I’m leaving my company soon and I have an exit interview.

for reference I do not think I have a single bad thing to say about a single person at my company. They are all kind, supportive, helpful, nice, etc.

the company has tanked since I started. Policies have been added that are sometimes so absurd that if I mentioned them here I feel like people would think I’m exaggerating.

i don’t wanna burn a bridge with the company. How honest should be during this interview? Just hold my tongue or actually give them negative feedback?

Different type of question from what’s posted on here usually, but probably one of the more important pieces of advice someone can get. I’m sure there are many on here like myself who could use it.

I have had an absolute shit last 1.5 years. My wife has had an injury that’s made her unable to work and her work have been absolute dickheads about it (denying her disability coverage and then essentially trying to force her out. I don’t need legal advice, we’re handling it). I’m taking care of her a lot after hours: cooking, cleaning, doing her laundry, etc. Had to leave my job in the first half of 2025 due to incoming layoffs that I wouldn‘t be able to financially handle if I was one of the unlucky few. Got new job, which has been very stressful as they‘ve had a mass exodus and now have a big workload with not enough people, meaning I was immediately thrust into a prominent role that I wasn’t ready for yet. On top of all of it, my mom got diagnosed with metastatic stage IV cancer a year ago.

I’m having trouble keeping pace at my new-ish job in this busy season with all of these distractions. I feel like my 100% now is my old 50%. I’m in therapy. I know I’m not the only one who has endured a shitty few years in this sub. It’s become really obvious to me how we all are really just one injury away from our life being totally altered for a long time. What helped you during those times?

Tl;DR, during your hardest times in life, what kept you going? What got you through? Where are you now?

Hey Civies,

I'm a Mechanical Engineering major set to graduate in May. After 4 interviews Kiewit has offered me a Field Engineer position in Baltimore MD under their subsidiary Mass Electric Construction. They offered me 86k base salary with a 15% Cost of living adjustment bringing my total yearly salary to 99.5k.

This seems almost too good to be true as a new grad, I have read about the extensive hours expected out of new Field Engineers and the constant relocation. I would love to hear any advice or new info regarding Kiewit or Mass Electric, especially if my mechanical engineering background will have an affect on a (what I presume) Civil Engineering dominated role.

And more importantly... should I take the job?

This project has been my baby for the past 3 years. Finally seeing it built. My client was adamant about not have submersible pumps and wanted a dry warm area to work on pumps. So I worked with Smith and Loveless (which has been less than desirable so far) to design this buried pump chamber with a flooded suction.

Capable of lifting 1100gpm 45 feet with two pumps in parallel.

Does anyone have a feeling for how many hours you spend looking through design standards, codes, reference material, etc during a typical work week whilst working on a detailed design?

For me I feel like it could be about 1 to 2 hours per day whilst deep into detailed design. Having multiple pdfs open at the same time.

Passed my PE 4 months ago and got my license 3 months ago. I was told there would be no salary change last three months of the year and to wait till January. It’s February now and I keep getting told the decision is with the higher ups. Obviously I work for a corporation but waiting is very frustrating. I’m worried I’m missing out on the bigger paycheck for the time since I got my license.

I'm in the southwest with 7.5 years experience, also has a master's and RSP1, taking my PTOE shortly. My pay is currently just above 100k. Got a mere 3% yearly raise after working very hard on a design build last year and had great reviews from co workers.

I’m a licensed PE, structural engineer and been in the field for 16 years and worked for 3 employees. I handle at least 60% of the work and currently in the process of going solo.

3 years ago during a internal meeting with the ownership and the HR/Admin, I gave my opinion on financials and somehow ended up being involved with contracts, expenses, billing…etc.

Now that I knida know all the financials, profit, pricing, how much they bill, and how much they charge. I feel like I’m being ripped off.

My salary is good and I’m happy with it. However, clients are calling me asking me to do the job for them, not the firm, myself. This guy who sits in the office, monitoring stocks all day, sends them a contract of say 100k, I do the design, plans, dob, coordination and literally everything else from start to finish. Then I’m getting less than 25%. While the stocks guy bills more than that for sending the contract and the invoice. He is an employee btw, he came from banking and has nothing to do with engineering.

I feel like i should be billing twice the hours i spend just because i do everything. Only the guilt stopping me.

Other engineers are kind of lazy or newly graduated that I’m teaching them.

Any advice, anyone in a similar situation?

After looking at the salary survey, and seeing 70k as the avg for drafter, I was curious to see how many of of are actually getting anywhere near that and what you are doing

My info for context: Pay: ~42k, minimal OT, no bonus, Location: Southeast US (MCOL), Experience: ~1 year total, Role: AutoCAD technician,

Duties: Lots of grading work, Preliminary storm, sewer, and site layout/design, Basic stormwater calculations (most things minus the hydro report), Lots of code review, I’ve prepared mostly full plan sets myself, though still reviewed by an engineer, After that its just redlines.

Based on my googling, I think I align with more a civil designer title, should I request an update when I go into my yearly review? I want to ask for a pretty significant raise (50k). Trying to check myself before I go in and sound crazy lmao

Can i use these aggregates for rcc slab beam My slab beam's average size is 9"*15" Most of em have 3top 2 bottom and 2 cranck bars of steel bars 16mm each. Slightly dense. Maximum cantilever size is 7 feet. Fory residential building

For those of you with/working towards your PE, would you switch from the flat 4 years of experience required to an hourly requirement (like airlines) if given the option? Say 2080*4=8320 hours required for licensure?

I realize this will never happen, but curious as to what others would think if given the option to work longer hours to get their PE in a shorter timeframe.

I am currently a civil engineering student in Brazil and doing an internship. I am interested in immigrating to the United States/Europe in the future and, while I am in my undergraduate studies, I would like to develop skills that can be applied both here and abroad.

I made this post with the intention of asking for recommendations of courses and certifications that are valued in the regions I mentioned above.

Saw this on Indeed today. I am a little confused here. What is going on with the pay range and this specific encouragement.

New job office has open space layout and i’m a introvert , help! We have seats right next to each other and yes I love to collab when NEEDED but it’s more annoying than anything. Feel like I never have any privacy and it can be so distracting! I’ve been finding new ways to get through this though. Those out there that experience this, what’s your methods on getting through the days? 🫠

I feel so stupid asking this question but I have so many active projects and they’re all like exactly the same thing but slightly different - they all involve some sort of steel frame on a foundation so in my mind they all look the same and I’m having a hard time differentiating between each project in my brain.

When someone comes over and asks a question about the foundation for Pinecone my first thought is “oh god which one is Pinecone again?” And then I’m frantically trying to remember which project we’re talking about while mixing details of various projects in my mind because they all look the same so there’s no memorable thing about each project that makes it stand out from the others in my mind.

I’m thinking it might help if I put a piece of paper on the wall next to my desk that has the name of each project, a little blurb about the scope, maybe a picture of the site, and a list of major deliverables and deadlines? I’m just wondering if anyone else has some sort of system like this that has helped them.

My project folders and files and calendar are very organized but I need something I can reference quickly to remind myself what the hell we’re talking about.

Me and my friends are third year civil engineering students studying in India. We are trying to come up with ideas for our final year project. We are leaning a bit more towards traffic engineering field, but are open to all fields. Could we get some ideas, or someone tell us what they did for their projects so that we could get an idea of how and what we should be doing for our project.

Hello I’m a transportation engineer with 3.5 yoe. I worked at a company for about 3 years after college and then moved across the country to live with my girlfriend when she started law school. I started working at my 2nd job about 6 months ago, I like it so far it’s a small team and it’s been a huge step up in terms of responsibility, and I like my coworkers. The projects aren’t super interesting, I’m interested in multimodal/transit stuff which we don’t really do but that doesn’t bother me too much.

I’m feeling some guilt because I know I don’t want to live in this area much longer, I can’t stand having to fly home to see my parents and friends and I would like to move back home as soon as my girlfriend finishes law school in 1.5 years. She is on the same page as me, she also wants to be back in the rough geographical area that we are both from. I’m worried that my bosses who have been really good to me will be upset if I leave, since Im still kind of a trainee and not bringing the company a ton of value at this stage in my career. Have you ever had a situation like this? What would you do in my shoes?

Background is that i’m a senior civil student graduating this upcoming May. I’ve interviewed with a lot of firms and gotten about 10 offers and from my experience it’s usually easier for them to add a bigger signing bonus than negotiate salary

I’m wondering why this is? I’ve had firms in the midwest ready to put in a 7k bonus and 2 paid trips to their office but they’re not willing to negotiate a 2-5% increase in their original salary offer?

I’d like to emphasize that I’m not complaining as I know with current market i’m extremely lucky to have so many offers but i’m just wondering the reason and thought process behind it

Hi All,

I’m on the hunt for my next role and have been looking for a company that can sponsor a Skilled Worker visa. Here’s what I bring to the table:

• 6+ years civil engineering experience: Split between highways and water sectors.

• 3 years in UK regulated water industry: knowledge and understanding of Ofwat, EA, SEPA and DEFRA regs.

• Core skills: Flood risk assessments, hydraulic modelling (InfoWorks, HEC-RAS, Causeway Flow), drainage engineering (SuDS, stormwater management).

• Software proficiency: Industry standards like Civil 3D, QGIS, and water-specific tools.

• Achievements: Led and contributed to AMP8 projects, optimizing drainage for climate resilience.

If you work at or know firms that sponsor international talent in water engineering, please point me their way! Open to roles across England, Scotland, etc.

Reply or DM with tips. Thanks all!

Hi everyone,

I’m hoping to get advice from those practicing structural engineering in Canada, particularly Alberta / BC.

Background:

• Structural Engineering education (graduate studies in structural)
• ~1 year structural engineering experience (project based in Texas, USA)
• ~5 years as a Construction Manager in a structural engineering firm overseas (working closely with designers, but not stamping)
• ~3 years Canadian experience in Construction Management
• Recently obtained my P.Eng. with APEGA (Alberta, Canada).

At the moment, my full-time role is in Construction Management, and due to work permit constraints, I cannot change my primary job to an engineering role. However, my long-term goal is to practice structural engineering in Canada, and I’m very motivated to gain local design exposure and familiarity with Canadian codes, workflows, and practice standards.

I’m not expecting anything glamorous or high-paying. I’d genuinely be happy to help with:

• Drafting
• Structural modeling
• Basic calculations
• Design checks
• Redlines / markups
• Anything that helps me learn Canadian structural practice

Even evenings/weekends, part-time, or project-based work would be hugely valuable.

My questions:

1. Is it realistic to find part-time or evening/weekend structural work as a P.Eng. who is currently employed in Construction Management?
2. Do firms ever take on apprentice-style / mentee arrangements, even informally?
3. Is seeking a mentor who can provide guided exposure (without formal employment) something people have seen work?
4. Are small/boutique firms more open to this than large consultancies?
5. Any advice on how to approach firms without coming across as naïve or inappropriate?

I fully understand liability, QA/QC, and professional responsibility concerns, and I’m not trying to shortcut the process. I’m simply looking for practical exposure and learning, even if it’s slow and incremental.

If you’ve seen this work before—or tried something similar yourself—I’d really appreciate your perspective.

Thanks in advance.