Need Help With Career Path Opportunities

[korn6499]

I am a relatively new engineer in the HVAC/R industry with 3 years of experience, and am not interested in having a bad career and want to be up to date on my options. Most of this experience has been in plumbing and fire protection, but am recently taking on some HVAC related work. I plan on sitting for my PE, as well as taking the LEED exam within the next 2 years. I have worked for the same consulting firm the whole time, and am just weighing my options and would like to know what people on this board would recommend and what they think a reasonable level of pay and responsibilities may be. I am a member of ASHRAE, and have met numerous people in the business that do anything from consulting to contracting and in between. I am thinking that I could make a lateral career move to either work for a large mechanical contractor, hvac equipment mfg, utility company, or just stay in the consulting world. I guess my question to everybody here is: what would be a reasonable expectation of career growth for a person with 5+ years of experience and holding a PE? What % pay increase is associated with a PE in this field, and does that translate into a larger leadership role in the business? What would your recommendations on career expansion at this point be? Any experiences, comments, case studies, etc. would be greatly appreciated.

 

[lowedogg]

That is great that you are on the path to sitting for your PE. Becoming a licensed professional is the single most important milestone of your professional career.

I have been in the consulting business since I graduated over 10 years ago. I can tell you that design and consulting is like a foreign language - you either use it or lose it. I would recommend for you to stay in the consulting world for at least a few years after you get your PE. You really don't have the full perspective of how the business works until you are "in responsible charge" of something. Once you have been the Engineer of Record on a few few projects, ask to take on some project management responsibilities. Once you have done that, you will have a much better idea of what your opportunities are and whether this business is a good fit for you. You can go into the contracting or sales arenas at pretty much any point in your career, but it is very hard to come back to consulting after you've been gone for any significant amount of time. Time and again I see guys come (back) into the design world from either the contracting, commissioning, or sales worlds and they have an extremely hard time completing design projects accurately and on schedule. These guys can make excellent project managers, but the best lead engineers have been designing for their entire careers.

You should try to identify two mentors at your job. One should be a senior or chief engineer (possibly your supervisor) who will be your technical mentor. The other should be a project manager, business operations manager, or business developer who can teach you about the professional services business environment. Most engineers that I have met have neglected one of these two aspects of their career growth. They are either all technical with no sense of client relations, or they abandoned the technical world for a management positions before they became a complete engineer. Regardless of what path you ultimately choose, long term success requires that you be well rounded.

Lastly, salary is all about supply and demand and is very dependent on geographic location, technical discipline, relative workload in the markets served by your firm, and the number of available engineers in your market and/or region.

http://www.NSPE.org

is a great resource for salary data. If you are a member and you complete the salary survey, they give you access to their salary database. There is no question that you could get a big raise by going to work for a contractor or as a sales representative, but your career is about more than money, especially short term money. Personally, I really enjoy designing the systems and seeing projects through from start to finish. I wouldn't be able to do that outside of the consulting/design world. I have also been fortunate enough to make the right moves at the right time and have a very comfortable salary and a good work/life balance.

It is a very unfortunate situation in our industry these days that young engineers have to change jobs every 3-5 years to get the salary that they deserve. Given the economic environment, and current efforts to reduce engineering to a commodity service, many employers are not giving adequate raises. This is not always the case and there are still some good places to work out there - you may be at one already! Now is a great time for you to sit down with your current employer and have an in-depth discussion about your future. You will find that good managers make the time to help employees who demonstrate an interest in their own careers. If no one is interested in helping you with this, you will at least know what sort of firm you are working for. Good engineering firms understand that retaining their young PE's is one of the most important things they can do to maintain and raise their standards of practice.

I hope my rambling helps you out and I wish you luck in your career!

 

[KiwiMace]

The professional qualifications will serve you well, particularly as you get to mid-career when they become expected. Being good, keen and trustworthy is everything else.

 

[cdxx139]

lowedogg, your rambling was excellent! Unfortunately, I found out to late, my night degree was not ABET certified, and cannot sit for my PE. Big letdown

knowledge is power