Need advice for transpo engr career

[lucyboby]

I am a junior transpo engineer with about 1.5 years of experience and a BS and MS in civil engineering. After just over a year on the job in a large consultant firm, I'm starting to find my career prospects a little bleak. I kind of miss how work in academia was more cutting edge, and I really dislike how things in the private industry are so focused on profit margins and not so much on improving the world (I know, idealistic view of engineering, but that's why I chose to study the field).

I recently started training in some of the environmental engineering aspects of transportation, specifically in sustainable engineering, air quality, and emissions. I still don't know much about the field, but it seems really interesting to me. At this very early point in my career, I don't know if I should jump ship and maybe switch to environmental engineering (go back to school?), stick it out in my job now to get more experience, or start looking for jobs with the government. Does anyone have any advice?

 

[rbulsara]

Welcome to the real world! The world is not ideal and there lies the challenge. You can only succeed if you learn to deal with the real world and still contribute positively.

Finishing a college and 1.5 yrs of experience is not adequate to judge the ending of your career or the world. I would give it a couple of more years and reassess the course of your career. You will have much different perspective by then. Meanwhile work toward getting a PE license. You still have ways to go to learn. In fact, it never stops.

It also depends what you define as good career prospect. No business in the world can survive without making a profit. Someone has to make money to pay you. After all your current employer was at least brave and generous enough to invest in a young, inexperienced talent like you, which by itself is a positive contribution to this world's future.

If your interest is in developing cutting edge technology, you should seek those type of fields such as research and development. Consulting is not one of them. Even R&D has to be subsidized by someone who makes profit by finding ways to implement the developments and finding customers who would buy them. Consultants do that! In my opinion, you are responsible making or breaking your career. It is up to you to effectively put to use what you learn.

Just curious, why do you think your current employer is not contributing to making the world better? Are they not building new things meeting modern standards? Are they not fixing client's issue who live in this world? Aren't there successful professionals where you work? With right experience and hard work you can certainly surpass them. Do not look at the people who are stagnant there. Take the opportunity to learn and use it to your advantage.

People subjected to the same environment end up at different levels of career success. There are people who just work at one place for 40 years and keep complaining and there are people who work at some place for a few years and end up owning a successful business of their own and then there are in betweens. So clearly there is another factor that affects the outcome, and imho, it is the attitude and ability of the individuals.

Going back to school just because you found the world not to your expectations will not change the reality when you finish your 'that' school. Eventually, you will have to face the real world. So either face up the reality now or find a better motivation to go back to school if that is what you want to do. You even may be able to find a employer, who will reimburse a good part of your continuing education costs.





Rafiq Bulsara

http://www.srengineersct.com

 

[cvg]

you already have a BS and MS. I would not recommend going back to school unless you wish to get a PhD. A second MS would be a waste of time and money in my opinion... Given the fact that you only recently decided that you might like something in the environmental / transportation / sustainable engineering / air quality / emissions field, you have not even narrowed this list down far enough to begin a PhD program. You can continue to "jump ship" and switch around while you are still young. You can also talk with and network with other engineers in other fields to get an idea of what they do. Maybe you will eventually figure out what direction you want to take.

 

[HamishMcTavish]

lucyboby,

I think you will find that even if you were to change to environmental engineering you would find that the issues pointed out by rbulsara would still rear their heads.

All businesses need to make a profit and most will want to solve a problem within a fixed timescale and for an agreed price with the client.

Ditto R&D, you may think that it's all cutting edge (and to some extent that's true) but you spend a lot of time doing stuff which ISN'T research, like grant applications and teaching / tutoring (if it's in an academic environment). You still have to produce results or your funding will be cut...you may have to take your research down a route which you don't want to because of commercial pressures...

If you were to go back to school to temporarily avoid the commercial pressures of the world two words come to mind - head and sand!

By all means jump ship as you put it but i would caution you to consider what will happen in a few years time if you feel the same way again. You will always be jumping to something new...depends if you have an endless supply of money to pay your fees i suppose!

Why don't you see if you can 'evolve' the role you're in to include more environmental aspects?

Key thing is for you to enjoy what you're doing, all the best, HM

No more things should be presumed to exist than are absolutely necessary - William of Occam

 

[lucyboby]

Thanks for the great advice, everyone. I really appreciate it. I think I definitely do have a sort of disillusionment after entering the real world. In response to @rbulsara, I do agree that my current company does a lot of contribute to the world. But, at the same time, certain people in management have made it seem like the focus is on profit and winning projects rather than actually doing the work. I understand the frame of mind for them though, that they have to keep the company afloat. My sentiment also comes from certain colleagues that constantly complain about their work, those who don't seem to really enjoy their work. Again, I wholeheartedly agree that it's really up to attitude and ability. There are a few individuals that I've been lucky enough to work with that are very successful, extremely talented, and who seem to genuinely love the field. These are the people in my company that really inspire me. I hope one day I can be like that.

In the meantime, I will continue to explore what my current job (or whatever else the future has for me) and try to take advantage of things that come my way. It's great to hear people (albeit online) tell me things like it is, that I should face up to reality now. After talking with a few other individuals in my field, it seems like some people are just too polite in their responses. And, if a PhD is the path I eventually want to pursue, then I need a lot more experience and knowledge to make that decision.

Again, thanks for the great advice.

 

[KirbyWan]

Focusing on profit may seem bad at first, but the underlying goal is to do things as efficently as possible. This is a positive engineering goal. Sometimes the efficency comes at the price of quality or saftey, which is bad, but the bottom line is a good yardstick to measure the success of an engineering design. If you can sell an equivalent product for less then a competitor while maintaining the product standards, you have a better design.

I also miss school and wish I was back there. Both the good times with friends and the classes. Heck I even loved taking tests. Eventually I want to go back and get a masters and perhaps even a doctorate in Engineering. I can think of no better job then as a professor teaching the next generation of engineers. But even as a professor a focus on the cost of research is important. I have seen a few instances of gold plated research. When I compare that with what has been done for a tenth of the cost that gets the same results I wonder how good the experimental design is.

I'm not talking about projects like the large hadron collider. I understand that expensive does not mean needlessly expensive. But the best research is only as expensive as it needs to be. I think I've gone off on a bit of a tangent.

To return to the issue at hand. Stick with it for a bit longer. Learn some more and when you're ready to go back to school you will be better prepared by a few year in the field.

-Kirby

Kirby Wilkerson

Remember, first define the problem, then solve it.