Tek-Tips is the largest IT community on the Internet today!

Members share and learn making Tek-Tips Forums the best source of peer-reviewed technical information on the Internet!

Register Log in
  • Congratulations cowski on being selected by the Eng-Tips community for having the most helpful posts in the forums last week. Way to Go!

Are you busy? Informal survey.

Status
Not open for further replies.
flgulfcoasteng

flgulfcoasteng

Structural
Joined
Nov 13, 2007
Messages
30
Location
US
I thought I would start a thread to get a feel for how everyone is doing right now. If you don’t mind sharing give us your:

1. Location & discipline
2. Level of bidding or proposal activity
3. Level of work currently with commitments / in progress
4. Trending up or down?

I’ll begin with:
1. Southwest Florida, Structural
2. 2 in Feb, 3 in March, 0 MTD in April. (2 per week is typical in a healthy market)
3. 2 single family residential, 0 commercial, 0 multifamily
4. On par with 2009 levels (looks like it may get slower though). Approx. 25% of 2008 levels. No advertised employment opportunities locally.
 
Sort by date Sort by votes
US Southwest, Civil

lots of marketing and lots of competition

very busy, but partly because we layed off a bunch of people already and nobody left to do the work. Also busy because of ARRA money funding a large government project

looks like I will be employed at least till the end of the year
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
1. Gulf South, Structural
2. Probably averaging a proposal per week.
3. Very steady work right now.
4. Got some really nice projects on the way. Hiring another employee.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
1. North and Central Florida, primarily, but we have projects in South Florida and West Florida, Construction and Structural Forensics
2. Proposals by request. No marketing. Mostly referrals.
3. Steady work in specialized area. Keeping 5 engineers gainfully employed.
4. Trend is consistent with expected upward trend.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
1. Los Angeles / Civil Engineering
2. Proposals were higher than normal for month of March and Feburary.
3. Work is slow, but some big projects are getting financed finally. Some mansion types of demo the mansion and build crazier mansion. And some large low income housing projects.
4. Trend is way up. Even my partner who is not happy with the situation said today that proposals are way up. I am the one keeping track and know this as truth job #'s and money wise.

Civil Development Group, LLC
Los Angeles Civil Engineering specializing in Hillside Grading
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
East Midlands. UK Automotive.

Lots of quoting but everything for some time in the near future.

Currently running at about 40% capacity, but everything is a struggle waiting on data, orders etc.

Hard to say I feel it is still very much in the balance, it could tip one way or the other.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
1. Gulf South. Civil/Structural
2. Proposals have increased. Activity is high.
3. Workload is heavy. We're 70% Oil and Gas. A few ARRA projects are sustaining a good bit of overtime.
4. Trending up.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Puerto Rico - engineering services for major aerospace co.
We have had some slow down, our 2nd major client has cut back in the work allot. I personaly am pretty busy. (But not at this very moment.)
Some improvement is expected.

Peter Stockhausen
Senior Design Analyst (Checker)
Infotech Aerospace Services
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
1. DC Capital Region, Mechanical
2. 2-3 proposals a week
3. Overwhelming level
4. Continually increasing
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
1. NJ, PA, DE
2. 3-4 calls a week
4. 40-60 hrs a week
5. Up

I set a record with last week's invoicing, and invoiced out $8k. Normally it's 2-3k. I have 9 open inquiries on my desk right now, and about $10k booked for May (I specialize in small gigs). Recession is over in my area.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
1. WA, Civil,Structural

2. 3 per month, up from 1 for the past 12 months

3. 20-40 hours/week starting next week

4. Starting to go up, slowly

Mike McCann
MMC Engineering
Motto: KISS
Motivation: Don't ask
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
1. Central U.S., all disciplines
2. 2-3 small proposals /week
3. About 50% chargeable
4. Up slightly

Already had some layoffs. If the 50% doesn't improve very soon, more will be forthcoming.

Alan
“The engineer's first problem in any design situation is to discover what the problem really is.” Unk.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
1. WA, Structural, mostly residential
2. Most of my work is word of mouth, so I rarely do competitive proposals. Maybe 1 out of 10 jobs.
3. 20 to 30 hours per week, enough for me
4. About average. My only slow time was Oct. thru Dec. 09.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
A couple of hits on proposals and we now have theoretical backlog in to the fall.

Alan
“The engineer's first problem in any design situation is to discover what the problem really is.” Unk.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
1. Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut, NC, SC - Structural

2. I'm not privvy to this info

3. I'm as busy as I've ever been in my four years as an engineer.

4. Only getting more busy!

Just as a side note, I'm feeling extremely overworked for the compensation I'm receiving. I've been at 55-60+ hours/week for a few months now, and I'm just now getting back to the salary I had 2 years ago. That does not make me, my hard work, or all the extra hours I put in feel appreciated. I think I only stay because I love the projects I get to work on.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
1. Midwest USA, Structural
2. 1-4 a week. Varies. We do a lot of small stuff.
3. work level: Low
4. Trending: Down

We do most our work in the state with the highest unemployment rate, so that is probably the crux of the problem. Had a fairly busy March-May, but June and onward isn't looking good. Backlog has dried up.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
We have some backlog, but projects that we have been awarded seem to stall repeatedly so cash flow is not there.

Alan
“The engineer's first problem in any design situation is to discover what the problem really is.” Unk.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
1. Based in the midwest: oil & gas-proj, const & eng mgmt
2. 2 proposals in this month
3. 1 major contract, 1 minor contract, 1 pending award
4. 2010 is trending about 20% higher (in volume) than 2009




Greg Lamberson, BS, MBA
Consultant - Upstream Energy
Website:
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Update from April:

1. NJ, PA, DE
2. 3-4 calls a week
4. 40-60 hrs a week
5. Still Up

 
Upvote 0 Downvote
1. Welding - Primarily southeast
2. Bit of fossil, multiple large nuclear.
3. 50 hours typical, 1 pending fossil award, 2 nuclear, 1 pending nuclear.
4. Fossil as a whole down, Nuclear up, FGD's and natural gas up.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

skeletron
  • Locked
  • Question Question
Sole Proprietors: What document signing software are you using?
Replies
12
Views
903
Eng16080
Eng16080
Honzolive
  • Locked
  • Question Question
Do You Care About Delivering Quality?
Replies
19
Views
4K
ShataCastings
ShataCastings
strguy11
  • Locked
  • Question Question
When do you require licensure in your firm to move up
Replies
9
Views
6K
phamENG
phamENG
Fischstabchen
  • Locked
  • Question Question
When do you sign an NDA?
Replies
8
Views
774
NorthCivil
NorthCivil
K
  • Question Question
Starting on your own UK
Replies
2
Views
7K
KvotheKV
K

Part and Inventory Search

Sponsor

Back
Top