<p>I found these forums this morning and wow, they've been a very interesting read. But now I have a few questions of my own, if some of you wouldn't mind giving me some advice.</p>
<p>I am going into my last year as a civil engineering undergrad student, and now I am looking at deciding whether to continue on into grad school or not. I <em>love</em> going to class and learning new things so grad school appeals to me greatly, but I'm also afraid of becoming 'overqualified' by spending too much time in school and not enough time getting real world experience. I am not sure specifically what field I would want to go into after I got my degree, right now I am torn between construction/project management (being out on the site a lot is neat), geotechnical work (I don't really know what this would entail but geotech interests me a lot), or design work (but from what I hear, these days this is just letting a computer do its job).</p>
<p>Anyway, that said,
1) Would getting a masters be detrimental to my ability to get a decent job after I graduate? I have heard mixed feelings on this- some say that degrees are useless and you just need experience, others say they help you sell yourself a lot. (side note- I am getting my FE in the spring and have every intention of going for a PE)</p>
<p>2) Thinking farther down the road a bit, how about a PhD? Coming back as a professor after 10-20 years of experience in the industry also appeals to me, and like I said, I like learning. But again, who is going to hire a PhD with no actual experience? </p>
<p>3) Does a PhD in CE typically just do research type jobs?</p>
<p>4) What kind of work does a college grad interested in construction management typically start with? How about one doing geotech or design?</p>
<p>5) People have told me to see if it's possible to find a company that will pay for my grad school if I agree to work for them when I'm done. Does this actually happen? If it does, how does it work? How do you find a company that will do that?</p>
<p>Sorry for the long post, thanks a ton for your input!</p>
<ol>
<li><p>There is a push by NCEES and ASCE to require 30 additional credit hours of courses beyond the bachelors in order to sit for the PE exam. Getting a MS would almost be a requirement if this becomes the case.</p></li>
<li><p>That is why you try to get as much work experience through internships as you can before you get your degree. </p></li>
<li><p>I don’t have enough knowledge to answer your question. However, I will note that one of the local geotechnical engineering firms near me has a lot of PhD’s doing design work.</p></li>
<li><p>Geotech IS design. Geotechnical engineers design foundations, retaining walls, etc. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>There isn’t really typical work that college grads start off with in CM. I’m working in field supervision. One of my colleagues started off in estimating. I have a friend doing logistics. One of the people who I started with at this company does procurement. Pretty much anything you can think of, there’s a recent college grad working on it somewhere.</p>
<p>One of my friends in geotechnical engineering mainly did inspections when she first started out. </p>
<p>By design, I assume you mean structural engineering, because design encompasses practically everything. One of my classmates in this field did some inspections. A friend of mine does a lot of construction administration work (not sure, but it may be because she had previous experience in construction management). </p>
<ol>
<li>I’ve heard of that in other fields, but haven’t seen it in this field. What companies typically offer is to pay for your tuition for you to take classes in the evening while you work during the day. It is not uncommon for them to require a certain grade before they reimburse you for the expenses.</li>
</ol>
<p>Now a follow up question - Are there usually internships available for grad students? When I was hunting for one earlier this year I don’t think I saw too many places looking for grad students, althought I wasn’t really looking…</p>
<p>Ha ha ha, undergrads are so cute, thinking that grad students have summers. ;)</p>
<p>You’ll probably continue with classes or research during the summer when you’re in grad school. (Though I once disappeared for a month to see whether or not anybody would notice that I was gone-- they didn’t. My advisor wasn’t comfortable around women, though, and I’d have to out-and-out stalk him in order to actually get an audience with him… Your mileage may vary.)</p>
<p>DH and I had a hard time just getting permission for our honeymoon the summer before I finished my MS! Of course, DH’s supervisor was my dad, and my supervisor was a friend of my dad’s, so I guess they wanted to make sure they weren’t showing any favoritism. I know Dad DOES notice when a grad student slacks off during the summer!</p>
<p>I had an internship between my bachelor’s and master’s, but it wasn’t advertised. In fact, I think I was one of two interns who already had their bachelors. If you’re going for a PhD, chances are you won’t be working in industry.</p>