<p>I know this doesn't apply to those of you in the field right now, but the following two sources [url=<a href="http://www.csemag.com/article/CA6512274.html%5D%5B1%5D%5B/url">http://www.csemag.com/article/CA6512274.html][1][/url</a>] and [url=<a href="http://www.asme.org/Communities/EarlyCareer/Class_2007_Salaries_Rise.cfm%5D%5B2%5D%5B/url">http://www.asme.org/Communities/EarlyCareer/Class_2007_Salaries_Rise.cfm][2][/url</a>] claim that starting salaries are on the rise for engineers. Could this mean that "underpaid engineers" will soon become a phrase of the past?</p>
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Poor planning should not create an emergency for you a young engineer. The project will still be there and will continue to move forward if some June deadline isn't met.
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<p>Not true. I once worked very long days for about 6 weeks straight, and it was a dropdead deadline. Our client, a high profile law firm in NYC, needed everything so it can present it in court for their client. And there are also deadlines for RFP's (proposals)... this might apply mostly to civil engineering. The way it works is that somebody or some company needs some engineering and/or construction service performed and they'll send out Requests for Proposals to several companies and try to get the best proposal/bid to do the work. Of course they impose strict deadlines in order to keep it fair between all the competing firms (think to the minute). If you're late, you're out and you don't get the chance to work on the project. And all that time and money your company spent preparing the bid/proposal... gone. nothing. </p>
<p>It's not always poor planning either. For the project where we had a law firm as a client, it was known ahead of time that we would be crunched for time (which explains the very nice fee we got). In fact, once we got the job, half the department was working on it non-stop. </p>
<p>Pretty much it's the clients that drive the deadlines, and you never want to upset your clients when you don't have to.</p>
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I would say if it is the 9th or 10th 12 hour day recently then you may be working in a company with poor management, or more likely, a company structured to work you in the grinder for a few years until you grow tired and leave.
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<p>It's not a business model, it's a backlog crunch.</p>
<p>This is a company that has won the national "Best Structural Firm to Work For" competition for several years running, and only two out of the four hundred nation-wide employees have left this calendar year. One retired and one went back to school. We <em>all</em> work these hours, and I'd say the average age of engineers working in our group is 30. Maybe 28. And we're designing some amazing things. It's exhausting, but it's exciting. Someone said that the average age of the engineers on the Apollo project in the '60s was 26 or something. It's kind of like that.</p>
<p>We meet deadlines... That's one of the things I like about this company, actually. At my old company, deadlines would skip by and we'd kinda go, whoops! It horrified me that we were putting forward such an unprofessional image... That doesn't happen at this company. It's also why we get to design NFL stadia and award-winning skyscrapers. This is the construction industry. This project WILL go on without us, if we don't meet a deadline.</p>
<p>Management agrees that lately, we're <em>too</em> successful. We've reduced our revenue goals for the year and have been told to quit working so much, but the project I'm on is ridiculously complex and our company backlog is really high, so we have no help. It's a bad situation, but it's a good company with some great leaders. We'll get through it, and when the measures that upper management has taken to relieve the (yes, workaholic, a little...) engineers in the office catches up with our backlog, we'll have some more breathing room.</p>
<p>'Til then... it's almost my bedtime. I'm gonna get a good eight hours and get up and do it again 'til I've got a hospital design.</p>
<p>I was under the impression that civil engineers were at the bottom rung when only salary was considered. Historically, that was because the government employed a significant proportion and when the total compensation package was considered, the profession moved up the ladder in line with other engineering disciplines. Things may have changed since many Civ E departments now offer environmental engineering.</p>
<p>As was noted above, an MS degree is required, along with registration as a Professional Engineer, to work at many Civ E jobs. ASCE was one of the first engineering societies to call for the MS degree to be recognized as the first professional degree.</p>