Structural or Water Resources: Which travels more?

[inasilentway]

I'd like to ask for some of your advice regarding travel opportunities in civil engineering.

I'm a third year civil engineering undergraduate studying in the US. My school's department offers several concentrations, including structural and water resources. I'm on the fence right now between choosing structural or water resources. For me personally, travel opportunities may be a deal breaker. From a little internet research, it seems that work in the structural field can have a lot of opportunity for travel, depending on the firm. However, I haven't found very much information as to whether or not water resources engineers travel for their work.

From your experience, how difficult is it for a water resources engineer to find work-related travel opportunities? On a related note, do you think that my concentration will restrict my career choices? (i.e. can I go into the structural field with a water resources concentration, and vice versa?)

Thank you for your help!

 

[dhengr]

Inasilentway:
Those are really two drastically different disciplines. And, you have to make a determination on your own, which you would like the most, we can’t make that for you. The discipline choice is probably the most important, they are not interchangeable, your third and forth years of school will be dictated by that choice, and you’ll live with that choice for years. As for travel too, that is tough to pin down. Many consulting offices of either stripe work within a several state region so you might get some travel to that extent. Other large international consulting firms certainly have international travel and project opportunities, but you have to hunt these out. And, many of those same firms have large staffs who do most of the grunt engineering work, right here at home, without ever going any further than home and the local sandwich shop.

 

[oldestguy]

There also might be a choice of what kind of employer you may have. For instance a private consulting firm may or may not involve traveling distant areas. However, government employers usually only require travel within their jurisdiction. I'd not place traveling as very high in the list of items governing which way I might go. Instead, what field has plenty of openings an which field has an attraction. Don't forget contractors need civil engineers also. If possible summer employment will give you more insight as to which way to steer your way.

 

[JedClampett]

I work as a structural engineer at a company that specializes in water and wastewater treatment. We have water process engineers at all our offices, but only a few structural engineers spread out over a small percentage of our offices. So I travel quite a bit. But I've worked in other situations where I didn't travel or traveled every week to the same place. So it all depends. Pick what major you enjoy and when you interview for employment, ask about travel. If you're open to it, you might be put in a position with travel. And once the big bosses see you as a available traveler, they'll call on you to go out more and more.
But as you're a youngster (I've always wanted to say that), let me warn you that travel is not all luxury or even enjoyable. Early morning, redeye, or connecting flights are the norm. I spend considerable time in sewage influent channels or crawling through some pipe. Time away from your family causes them stress. Eating restaurant food is not always great or healthy and you're normally all by yourself. It's tempting to have a few drinks, which can turn into a problem. And you have to travel where they tell you. It's not all Hawaii and Breckinridge. There's flights to one airport, and a four hour drive to Armpit, Iowa.

 

[inasilentway]

dhengr, oldestguy, and JedClampett: Thanks for your advice. It seems that the general consensus is "it depends," which is kind of what I figured. I've been leaning toward water resources for a while and I think I'm going to go with it. Hopefully I'll land an internship that will help inform my decision.

 

[darthsoilsguy2]

both have identical opportunity to travel or not travel. if travel is that important to your decision and you are an American citizen, you could join the Peace Corps. They love to get Civil Engineers of any discipline. I served in Honduras 15 years ago in water systems and there were plenty of people that majored in structural engineering there with me (i took more environmental egr for my civil egr degree). The military is also an option. Jedclampett is very correct to warn that travel is a double-edged sword and that life changes. i've quit 2 employers i enjoyed working with because travel was too much for my family when i had become more value to the company "on-the-road" during indefinite dips in local work.