A few guidelines

To my manager that gives me more work than anyone should handle, who never says thank you, who never acknowledges how hard I work, the constant late nights, the 60 hour work weeks, and who takes credit for any successes that I have.

It's going to be so satisfying to quit. Let the countdown begin.

I have a job offer lined up with a flexible start date, but want to maximize the value I get out of my current job until then. Either way, it is very likely that my supervisor will get upset when I give my two week notice especially with the time of year I plan to do it during. I'm wondering if he might just fire me the same day instead, thus I would be losing out on two weeks worth of pay. Has this happened to you or anyone you know?

Graduated four months ago. Working for small land dev firm. Maybe once a day my manager will check in and ask how what I’m working on is going. Maybe once a week we’ll sit down and actually take an in depth look. I’ll give him updates at the end of the day and email him a PDF or whatever of the latest version of what I’m working on but he rarely takes a look at it.

Just wondering what other folks dynamic with their manager looks like or looked like as a new EIT? My managers extremely busy and I just hate working with him.

Edit: I should’ve emphasized the “maybe” in the OP. These check ins are not consistent. Can go days at a time without any kind of communication. We were pushing for a submittal last week so I was staying late then towards the back half of the week didn’t hear anything. I ask questions but sometimes I hesitate because my manager is not always the most approachable. I know that’s no excuse but yeah.

An engineer buddy of mine has “forgotten his calculus” and is making near 200k. Busting my a** to memorize all these formulas has me wondering if it’s worth the effort.

What math do you actually use in your practice?
What niche/discipline do you work in?
Are you an EIT or PE?

Other than math, what skills would you recommend to anyone getting into civil? e.g. CAD, etc

I’m struggling to find a job really any job I live around ms and want to work in ms or close any tips would help. I have applied to over 50 jobs and haven’t even gotten but 1 phone interview and didn’t hear back. I graduate in December.

Sort of tongue in cheek on the other post title about not wanting to be on C3D all day drafting.

I DO want to be on C3D drafting all day. Please give me the 60% markups in the bluebeam session and let me listen to music all day with my brain turned off. Please let me move leaders, turn off layers, adjust border and sheet layouts, change haul routes, change text, etc. Please let me search around old projects for an obscure detail you thought you'd never touch again and change it to specifc dimensions you need. Let me look at FAA Advisory Circulars and redraw updated airport markings on a CAD drawing.

I'm only an intern but I've been an intern for about a year and a half and I love doing things like this, yes I've done some design but the vast majority of what I do are markups.

Am I setting myself up for failure if supposedly AI will be able to replace what I'm doing In a couple years? It sure doesn't feel like it, especially because im so early in my career.

I just want to say that I enjoy being a CADmonkey and would choose it in every life

Hi all,

I’m a fairly new civil engineering apprentice, my company primarily designs flood defences.

I was preparing a presentation for a project we did to replace some flap valves and design an operation/maintenance system for them and was digging out some pre works photos for comparison.

I either missed the above photo of the old flap valves we were replacing or never gave them a second thought.

Essentially, my question is what was that central opening for? I have only ever seen solid/normal flap valves, including the ones we replaced these with.

Based on my current knowledge (as I said, pretty fresh to engineering) I don’t understand what this opening is adding to the normal function of the flap valve. By the time the water gets that high on the inside, the head will just push the flap valve open normally or if it gets that high on the outside, it will just cause the flow to start reversing which is the whole point of a flap valve to prevent. Or if water level is high on both sides, it won’t move anyway.

Was it not for engineering reasons, e.g. was it a fish pass? Can anyone break it down for me pls? Thanks

need some advice from Chicago engineers. i’m from northern suburbs, grew up there moved to TX. for school and stayed here. in my late 30s want to move back to take care of my parents. i say all this to explain that i know where to apply here in TX but don’t know the Chicago engineering environment having not gone to school or worked there. Can someone give me an idea of what firms are up and coming? green firms? where to apply? where to avoid? i’m in Land development now and have experience in water resources. ANY advice is appreciated. thank you.

I’m fairly new to the traffic engineering industry, but I’ve always understood the following signal rules to apply when driving in the USA:

• Green arrow = protected right, left, or u-turn with no other conflicts

• Green ball = permission to travel straight, permissive right, left, or u-turn where you may be yielding to pedestrians and/or other vehicles

• Flashing yellow arrow = same as above for turns except you will be yielding to pedestrians and/or other vehicles

• Red arrow = must stop, not allowed to turn right or left

• Red ball = must stop, may turn right on red when safe to do so or left on red if both intersecting streets are a one-way

All of the above assume no additional signage restrictions like “No Turn On Red” or “U-Turn Yield To Right Turn” for example.

Recently, I had a jurisdiction in another part of my state trying to argue this configuration was fine for a brand new intersection. Obviously pedestrians always have the right of way, but this configuration fundamentally feels wrong. Am I crazy to push back?

Pictured location here

I will be finishing by IBDP this may and was considering civil engineering. Id love to know your experiences, amount of money and time you paid to become one, and if you think they were worth where you are right now.

We are looking for a civil engineer, sanitary sewer engineer, wastewater engineer, or retired municipal engineer with experience in sanitary sewer system design, construction, and operation.
We are involved in an ongoing lawsuit against a municipality in the western suburbs of Chicago following two separate sanitary sewage backups into our home.
We are seeking a qualified professional who can independently review municipal sewer plans, engineering drawings, specifications, and related records to help determine whether there may be design, construction, capacity, or operational issues contributing to these incidents.
A little background:
Two separate sewage backups occurred without any rainfall.
Sewage was observed backing up through a nearby sanitary sewer manhole and entered our home through a basement floor drain.
The municipality cleared the sewer line using high-pressure jetting, after which the sewage receded.
The municipality attributed the blockage to sanitary wipes.
We have legal representation, but finding an engineer with the appropriate sanitary sewer expertise who is willing to review the evidence has been extremely challenging.
We are specifically looking for someone with experience in:
Municipal sanitary sewer design and engineering
Sewer system plans, specifications, and as-built drawings
Gravity sewer systems, pipe sizing, slopes, and connections
Sewer surcharging, blockages, and sewage backups
Evaluating potential design or operational deficiencies
We are willing to pay for a professional review and consultation. Ideally, we would like someone who may also be willing to serve as an expert witness if their findings support it, although an initial technical review is our immediate priority.
Illinois or Midwest preferred, but we are open to qualified professionals anywhere in the United States.
If you work in this field or can recommend an engineer, consulting firm, or retired municipal professional with this experience, we would greatly appreciate any leads.
Please comment or send me a private message. Thank you!

Image is just a base connection detail for early on in a project. We have a couple different projects running with Union Pacific right now and have gotten this comment now on all of them.

Here's the thing, we have sent over at least 4 different ways to show this, sent in an option that detailed a specific interface panel that called out exactly where each relay plugs in, and consulted with different agencies to see how they show it and every single time we just get "this comment has not been addressed." Nothing more. and the representing firm has been worthless when it comes to responding to emails and calls.

We obviously have our own preferred equipment orders and detail standards, so I'm not looking for anything specific, I just need to know if anyone has submitted plans to UPRR can tell me what they are actually wanting to see with this comment.

Thanks in advance.

Honestly jealous of this find. Would wear despite MUTCD noncompliance.

Hi all. I know this is civil and I am PLS but I am asking for some advice from those that have more life/work experience than me.

Quick background: I got my PLS license at the beginning of this year and just turned 30. I work at a medium sized engineering/surveying firm as a project surveyor. I have 5 years office experience under a PLS and 5 years in the field. I have mostly been doing subdivisions, R.O.S.'s, parcel splits, ALTA'S, etc.

I am being a offered a job to start a one man survey department (for now) for a small 7 man transportation/civil engineering firm focused on public roadway design and improvement projects. They said they "stay inside the public right-of-way" most of the time. They want me to pretty much just do boundary/topo/easements from what I understand. The owner said he has zero interest in construction staking and subdivision jobs. They are sick of hiring out for survey and want survey in house.

They stated that they would like to see the survey side eventually become its own entity where we would take on work outside of theirs with an increase in staff as needed but they would like to stay a small company. They value the environment they have made that isn't go-go-go. They work four 10 hour days and take fridays off. The drive would suck though as it would go from 30 minutes total a day to roughly 1.5 hours a day. However, I would not work fridays.

We have only met once. The owners want me to come up with a salary I think is fair and they will see if it is realistic. I asked about profit sharing or bonuses and they said that is something they would be willing to consider (realistically they will try to push bonuses). I personally feel that 5% profit sharing for anything the survey department did wouldn't be a crazy ask but understand they would need to buy equipment/truck/supplies/etc.

Do you guys think this is wise for me to consider this job and what would you ask for as a salary/etc. that is realistic? (located in the northwest U.S.). Would the work suck or be pretty simple? I haven't done any work in state/county roadway projects. What questions should I ask them?

My current job is amazing and very comfortable with a pretty good work/life balance. They have been great to me and I make $110k a year after bonuses with consistent yearly raises. I am not looking to leave but I am not afraid of taking a chance on something new as well. Money isn't everything to me but I want to provide for my family the best I can. I have a young family with another kid on the way soon so that is something to consider as well and I value my family/work life balance.

Hey y'all, I'm currently doing my undergrad in general engineering. The program is through a partnership with another university and it's mainly mechanical-based but you can take courses for specific disciplines through the other school, like a "concentration" of sorts.

Some background: I transferred into my current program a year ago and I settled for general because I was really just trying to finish my degree more than anything. I started off at community college 6 years ago for mechanical engineering, but I was really struggling and was on-and-off with school. I got back to it full-time a year ago through this program and it seemed like everything was going to work out. This past summer, I had an internship with a state DOT and I really loved it, and I feel more inclined to do full-on civil for my degree instead of general with some civil courses sprinkled in like I'm doing now. I can take the FE, which is nice, but it'd be under "other disciplines" instead of civil and I'm curious if that'd cause any problems later on.

I know everyone lives their life at their own pace but I already feel super behind. I have 3 more semesters before I finish this degree and I already moved to another state for school, so I'm worried about taking even more time and having to move again if I do transfer. The resident engineer at the office I interned at told me I should do civil, saying it'd open up more opportunites, but ultimately it was up to me. I already have my classes for next semester, which includes 2 civil courses, and I'm also filling out some transfer applications. I appreciate all and any advice!

21 y/o. Done 3 years of undergraduate civil engineering Beng accredited. Failed my last year and came out with a diploma (level 5). Wasn’t allowed to retake at the same uni. Enrolled on a top up course at a different uni. 2 weeks in and I’ve only just found out it’s non-accredited.

What do you suggest I do?

It's 2026 and American civil engineering firms still treat work life balance like it's the 50's. I got an offer from a company (large international company) and their letter says that I will start with 2 weeks of PTO annually (their policy states that new employees start with that for 5 years and then they increase their PTO to 3 weeks for another 5 and so on). This is absolutely pathetic especially since I'm 10 years into my career. I'm absolutely going to negotiate for a higher annual PTO but I highly doubt they will accept.

A few of my friends work in tech and they get 3 months of paid parental leave, while we only get like what, two weeks? Yeah two weeks to raise an infant completely dependant on you. My brother works in finance and he gets 4 weeks of PTO plus two additional weeks of "purchased PTO" (you deduct a portion of your paycheck to buy the extra annual PTO).

You try to explain work-life balance to the old-farts in this industry but then they go full Protestant mode on you and guilt you into thinking that you're lazy and have a poor work ethic and start talking about their jobs back in the day like their day-to-day was putting out oil fires in Kuwait. I mean God forbid I have a life I can tell my future grandkids about.

May the old-farts finally retire and this industry catch up to the modern times in terms of work-life balance.

Hi. I (28M) have worked as a construction modelling detailer for almost 5 years now in an MNC. My intent is to work in a more generic field now rather than technical. As I have worked across multiple commercial projects, I find project management exciting to explore. After researching more into the topic, I am quite interested in contract/commercial management and SCM. I am planning to study master's overseas relevant to these options to engage in more global experiences.

My qualifications are bachelor's in civil engineering and have an ISO quality auditor certification.

I need advice from professionals whether these two options are still viable to proceed considering the present AI advancements and the job market. I don't want to be confined and want to be a cross-industry presence.

Please excuse if I have missed out on any details and I'm happy to respond. Please advise.

What career paths within transportation engineering have less to do with drawings and using software to draw polylines all day

I'm nearing the end of my doctoral studies in Civil Engineering where I focused on finite element modelling of masonry walls. It specifically involves cohesive modelling of brick-to-mortar bonding interfaces, representing brick and mortar as independent materials, which hasn't been done in practice before. My concern is that every company looking for work in the field of Finite Element Modelling, and in particular cohesive modelling, wants someone specifically with a background in Mechanical Engineering. How should I position myself in the job market?

Anybody have input or experince getting into KCI Technologies inc. or how to go about getting in?... interview process? mainly for EIT positions. it seems to be impossible to get ahold of anybody what so ever to ask for any kind of update on a application...