Not a Design Engineer - Career Help!

[enviroengineerca]

I work for government and my career has taken a very specific path to pretreatment program engineering. I do not do design, but I do write very thorough investigations and reports, analyzing various water and wastewater technologies and design implementation for industrial users. I am also a registered Civil Engineer. However, I don't feel like an engineer sometimes since I have not done huge engineering projects, just reviewed other engineers projects designs and specifications. I also go blank when people ask about high priced civil design project experience requirements. I also have done most of my work myself instead of working with contractors and now find that that means I don't have much experience with project managing contractors (even though I think government engineers should take a greater role in working on their own projects not contracting out to others and being just a project manager). I have also taken positions in management that are not engineer related and ended up leaving since they were not fulfilling intellectually such as supervising eleven inspectors for pretreatment program. I am very good improving processes and making work flow better including writing procedures and training staff members. I am also good at coaching younger engineers. However, this usually does not show up on my resume since I haven't actually supervised engineers officially, more like mentored them. Even though I am a hard worker, I also feel private facilities will look at me as a lazy government worker based on my government experience.

I don't feel my experience translates well to traditional role of engineering when job searching. Any ideas?,

 

[fegenbush]

I have heard that some large engineering firms have people who primarily write and review specifications without performing the design work themselves. It may be possible for you to target those companies who would value your experience at being able to look at a job and translate that to a specification.

As far as not dealing with large jobs, I have found that the smaller jobs often have higher profit margins.

Lastly, mentoring junior engineers is a valuable skill. Don't leave it off your resume even if it wasn't specifically stated in your job description. Make sure to take credit for your accomplishments. It shows that you are a do-er and not a lazy government employee.

 

[enviroengineerca]

Thanks so much any other ideas anyone has would be greatly appreciated as well.

 

[IRstuff]

As engineers, we tend to want to do engineering, as opposed to management, etc. So, someone who is half-way good at it and willing to do management is a reasonably valuable commodity.

TTFN
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[brandonbw]

If you work for the govt. you already have an interesting in for private companies. They know you know people to get things through faster. You also know how to write whatever it is to make sure they go through fast. Use that to your advantage. When I say private companies that could be consulting as an expediter in your field for everyone in your location.

B+W Engineering and Design
Los Angeles Civil Engineer and Structural Engineer

http://bwengr.com

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http://bwstructuralengineer.com

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http://bwcivilengineer.com

 

[brainofJ]

I've only worked in municipal consulting. I've seen people often switch between working for a consultant / design firm, to a municipality / government, or to a contractor and vice versa. I've also often heard from managers it is beneficial to have experience in the different sectors noted above. If you have limited design experience you will probably have to take a more entry level position going from government to consulting, but you definitely have useful experience, it won't be looked at negatively.