Civil engineer here, what I wish I knew before entering the workforce

I am a civil/structural engineer, I've been working for 3 years now, mostly on big projects (skyscrapers and bridges). I would say I'm relatively successful. I make good money, I have a few patents filed on pipeline tools I've created, and I'm well respected at work. <br><br>Mostly, I like my job. However, I wish that I knew these few things before I entered into engineering as a career:<br><br>* 1. The salary is not as high as many people online will have you believe. As a civil engineer, I didn't quite break 70k starting out. Most places in the US will only start you at 65k, and it will take you 5+ years to get to 90k. I am very rare in that I break six figures at 26.<br>* 2. The work can be boring. To say the least. Most of the time you will be doing things that don't really have any scope or depth. You will work in a small bubble and only see a sliver of the design. Most of the time you will not be doing structural analysis, you will be doing random chores like making sure the fonts are the same size in a report, or verifying calculations, or making sure the formatting is correct for the specific office you work at. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but if you want to do high level structural analysis, make sure you seek out public works projects or big projects that are challenging. <br>* 3. Field work is not a thing unless you go into construction. As a design engineer, you will be in the office. Occasionally you will go out to the field to look at the site before its build, but that's it. <br>* 4. The money is not worth it if you want to work at a small firm. I've turned down another job at a smaller firm that paid me 110k/yr. Why? Because they wanted me to be on call all the time, and I had no work life balance. It's not worth it to work 50-60 hour weeks for a job where you will be paid to be available outside of work. The pay is the same to work at a large firm, and at big firms you typically do not get called after work unless its an emergency (it's not unheard of however).<br>* 5. Be prepared to do grunt work for the first year or two. As an entry level engineer, you will be doing a lot of random chores. You won't get to do the fun stuff right away. The fun projects will come later on. But first you need to prove yourself. <br><br>Overall, I do love my job. I find it rewarding and it's a great career. I do hope this helps you make a better decision if you're on the fence about engineering.