This just popped up on my radar. I'm a water resources engineer. Are we about to see an industry contraction?

Just had the ASCE symposium’s award ceremony last night, and I couldn’t be happier! My bridge held the max weight of 70 lbs, and was the lightest bridge by over 60 grams. Also, my design had a vertical deflection of 0.085”.

I completed my bachelor in Architecture from a NIT and my experience was not great but mediocre, idk i feel like I only have half the knowledge and just make drawings. The quote "knows how to draw bird, but doesn't know how it flies" perfectly describes my condition. I have always loved physics and mathematics in my 11th and 12th grade and I even loved the structure as elective in one of my semesters (even though it was not in depth). But when I asked my seniors and teachers they all turned the idea down as all need is bachelor's degree to work so why to waste time and money. Atlast I was very inspired by Santiago Calatrava and his works and philosophy. I want to design the way he does and for other instance take Tagore hall of Ahmedabad (structural part). I would really like professional opinion and college or course suggestions. Thankyou.

Mechanical theres more jobs but theres also alot of mechanical graduates. Civil has less graduates but also not as much jobs Ive seen on here that civil is more in demand but ive personally talked to enginnees and they say i would find a job easier doing mechanical. Also, for civil, to start making good money would i have to to spend a couple more years to get a PE licence?

Hi everyone,

I’m 29 and currently considering a transition from the public to the private sector. I spent the first 3 years of my career working at a mid-sized contractor, then moved into a local government role for the past 5 years. My work in the public sector has given me a strong foundation in communication, stakeholder management, and long-term project planning, but I feel like I may be lacking some of the hard, technical skills that are more prominent in private sector roles.

I’m starting to worry: will private companies still value my government experience, or am I at a disadvantage now? Has anyone here made a similar jump from public to private? I want to eventually switch do a design/consultancy. How did you position your experience, and what challenges (or surprises) did you face?

Appreciate any insights!

Looking to get a CFM. This would mostly be a resume booster as I sometimes work near floodplains, but not usually, and our drainage department usually handles that. I searched this sub and most suggest taking a class, but when I checked the IL Floods website, all I found was an online study guide:

https://www.pathlms.com/asfpm/courses/39173

Anyone use this? Is there anything better?

I’ve recently graduated with a BS civil engineering and I just started my working in the roads and land development sector. I’m not sure if I’m going to enjoy this and I want to know what options do I have in engineering or even outside of engineering without having to study further.

I am very creative and I enjoy design and aesthetics more than technical stuff. I was more interested in architecture but I decided to go into engineering due to pay, job opportunities and career prospects. Obviously I know that there isn’t much of a creative side in civil engineering but surely there are some options that have a creative/aesthetics element to it? I really enjoy the idea of using engineering to make the world look better and be more sustainable and eco friendly. I’d appreciate any recommendations even if it’s something I can pivot to without needing to study further.

If there is a road with for example a 0.5% longitudinal slope. Adjacent to this road you have a 100m long building with a driveway to a parking lot on each side of this building. Do you try to keep the corner grades of the building the same, and the FFE the same? Was thinking this may lead to steeper slopes for drainage at the lower side of the parking lot adjacent to the lower side of the roadway?

Do you maybe try to have a stepped FFE and have the corner grades different following the slope of the road?

Do you maybe slope the lower driveway up at a steeper slope to try to equalize the grades?

Just wanted to get some insight on how to think about these types of situations. I know every site is different but just wanted some knowledge from more experienced people.

Hey guys, sorry if im using this wrong I don't really use reddit. Im currently a second year studying civil engineering, I am really struggling with my classes as I do not enjoy physics of any kind and no matter how hard I try it just makes no sense to me. I have already failed statics and several other classes. I am in this major currently because I would like to go into transportation engineering> my ultimate goal would be to work on subways or traffic patterns, things to do with urban maintenance and things like that. I am really not interested in the other facets of civil engineering. I was wondering if any of you had any advice about whether I should continue down this path or if I should transfer to a new school or switch my major. Ive just started to realize that maybe Im not super cut out for this major and maybe should be doing something else. I would really like to be super hands on and maintaining tracks or something like that. I don't want to sit at a desk or run calculations all day. Im worried that might be the outcome from completing this degree. Im really just looking for any kind of advice as Im feeling really doubtful and unsure of the path Ive chosen, wondering if some kind of trade would be better. Thank you for any help or advice.

Hello,

To analyze the water flow and determine the Full Supply Level (PHE), we are using the HEC-RAS software.

After entering all the necessary data into the model (flow rates, terrain geometry, roughness, etc.), we noticed that the PHE level is too high in relation to our structure, which poses a compliance issue.

To try to resolve this, we considered recalibrating the riverbed by modifying the terrain geometry: we lowered the elevation of the main channel (by excavation) from 233 m to 231 m in the critical zone, with the aim of reducing the PHE level. However, despite this topographic adjustment, the PHE level remains nearly unchanged in the HEC-RAS results.

We would like to understand why this modification did not produce the expected effect and what alternative solutions could be considered to effectively lower the PHE level.

Thank you in advance for your help.

I was wondering if you know your outfall invert and you know the size of pipe and slope that works to convey the necessary flows.

Assuming the site is very large, in the very beginning conceptual stage, do you want to set preliminary grades where the slope of grade is larger than slope of pipe towards the upstream direction? I assume matching it would minimize fill but could lead to cover issues if you need to create ponding areas or use ditches.

Just wondering how to think and approach these situations when doing very conceptual design. Any rules of thumb?

Good evening,

I am currently working in transportation designing roads and highways in the US. Currently a PE with 7 years of experience after graduating college. I am a US citizen but married to my wife, who is from Indonesia. She talked about being closer to her family, as travelling a few times a year to SE Asia from the US is difficult for her. (She has family both in Singapore and Jakarta, Indonesia). We are not in a hurry to make a decision, but it helps to know all our possibilities to help map our goals.

So I thought about working in Singapore, to help accommodate this. I had a summer internship in structural engineering in Singapore back when I was in college (internship program placement through my US university study abroad office). So Singapore is not a mysterious place for me and I liked it a lot. Although not a fan of the work-life balance there. Few questions I had:

1. Does anyone here know if there are good Civil Engineering job opportunities in Singapore, or is it scarce?
2. Specifically what fields of civil engineering are in demand? I am fine with transportation, but don't mind switching to another field within CE, since I am interested in other aspects as well.
3. Is it best to work for an international CE firm in the US first, and then request to move to their Singapore office?
4. What is the salary like? Not sure if it will be a pay cut but definitely higher cost of living to take into account.
5. If opportunities in Singapore are not good, am I better off finding a new career outside of civil engineering?
6. Also is it worth looking into firms in Jakarta, Indonesia as well? I heard in Indonesia they are focused on hiring locals, so paying an expat salary wouldn't make sense if they can find a local who can do the same job.

If anyone has had experience with this situation, it would be great to know your thoughts and experience.

https://www.facebook.com/FoxWeather/videos/1352744015878555/

Hanging Rock Hill, a waterfall that usually gently pours over a road in Madison, Indiana, surged with floodwater after torrential rains drenched the southern region of the Hoosier State on Friday.

I am 26m and I graduated in civil engineering back in 2021. I was off the field because at that time i wasn’t interested or you can say i was careless. I worked at dead end jobs and was mostly passive and delusional of the reality and seriousness of life. Now I’m broke and my family will soon depend on me.

I want to enter the field again and want to get make a career in designing. What skills i should develop? And what are job opportunities? Give me directions please.

I’d love to know if this was engineered to be able to drive behind this & to withstand this type of event.

Hi all! I know the answer to this question is always "it depends on the office and your manager," but I'm moving to Chicago and have offers from both firms and am trying to decide between the two. The pay/benefits are essentially the same, except the Stantec comes offer comes with $5K extra in signing bonus and an extra week of PTO per year.

Does anyone have strong opinions on which is generally preferable or other input? Thanks!

Hello, I live in California, 32yrs old and already have a bachelor's degree it's a technology that I regret. Currently taking lower division classes to try and get an engineering degree, there is two degrees that interest me these are like the two universities in socal that allow second bachelors. One is civil engineering from CSULB http://catalog.csulb.edu/preview_program.php?catoid=10&poid=5218&hl=%22Civil%22&returnto=search

The other is manufacturing systems engineering from CSUN https://catalog.csun.edu/academics/msem/programs/bs-manufacturing-systems-engineering/

I don't know what to do. From searching reddit, civil seems like a good choice that has high job security and the campus is like 9 miles from me. For the manufacturing one it looks like the degree might be a bit easier and my background is in manufacturing(welding/Cnc machinist), but I heard manufacturing jobs are going away ??

What should I do ?

Hi everyone,

I’m currently a student at a university in Texas and planning to pursue internships in water resources engineering for the summer of 2026. I want to start preparing now for the job hunt, with a specific focus on hydrology and hydraulics. My goal is to work out of state and ideally build a career in South Florida, especially in the Greater Miami area.

So far, I’ve been looking for companies that offer internships or entry-level positions in areas like stormwater management, water systems, and hydrological modeling. However, it’s been tough to find many opportunities—I've only come across about 2-3 companies specializing in these fields.

I’m hoping to expand my search and compile a more comprehensive list of companies. I’m particularly looking for firms that focus on hydrology, hydraulics, stormwater management, flood risk management, and environmental engineering within Miami or South Florida.

Any advice or recommendations on how to find more companies in this niche, or specific job boards where I can search for relevant internships, would be greatly appreciated. Has anyone here had success finding internships in this field in South Florida? What strategies have worked for you?

Thanks in advance for your help—I truly appreciate any guidance!

TL;DR - Looking for help on how to find water resources internships in the Greater Miami area.

I am a 44m EIT with almost 20 years experience in the Residential Design and Land Development sector. I love waking up and going to my job. I am extremely proficient and certified in C3D and think it's the best tool for producing construction plans out there. Anyways I design my projects, from Subdivisions, Roadway and Utility Design, Extensive pipe networks, Stormwater management, permitting etc. I draft my project plans and don't have a team of my young engineers helping me. I like it this way, because I have a firm grasp on the submittal time-line, QAQC, budget management, etc. Is this typical of EIT and designers out there?

I made a mistake on a simple roadway project and basically all of my elevations are 0.49 ft higher than they should be (i grabbed the wrong geoid conversion for the HAE gps recordings). The project has been awarded but not staked out and constructed.

Should I just reach out to the surveyor doing the layout and ask them to deduct that .49ft across the board? Ask them to confirm that I did indeed make the mistake I think I did? I don’t really have anyone else in our office to check my work as we’re a small municipal office.

I mean, if he goes to stake it and the roadway at the existing drives is 6” higher than the existing drive, it should be pretty obvious, right?

Architect and the only job i could find was basically shop drawing at a civil engineering firm (don't ask). It's not that hard to learn but I find the workflow they use is tedious and time-consuming.

What we basically do is model the design on revit into 3d, then use section on revit to extract sections for autocad. Then they use pen and paper to jot down the different qualities of the columns (height, width, column names) and they use that to group the columns together. After you get the groups, let's say you have 30 types, they draw these in detail with their steel reinforcement using the IFC file.

My question is, there has to be an easier way to do this right? I find it so confusing and often times if you mistake some numbers you get some major erros in the final drawings.

The part I'm in charge of is extracting the sections using revit, then grouping them, then preparing the types on a separate cad drawing for the steel guys to draw the steel.

If there's an easier or more logical way to do this please recommend.

Because some of these projects have about 200 columns (big projects in saudi) and it takes forever to finish this task

I had to find a job in engineering because it's all I could find in this country, and it's good enough but pretty redundant and complicated, any way i could simplify this i would take it.

Also my question is, is this the common protocol and method used? Surely there is something easier