A few guidelines

I’m a City Engineer. I left my old job to get a raise of $20k, and I landed in Hell. My boss is abusive, no one likes her, my blood pressure is through the roof.

Regardless, I found a spot at a smaller City nearby and was pumped to reach out to them. I had my interview, silence for a month, second interview, and conditional offer. Alongside a start date.

Well I was working through the process, and had requested that I’d like a final offer before I give my 2 weeks. Next thing I know I get an email about issues with employment verification. Now I’m so shaken.

I had so much high hopes about Freedom from this Hell. The yelling, the abuse, the lying, the changing goals, etc…

The Central Pacific crossed the Sierra at Donner Pass with 14 tunnels to hold a 105 ft per mile maximum grade. Theodore Judah proposed the route but died in 1863, before it was built.

Chinese crews drilled and blasted the 1,659 ft Summit Tunnel through granite over almost three years. They also hand-built the 75 ft stone retaining wall called the China Wall.

In the lidar the old grade is the thin, steady line at lower right, with the road switching back and forth north of it. Southern Pacific abandoned this 6.7 mile section in 1993.

Numbered pins on the picture:
Pin 1: The thin, steady old railroad grade
Pin 2: A hairpin bend of the winding road
Pin 3: A small lake (flat water)

Lidar: USGS 3D Elevation Program (3DEP), public domain.

I have been head hunted by a local developer to come manage consultants and do prelim designs for them. I had coffee with the direct manager and was pretty interested but said it wasn't a good time as I had a lot of life changing going on (second kid coming). A month goes by and they reach out again wanting me to come by the office and see what it's like, no pressure, no interview just a casual conversation. I agreed, and liked what I saw. Met the department head, asked a few questions about the business but was all pretty casual.

All of this happened with me in untucked casual button downs. I'm now doing an official interview, and have no idea what to wear. Last time I wore a suit to an interview I felt wildly over dressed. And most engineering firms are fine with me wearing what I would wear to work. Khakis and casual button downs. But this being a developer has me feeling a little unsure.

I have 12 years of experience and plenty of job changes, but still never know what the hell to do for interviews.

Is the landscape that bad?? Or are brakes in China that bad…

Edit: 15% gradient down to 4%. It was the landscape.

I’ll start…

Location: Los Angeles, CA

Basis for COLA: CPI-W (National 12% change- August)

2020: 2.0%
2021: 4.0%
2022: 5.5%
2023: 3.4%
2024: 2.5%
2025: 2.8%
2026: 4.0% (expected)

Average: 3.5%

I speak for all my colleagues that we’ve been shorted since 2020, considering how substantial housing went up in SoCal. Anyways, what is your average for the past few years?

I’ve noticed this in different areas of Wisconsin and northern Illinois, and probably others. Usually it’s on the edge of a city, if that’s relevant. A four lane road changes to a two lane, and the inside lane is the one that ends.

Why don’t the signs call for the outside lane to end? That appears to be a more natural traffic pattern, and a good number of drivers will ignore the signs and stay in the left lane.

I'm making a career change from international development and am back in school for civil. I've been going to career fairs and interviewing for internships, and I've been surprised at how much I hear about passion: people who *love* buildings or what have you, and I get questions in interviews not just about why I picked civil but about how fascinated I am by whatever subdiscipline I'm interviewing for. (I have answers for all of these, but maybe they're not as convincing as I thought). It's definitely more pronounced for structural and transportation office jobs than for geotech or construction jobs. But I'm surprised I see it much at all.

Honestly, part of the appeal to me is that you *don't* have to always have a tab open in the back of your mind working on the deep unsolved problems of your specialty, the way you do if you're doing, like, meta-analyses of poverty alleviation studies or working with political parties in the aftermath of an authoritarian regime. Success is better defined in engineering and competence (I thought) was usually enough - whereas in international development basically anyone *could* do an average job but few people are obsessed enough with the subject matter to move up in the field long term.

Is this normal? Am I just getting a weird run of passionate people? Do you feel like you live and breathe your profession?

Land dev main thing is stormwater/hydrology right? I work in a small-mid level firm. There's 10 of us who use a program for hydrology work. The firm has now cut back to only a couple of licenses. We have to trade around a library card to use a program that is essentially the core of every project. There's always 2 people who use it on the daily. So now we have to battle each other to get in. This is the same issue with storm sewer design, only 3 licenses.

They're definitely doing it on purpose to cripple & manipulative us into working more so we can't ask for raises. Bosses then complain we are being too slow or unproductive.

1. I know sfd bmds for basic cases but I don't know how to approach frames and some typical beam cases. As studied in college indeterminate frames require different lengthy methods.
   
2. Big firms and Mncs require tall buildings experience which I don't have as it's not particularly done at my current office. Someone has suggested me tall buildings course on Auxen but I feel like I will be scammed there.

It could be reinforcement detailing, load paths, foundation conditions, dimensions, and coordination between drawings.

Fresh out of uni, I thought the hard part would be the engineering. Turns out it was getting yelled at by superintendents at 6am, fucking up pours, dealing with supervisors who’d been on site longer than I’d been alive, and learning how to communicate with people completely different to me. Wrote a bit about what those first few years taught me.

https://kd2145.substack.com/p/learning-to-speak-site?r=95k5gs&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

I’m a student and would like to get some CAD experience on my resume, I’m not in the courses offered by my school yet that will be next year. What software should I start with to have my resume stand out? I heard Civil 3d and Revit are good options, what about solid works? Is there a standard that most companies will use? I’m open to working on multiple softwares simultaneously thanks everyone!

For those who applied for Mechanical engineering graduate position at GHD this 2026, kindly share your experience. ano pong status ng application nyo? nakapasa na ba ng technical interview and for JO na ba?

Writing

Hi Aussie engineers! 👋
I have a few questions for those working in consulting firms as civil/structural engineers or architects.
I’ve recently started a Diploma of Civil Construction Design and want to build a career in construction design here in Australia. Before moving into this field, I worked as a graphic designer overseas in a fast-paced, design-focused team. I have strong design skills, am comfortable working under pressure, and am confident I can learn software like AutoCAD and Revit.
However, I’m a little unsure about the job market and whether completing this diploma will be enough to land my first job in the industry.
I’d love to hear from people working in the field:
How often do your firms hire drafters or junior design technicians?
How many drafters would you typically have in a team?
What does a drafter’s day-to-day work usually involve?
What technical skills and personal qualities do you look for when hiring a drafter?
What would make a candidate stand out and become genuinely useful to your team from day one?
I’m not looking to join a firm just to learn the basics. My goal is to develop the right skills so I can contribute real value to a team from the beginning, rather than needing constant supervision.
Long term, I’m also considering pursuing a bachelor’s degree if I’m able to secure PR in Australia.
I’d really appreciate any honest advice about the industry, job opportunities, and the skills I should focus on developing during my diploma.
Thanks in advance! 🙏

Hi Aussie engineers! 👋
I have a few questions for those working in consulting firms as civil/structural engineers or architects.
I’ve recently started a Diploma of Civil Construction Design and want to build a career in construction design here in Australia. Before moving into this field, I worked as a graphic designer overseas in a fast-paced, design-focused team. I have strong design skills, am comfortable working under pressure, and am confident I can learn software like AutoCAD and Revit.
However, I’m a little unsure about the job market and whether completing this diploma will be enough to land my first job in the industry.
I’d love to hear from people working in the field:
How often do your firms hire drafters or junior design technicians?
How many drafters would you typically have in a team?
What does a drafter’s day-to-day work usually involve?
What technical skills and personal qualities do you look for when hiring a drafter?
What would make a candidate stand out and become genuinely useful to your team from day one?
I’m not looking to join a firm just to learn the basics. My goal is to develop the right skills so I can contribute real value to a team from the beginning, rather than needing constant supervision.
Long term, I’m also considering pursuing a bachelor’s degree if I’m able to secure PR in Australia.
I’d really appreciate any honest advice about the industry, job opportunities, and the skills I should focus on developing during my diploma.

Curious what the bonuses are at AtkinsRealis. I’m considering working there full time and curious what the range generally is for bonuses. And how much new grads salaries out of school (specifically in the NYC office vs other offices).

Also unrelated but does anyone know the size of their San Diego office?

Also just looking to hear about peoples’ experiences at the company!

Thanks

Is it not possible to export design details from SAP2000 to AutoCAD? Like, after I finished modelling the structure and pass the structural analysis, is it possible to export the model result to cad file?

right now ive finished designing a canteen building but idk how to proceed with this, what to give to drafters if theres no detailed dwg file of my result analysis?

still new to this software.. im confused

This is the median wage growth in the last 10 years for civil engineers compared to several other fields based on BLS data. Civil engineers have seen significantly less wage growth compared to almost every discipline out there, and this is beyond sad. This is for all those who defend our crappy wages in this sub whenever someone complains about how underpaid we are.

27F, civil graduate looking for civil engineering roles in estimation, project management, coordination, design etc anywhere in the Middle East don’t have relevant experience but ready to learn.
Please guide on how to proceed.

I graduate in December. I'm not picky; I dont care about a huge salary for my first job, I'm willing to have poor benefits, I can work long hours, etc etc.

A lot of these companies are bigger names and have a lot of accomplished competition. I never had an internship, research, nor campus involvement.

Any companies you guys would recommend for someone like me? I just want a job and some experience.