Out of college and dismal about job. 5

[minjim]

Hi, I'm a civil engineer in training with interests in geotechnical/foundational field. I've recently graduated college in May 2010 and is working for contractor since July 2010.

I was initially elated to start working at my first job as an engineer in training. After all, the company had a PE that I hoped to work under. However, after three months, I feel I might have gotten myself into something else due to my naivete about the engineering industry.

I realized that the company I work for is less about design and more about build. All we do really is bid on projects designed by other contractors and then we simply go through the motion of ,scheduling, purchasing materials and constructing the project. I've never seen the PE use his PE seal or signature on a design or apply extensive technical engineering knowledge. It seems that he is mostly involved with the paperwork and the bid estimation of each project. The man certainly is knowledgeable, but to me, I see less of an engineer than as an estimator.

My question to you guys is have anyone ever gotten their first engineering job but it wasn't what they expected? Should I stick it through or is there no hope for learning how to design things? I'm worried that what I'm doing will not count towards my EIT experience. Other than that, I'm learning a great deal about contracting and the industry in general.

 

[csd72]

Learnt what you can, when you stop learning move on.

 

[KENAT]

Very few of us were lucky enough to get our dream jobs on the first try.

Why should you be any different?

Posting guidelines faq731-376

http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm?

(probably not aimed specifically at you)
What is Engineering anyway: faq1088-1484​

 

[calguy07]

Is it possible to ever stop learning at an engineering job?? Or does it depend on your role??

 

[IRstuff]

If you stop learning, then you've either become a manager and are regressing, or you've died on the job, but no one noticed ;-)

More germane is that you shouldn't stop learning, regardless of what job you have; if for nothing else, exercising your mind could prevent Alzheimer's.

TTFN

FAQ731-376

 

[trey25624]

I'm a little late to the party here, but yeah it sounds like you want to work for a consulting firm. Like others have said I would stay put and enjoy it. Right now you are closer to the actual construction, seeing something get built. Sitting in an office designing something seems cool, and it can be, but at the end of the day you are a pencil pusher.

That being said, there are many facets of design work. If you are geotechnical you may work for firm that does soil boring and provides recommendation on foundation design. Just take advantage of your current situation, its worth will reveal itself in time.

 

[cabraham]

First jobs cannot offer you intense development activity because you are too new & raw. Also, design/development is difficult with only a BS. The BS degree is a great degree for sure. It is the biggest & toughest step. But the BS is pretty much all about basics & requirements. Applying those basics to solve advanced design problems is covered in grad school.

If you wish to do innovative r&d type of work, I advise seeking an MS or better yet, a Ph.D. A BS will get you so far, but an MS will open doors a BS won't. I know first hand.

After my BE (a few extra hours more than a BS), I had job offers, but not the type of innovative work I ultimately wanted. After the MS, better opportunities were offered to me. An advanced degree makes a big difference.

That was 30 yrs. ago. I went back to grad school 3 yrs. ago to begin the Ph.D. I am about 2/3 of the way through it. I took classes for 3 yrs. while working full time.

Hopefully I'll get even better offers with the Ph.D.

 

[cvg]

I'm going to have to disagree here with the PhD / R&D comment. minjim is a civil engineer interested in geotechnical engineering. not a lot of research and development in that field and he did not indicate that was the direction he wanted to go. a BS is just fine for design and a MS might be ok if you want to specialize. Otherwise, I would recommend getting some experience before even thinking about going back to school.

 

[Qshake]

cvg - for our geotechnical department, the norm is MS and PhD due to the complexity of the field. Today's owners and architects are really doing more with little (info and or materials to work with) than before. One of the riskiest portions of a built environment is the foudnation. Few contractors are willing to lower bids for foundations without the insight of knowledgeable geotechnical staff. Especially as we head into areas where realiability and variation in soil or rock is evaluated and the older (but reliable) methods are put to the pasture.

And I don't say that lightly as I'm damn near the pasture myself. Yet I do have advanced degrees and work hard to stay in front of new material.

Now back to the original post. As a construction engineer you can word your experience to fit the requirements of the PE examination. That isn't a problem. You likely oversee some sort of quality testing or assurance if not for the owner then for your company so you don't get hit with a non-conformance claim. You might get into some haul estimations - shrinkage factors, compactive effort and or concrete mix designs to suit your operations. All of that believe it or not is on the Civil PE exam.

Perhaps what you really mean is that you don't feel like your getting the experience you want. In that case, be patience, hold on to the job until you're sure the economy is back up and then look for what you really want to do. Of course you'll need to start at the end of the line soaking up new experiences just like any newbie but it's prbobaly worth it. Like Ron said, it's a profession and you can make out of it what you will.

Good luck

Regards,
Qshake

Eng-Tips Forums:Real Solutions for Real Problems Really Quick.

 

[cvg]

qshake, when was the last time you did any R&D?

 

[Qshake]

cvg - I don't do pure R&D work and didn't mean to imply that I did.

We do get involved in projects that are innovative and top the charts with funding. When dealing with innovative methods and hundreds of millions of dollars a higher level of expertise is required to mitigate risk.

Regards,
Qshake

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