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<p>If you have good relationships with your clients and can perform your work well, it won’t be too hard to become a project manager. A PE is key though.</p>
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<p>Civil engineering is not very vulnerable to outsourcing. On a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being most likely to be outsourced, I’d put it at a 2 or 3. With the licensing requirements, it can’t be completely outsourced. I do know of one firm in Texas that is outsourcing part of a design to Romania (I forget what it is exactly, but it was a petrochemical facility of some sort). </p>
<p>The problem when you outsource work is you’re crossing geographical, language, and cultural borders. Collaboration becomes difficult because of the time difference and distance. Native language are different, and even if they can speak the same language, confusion does arise due to different terminologies. One thing that may be unique to civil engineering is that construction in one area is different from construction in another area. I’ve worked with people in India, and they had little to no understanding of plumbing drawings in the US. Structural steel and metal deck is a foreign concept to one inspector I work with, who moved here from Africa a few years ago. Until we can overcome these obstacles, outsourcing will be very limited in civil engineering. </p>
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<p>I would say it’s not flat. Unlike other fields, licensure is very important for most civil engineers (you can’t really design anything by yourself without it). It is awarded based on examination AND experience (4 years in my state with a few recommendations from PE’s). </p>
<p>In addition, when looking for an engineer, clients typically look for someone who they’ve had a good working relationship with. They will ask for your qualifications in your proposal, so the more/better experience you have, the more likely you will be chosen. </p>
<p>In terms of the technical aspects, there’s probably a lot you learn with experience. Coming out of school, you probably don’t have as good of an idea of something’s constructibility as someone with 20 years of experience. </p>
<p>There’s a reason you don’t see a Mark Zuckerberg in civil engineering.</p>
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<p>You can work as a … civil engineer! There are many many of them out there. What you need is to have a good established reputation with clients, so they’ll stick with you after you leave your firm. Other than that, you need a good computer and the necessary software for your line of work, insurance,</p>