When I graduated with my Master’s degree from the Colorado School of Mines in 2018, I started working in the Bay Area. I’m very thankful for the experience that I was given there. I had a manager that trusted me, and gave me a lot of control for each of the projects that I worked on. The trust helped me understand how the industry functioned and also gave me a glimpse into the future of what my career may look in the long term. As an Engineer-in-Training (EIT), I was experiencing first hand what it was like to be a Professional Engineer (PE).
For personal development, I realized a couple of issues. As I experienced my role as a structural engineer at an relatively fast pace, I got a good idea of what my future may look like. What didn’t excite me was how structured the path of an engineer looked. A career path within a company is already set depending on what firm you join. If you looked over at your peers’ desks, you could probably get a good idea of what your future may look like. I wanted a larger variety of experiences as a professional and unfortunately, I realized that staying in structural engineering wasn’t going to offer me that, at the pace I wanted. I might be considered impatient, but it’s something about myself that I’ve been able to understand as I started my professional career. I want exposure to a variety of paths/futures.
From an industry perspective… well I guess I won’t sugarcoat it. It’s pretty well known in the industry about the culture of this type of work: long hours, lack of recognition from media, and probably one of the bigger complaints, pay (maybe more so on the design side of the sector). I think the point that many structural engineers want emphasized is that the role innately affects thousands/millions of people. We take on risk for each project and failure to consider something within a calculation can lead to catastrophic failure. Despite taking on just as much risk as… let’s say a doctor, we probably make less than half, based on starting salary. With the not-so-great pay, I’ve seen engineers work 100+ hours a week, with 60+ probably being more common than the standard 40 hours during deadlines (which could be every week). I remember talking to a senior engineer within the industry and how they regret spending so much time working. Some people in the older generation may have taken pride in the long hours. For my generation, that mostly isn’t something we want to be proud of (in my opinion). The values in our life are different and spending 80% of our lives working doesn’t seem like a bright future. I hope this changes for the sake of the industry as it seems like retention is an ongoing issue.
I wanted to be someone that can be a part of the team that leads change within the industry. However, by being involved in a couple extracurricular professional orgs, my mental health and physical health started to take a toll. I guess I wasn’t managing myself as well as I had thought. The ratio to stress, work-life-balance, and pay just didn’t add up for me, with passion only taking me so far. I figured I can find a different career path and still involve myself in the industry in some shape or form. The SE3 project is an organization that I am very fond of. They educate engineers about these issues and identify how to tackle them so that we actually have a future. I hate to see more people like me that are passionate about the industry leaving because they can’t keep up with the unhealthy demand. Being the unsung heroes in this industry maybe isn’t such a noble thing if people keep leaving.