Reddit and What I Found There

Civil Engineering has been quoted by many senators and congresspeople as being "not sexy". However its is a highly important field of work to maintaining the entire stability of the world. Nevertheless many engineers take to Reddit in their spare time to answer questions that people might have on the career. Reddit is a key to understanding what goes through the mind of a civil engineer.

Civil engineers on Reddit come from vast and various backgrounds and cultures. Engineers from across the entire world come to Reddit to discuss ideas and compare work. Many civil engineers ask other civil engineers about finding work in other nations and comparing nations. Engineers from Australia ask about the working conditions and availability in the United Kingdom; meanwhile most of these civil engineers would love to work in the United States, however they say that the visa and work permit programs are almost impossible to navigate. Other Reddit users ask about what tests and materials civil engineers needed when they were getting their degrees. In many instances, the major talk of engineers on Reddit is about the work possibilities and recently completed projects.

One of the most interesting conversations/ debates was from a recent graduate in civil engineering asking about what types of civil engineering would involve the least amount of sitting behind a desk. This user was worried about being stuck in an entry level position and sitting behind a desk for hours a week and working a computer program. The other Reddit users suggested that the new graduate go into transportation planning engineering, a subbranch of civil engineering. Ironically, this is what I wanted to go into specifically and reading those comments about hardly ever being stuck behind a desk using a computer program really reassured me that I was going into the correct discipline. Another interesting thread that I read was from somebody who claimed that the civil engineering discipline was dead and was worthless. This user argued that the field was saturated with civil engineers and the new influx of engineers would be stuck with no work, it was also argued that if an engineer lost his/her job that they would not be able to find another job like it. However this claim from one engineer was disputed by many other engineers who said that based off the current state of the world there would always be a need for civil engineers in the world.

Overall it appears that since civil engineering is so broad there will always be a need for civil engineers. I was relieved to learn more about my specific interest in civil engineering: transportation engineering. My biggest fear is that I will end up in a job at a desk for 50+ hours a week, not the ideal job in my opinion. I would much rather go into the field and do work in real life not behind some computer screen. I had expected more discussion and argument between the very wide variety of civil engineers; however, this was not the case as most of the engineers on Reddit were in agreement over the challenges of the profession. Even when they had a disagreement, these civil engineers were, pardon the pun, very civil with each other.

Anonymous, "Metropolitan Area, County of Los Angeles Map", 6/30/1958
via Flickr, CCO Licence