<p>did you see what happened in San Francisco with the ruptured gas lines? yeah sounds like our country’s infrastructure is in good shape. ASCE gave our infrastructure a D, yeah as in almost failing.</p>
<p>
Don’t sell him short - homer hates ALL engineers, or anyone with a job for that matter, all while holding in contempt anyone who has salary aspirations below $250k a year.</p>
<p>
Sorry, I have little tolerance for whining. The vast majority of engineers ARE gainfully employeed, just like before. The number of jobs has gone down, but it has not dried up, and companies are still hiring new graduates (well, mine is - I haven’t been personally looking for new-grad jobs), so this recession is mostly hurting those who (a) picked so narrow a specialty that it is defying the statistical spread or (b) have such poor qualifications that they are competitive only when there are “warm body” spots to fill. Qualified people may spend a little more time looking, and may have to settle for a “lesser” position than they had, but the jobs are still out there.</p>
<p>I don’t think anybody here actually believes the economy and the industry are in good shape right now. What I’ve been saying, and I believe others are too, is that the industry isn’t dead and the future is brighter.</p>
<p>“Meanwhile, I’ll continue to enjoy my civil engineering career in beautiful Maine. :-)”</p>
<p>Aren’t you the guy who stated in a different thread how you have SO MUCH work that you have to refer it to other engineering firms, yet you refuse to hire anyone to take on the additional work? Either you have a really crummy business model or your full of it.</p>
<p>If you don’t have a job in your desired field, then move on and get a job in another field. Only idiots will stay home and wait for the recovery. :)</p>
<p>“Meanwhile, I’ll continue to enjoy my civil engineering career in beautiful Maine. :-)”</p>
<p>Aren’t you the guy who stated in a different thread how you have SO MUCH work that you have to refer it to other engineering firms, yet you refuse to hire anyone to take on the additional work? Either you have a really crummy business model or your full of it.</p>
<p>A big part of the problem is the government. It’s almost a 50% tax to hire somebody…</p>
<p>I thought Maine is a low tax state. If engineering firms in high tax places like NY and CA can hire people, why can’t you?</p>
<p>Dude, we get it. construction related jobs such as civil engineering is dead. point taken. let’s move on…</p>
<p>I don’t know what her motivations are, but if she does hire a 3rd person, it would change the entire complexion of her company. Working with just her husband out of her quiet home office with flexible hours may not be possible once she starts hiring additional people. </p>
<p>It really depends on what the goal is. Is it to get as much money as possible? Or is it to have a nice small business with minimal stress and a quiet life?</p>
<p>If companies refused to hire more people when demand increased, think of all the big corporations that would not exist right now: Microsoft, Apple, the list goes on.</p>
<p>First of all, Homer28, are you unemployed? Is that why you don’t have a life and you spend your time here ■■■■■■■■? </p>
<p>Second, when America will realize one day that they can’t ignore their declining infrastructure anymore there will be a huge turnaround and civil engineers will start getting more jobs. Until then, be creative and see what other jobs you are qualified for.</p>
<p>As far as the proposal that Obama claimed the other day, I have to be <em>face palm</em>.
The money the City got from the funding didn’t create as many jobs as we hoped. </p>
<p>That’s politics, and the greedy contractors.</p>
<p>But that’s also how we create economy, in a way.</p>
<p>The fact that the infrastructure is in bad shape is the driven force to bolster the construction field. But this will not happen until the money is there for the state and the federal. So, let’s wait and see, Homer.</p>
<p>
As opposed to the literally thousands of companies that collapsed because they tried to grow too fast, crushing the lifeling aspirations of their founders? My “big” lay-off came for this very reason - a small company that thought it should be larger, hit a sales slump, and then collapsed under the costs of its newly expanded infrastructure.</p>
<p>You grow your business deliberately, when you are sure that you have the long-term customer base to support it. It may be that Maine’s “turned away” business is not sufficient to merit a new hire at this time. It may be that Maine sees the current surge as temporary. It may be that Maine has tried to find suitable people and has yet been unsuccessful. It may be that Maine has infrastructure limits that make expanding one person at a time unfeasible, and is waiting for that 5-person hire as the company moves to new facilities. Or it just may be that running Gihugic Inc is not Maine’s lifelong ambition, and enjoys the current set-up more than the prospects of a financially richer life. There are a ton of reasons for not expanding on your schedule, homer.</p>
<p>If you don’t stop picking at it, it will never heal.</p>