety of areas. The second type of masters specializes in a specific area. I chose a masters in Materials Engineering. Materials selection and failure analysis make up a huge part of my job, and every week I learn a lot from my classes that I can immediately apply to my job.

 

[B16A2]

Useful courses I took:
Advanced Reinforced Concrete Design
Advanced Steel Design
Prestress
Earthquake Design
Behavior of Steel Structures
Behavior of Reinforced Concrete
Materials course on concrete

Not so useful (because it was basically a math class):
Mechanics
Finite Element
Dynamics

 

[Lion06]

I work for a medium size structural firm and they invest quite a bit in training. I've been to multiple seminars on the company's dime and they are paying 100% of grad school (as long as I get A's, which isn't a problem) - and the classes are 2k a pop.
We also participate in webinars from ASCE, AISC, and SE University pretty much monthly. They also pay membership in our local SEA.

As far as grad school goes you're in a good position to get the most out of it. It's definitely better to have some experience under your belt before getting the
MS - you have a better sense of what the important topics are and when you an implement it at work it helps you retain the information better.

I've had Advanced Concrete, Wood/Masonry, Advanced Analysis, and Advanced Mechanics so far. No math required. Still have to take dynamics, Advanced Steel, Forensics, not sure of the other 3 yet. I wish a class were available that
could be dedicated solely to stability.