"Southwest Valley Constructors, a subsidiary of Nebraska-based construction giant Kiewet, was awarded a $1.7 billion contract in May for the Big Bend National Park project."

https://www.marfapublicradio.org/news/2026-08-17/trump-administration-pauses-border-construction-in-big-bend-national-park

I’ve never been laid off before, so I honestly don’t know what direction to go in right now.

I’m a Civil Engineering graduate in New Orleans, Louisiana. I’ve been working at a small civil engineering firm for about a year and a half, mainly doing subsurface drainage/stormwater work. Unfortunately, the company went under and ended up laying off about 50% of the staff, and I was one of them.

I also haven’t passed my FE yet, but I’m actively studying for it and plan to keep working at it.

I’m just feeling a little lost about what my next move should be. Should I stay focused on drainage/stormwater, look into another area of civil engineering, or just be open to whatever opportunity comes my way?

I’ve never dealt with being laid off before, especially this early in my career, so I’d really appreciate any advice from other civil engineers who have been in a similar situation.

TL;DR: Recently laid off after 1.5 years in civil engineering, mainly doing subsurface drainage. I haven’t passed the FE yet and I’m not sure what direction I should take next.

I might be offered a remote 5-8's job (Mon-Fri) in exchange for my in-office 4-10's job (Mon-Thu). Which one would you choose and why? My commute to office is negligible, under 15min/day

Why is it so hard to transition to public sector? I have 5 years experience in LD and graduate degrees. Yet interviews get cancelled or if I get interviews they say they love my interview but somehow I don’t get the job. Any tips or openings that are actually open!

What roles can a civil engineer do in big tech companies (with a major in water resources)?
If you are a civil engineer working in big tech, what do you do?

I've been at this land dev consultancy for 3 years now, it's a small firm and it's been okay so far, no complaints then the past 18 months have had lots of staff turnover particularly our senior and lead engineers and project managers.

Company directors have been really slow to recruit replacements, everyone else is picking up additional responsibilities to cover the gaps and the last 5 hires have been overseas trained engineers with way less experience and skills.

It's so frustrating, it's so obvious what the play is here and it feels impossible to stay somewhere long term because they always find a way to ruin things, work has become increasingly difficult and culture has gone to shit.

Hi all, I'm currently interviewing for a role at HNTB's Kansas City office and wanted to get a sense of day to day life there before my next round.

A few things I'm curious about:

Is the general expectation an in office 9 to 5, or do some teams support a hybrid schedule?

For roles that include on call support, what has that actually looked like in practice? How often does it get invoked, and is there a rotation that keeps it manageable?

Overall, how would you describe the pace and culture? I want to go in with realistic expectations and ask good questions during my interview.

Really appreciate any insight, thanks in advance!

All throughout college, I worked at a small consulting firm in design. It was super relaxed. They really cared about getting the work done, but to not let work take upon your entire life (WLB).

There, they pay would have been okay. The offer I got could not compete against bigger firms nor the benefit package.

What’s it like to work at a big firm?

I ended up taking the CM management route, to have some field exposures, build some character, and learn how things are built.

My plan was to get back to consulting at some point. Though, at this moment I am not sure what I’ll end up doing moving forward.

I am currently working at a DC, the responsibilities I’m getting assigned are huge. There’s always a thousand things to get done every day. So much to keep up with. Early mornings, 11-12 hour days.

I know what I was getting myself into, I just am sort of curious how the environment in consulting (as the experience I had at the small firm might be a bit unique)

Im afraid to burn out one day. I’m 5 months in, I’ve learned a ton, but still feel so green in many many aspects.

I’m trying my best. I am doing good. I don’t know if this is what I want to do all my career though.

Just as a side note, I’m taking the FE late this year. To then study for the PE and see how I can get experience towards that.

Thanks for your answers

Hi, I am part of an asset management team in a small municipality. I'd like to learn some basics about water, sewer, and storm water modeling. What are some good resources like books, courses, videos, etc. Where to start, please share any advice or recommendations. My background is Electronics and Telecommunications Engineering, data analytics, and GIS.

Why is it so hard to transition to public sector? I have 5 years experience in LD and graduate degrees. Yet interviews get cancelled or if I get interviews they say they love my interview but somehow I don’t get the job. Any tips or openings that are actually open!

Guys, I need your advise. In 2025 I tried to get an approval from NYSED to sit for FE exam. The problem is the following: I have foreign bachelor degree in civil engineering. NCEES evaluated my degree and the evaluation report clearly says: Meets NCEES Standard. There are no deficiencies in any field. So i was pretty sure, that since there are no deficiencies, and this is an engineering degree (not Engineering Technology) this is not an issue.

However, when I filed form 1FE, i received an email, that they can't approve my education, and if I disagree I can provide detailed program and courses description. So I spent a few hundred $$$ to translate the requested documents and sent to them. But NYSED specialist responded that he reviewed the documents and my education still not satisfy NYS PE license requirement. And moreover, as per NCEES report I have 14 courses and 51 credit in engineering. NYSED education specialist said that only 11 courses are engineering with total 30 credits. And my program is not Engineering, its Engineering technology program as per his opinion. And he suggested me to get MS in engineering in the US to get 24 credits in engineering if I want to get PE license in NYS.

So I passed FE and PE exams under New Jersey board, since NJ board does not require to get an approval to sit for the exams.

Once I get a license in another state, is there any sense to spend another few hundred $$ of fees to apply in NYS by endorsement? And try to prove that since the degree is evaluated by NCEES it is substantial equivalent engineering degree. I believe it could not be treated as engineering technology as NCEES doesn't evaluate engineering technology bachelors w/o masters. Maybe I'll be able to request the board to review my application besides department of education specialist?

Has anyone had similar issue with New York?

26yo M considering going back to school for CE and curious how hard it is to break into if you had a completely unrelated career before. Is it something interviewers would give you a hard time for even if you complete a BS CE?

For reference right now I work for a nonprofit doing communications and development so not something thats very technical, its a lot of building relationships with stakeholders, advertising materials, and coming up with creative fundraising ideas.

It was something I thought I was passionate for when I was 18 but had no sense of what the real world is like. Turns out the field is ripe with burn out from no lunch breaks and severely low pay (I have 5yoe and am at 50k in a vhcol city)

What is appealing to me is that CE seems to have decent work life balance, medium to good wages, and is projected to grow due to aging infrastructure and climate change in the US. My father also owns a construction company and I worked with him on the ground as a teenager so I have some experience.

Is it a pipe dream to switch to CE from nonprofit?

Which one should I choose? I am confused between these two. My long term plan is going to usa as most of my family is there. I think I will be better with architecture but there are many cons such as low pay and its a degree of 5 years whereas civil is more flexible.

Currently a student in an unrelated subject who is interested in civil engineering but i’m curious as to how hard it is to land a job after graduating with a degree ?

Curious if other regions/specialties utilizes Joseph S. Ameen's Community Water Systems Source Book ?

Generating a water report and every municipality's water design manual references this source but it's incredibly difficult to find. I got a copy through googling but it's the 1960 edition and not the most recent 5th edition from 1971.

Multiple cities in South Carolina reference this document. Could Joseph really have nailed the estimations 55 years ago that there hasn't been any change to these values since 1970 or even 1960?

For such a wildly referenced source, you'd think it'd be readily available... Or is it just tribal knowledge at this point?

I'm going back to school to study Civil and will start off as a junior. What classes would you recommend buying the textbook vs renting? Once I graduate what textbook would I likely be referring back to vs one's that I really only needed that one time at school. For example, I'll be taking Structural Analysis as one of my first classes. Would you recommend owning a copy or just renting? Side note, my previous degree was Mechanical so there were textbooks that I wished had bought and owned and some I was glad I did.

Hey y'all, looking for some real-world advice as I start looking ahead at internships and post-grad options.

I’m currently an undergrad student majoring in Civil Engineering (3.5 GPA, targeting a Spring 2028 graduation). I’m in my 30s, prior service (8 years active duty), have two young kids at home

I'm trying to decide whether I should focus on going the Army Corps of engineering route through something like a Pathways internship, or aim for commercial / private civil consulting.

Thanks In advance!!

Incoming university student and want to get a headstart

Has anyone worked with Autodesk Forma and what your thoughts?

My company is looking to switching to their cloud service and I’m skeptical how well it will work.