How many hours a week do you work?

Age-----30

Field-----IT Consulting

Hrs/wk----55

Schedule----M-F plus 1 Saturday a month

Leave Home---Sunday 3:45 PM Fly to Client site

Leave Hotel----7:30 AM

Return Hotel----8:00 PM

Leave Client site Thursday 4pm to Fly home

Get Home----8:00 PM Thursday night.

Work from home Friday 8-5.

i hate my job wrote:

Do work son wrote:

You don't happen to work for Kimley Horn do you? I know a couple recent graduate friends of mine who are traffic engineers with a private consulting civil engineering firm who get worked like slaves there.

No, but they are one of our direct competitors. Yes, Kimley-Horn has a very bad reputation when it comes to work-life balance. Though I'd argue the company I work for (which shall remain nameless) is not any better. I've discovered private traffic consulting is a bottom feeder industry filled with workaholics trying to climb over each others backs for the next contract. I'm getting out.

That's because civil engineering is the bottom feeder engineering degree. You probably need an IQ of at least 125 to be a successful chemical engineering or electrical engineering major. Civil engineering... more like 110.

No, but they are one of our direct competitors. Yes, Kimley-Horn has a very bad reputation when it comes to work-life balance. Though I'd argue the company I work for (which shall remain nameless) is not any better. I've discovered private traffic consulting is a bottom feeder industry filled with workaholics trying to climb over each others backs for the next contract. I'm getting out.

As someone who's only a few years ahead of me in the same field I just started in, do you have any other opinions/advice on the field? I have a few friends who went into private civil engineering straight from undergrad thinking it would be great, but they say they have absolutely no work-life balance and are looking to switch careers ASAP. I, on the other hand, just finished my Master's at a pretty big name engineering school and have been working for two weeks. Pretty much everyone tells me that real-world engineering is stressful and slowly eats away at you. If this is true, what did I get myself into...

Age --------- 28

Field ------- Public Accounting

Hrs/wk ------ 60-75 hrs/week during busy season, 45+ rest of the year

Schedule ---- M-Sat in busy season, M-F rest of year

Leave home -- 6-7

Get home ---- 7-10 during busy season, 4-6 rest of year.

Do work son wrote:

As someone who's only a few years ahead of me in the same field I just started in, do you have any other opinions/advice on the field? I have a few friends who went into private civil engineering straight from undergrad thinking it would be great, but they say they have absolutely no work-life balance and are looking to switch careers ASAP. I, on the other hand, just finished my Master's at a pretty big name engineering school and have been working for two weeks. Pretty much everyone tells me that real-world engineering is stressful and slowly eats away at you. If this is true, what did I get myself into...

Yes, basically I'm one of those people who went from undergrad straight to industry. It was great at first, but I became jaded FAST.

Points:

- Look very closely at company culture when selecting employers. If possible, intern at different places, both public and private, to find the best fit for you. I think it is hard to find places that care about work-life balance on the private side. Do your research. Don't believe what you see in the company career brochure. If you don't like where you are, don't be afraid to shop around. Bouncing between companies and public/private seems pretty common from what I can tell.

- Try to find a place with as many technically-minded folks (i.e. engineering background) as possible. City planners often try to pretend they are engineers. Avoid places with too many of these folks. They are obnoxious.

- I've grown sour on traffic engineering in practice. I can't really speak for other civil sub-displines, but I'm guessing the experience is similar (from what my school friends tell me). Anyway, while traffic a really interesting subject that you can look at from many different angles (demand forecasting, micro-simulation, roadway design, land use planning, etc.) and some of the projects are very interesting, it simply isn't that fun in the real-world. Clients, project managers, and politicians don't care about getting the answer right. They don't care about the technical details or the awesome algorithm you wrote. It's all about politics and money. I see ethically-dubious "engineering judgement" applied on a daily basis. On top of that, a lot of the tasks are very boring. Try writing EIR chapters or other reports that nobody reads. Mind-numbing!

The one saving grace is that engineering is a great degree and there are many options. Having a technical background opens up many doors. I say keep exploring 'til you find what you like.

-

Age --------- 23

Field ------- Mechanical Engineer

Hrs/wk ------ Usually low 40s, currently low 50s

Schedule ---- M-F usually with some weekends when busy

Leave home -- 7-10

Get home ---- 7-9

Age --------- 53

Field ------- Technical executive at a fortune 25 firm

Hrs/wk ------ ~60 75% of the time, as long as it takes the rest (

Age --------- 27

Field ------- Architect

Hrs/wk ------ 50+

Schedule ---- M-F, some work from home on evenings, might go in on weekends.

Leave home -- 7am

Get home ---- 7pm (long commute)

What sucks about this thread is that the 40-hour workweek seems to be dead. The only people that work less than 40 hours created some passive income or started their own business.

Age --------- 31

Field ------- IT (Architecture on the side)

Hrs/wk ------ 36

Schedule ---- work remotely from home 3 x 12 hour shift a week.

Leave home -- never

Get home ---- always there

Read more:

http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=4993691#ixzz2I0QRSzDe

crazy person wrote:

What sucks about this thread is that the 40-hour workweek seems to be dead. The only people that work less than 40 hours created some passive income or started their own business.

The 40hr work week is dead in the U.S. On average, Americans work longer than any other country, we get less benefits and paid vacation, and we retire later in our lives. Americans literally work themselves to death, yet are not any happier for it. Why do it? You significantly lower your life expectancy, and you spend your life in poor health from a combo of work-related stress and a sedentary lifestyle due to lack of free time and energy. There are many countries where the average work week is 40hrs and below.

Penguin guy wrote:

College coach works 98 hours per week?

I want to hear where that time is put?

I don't believe it...

Okay, let's work backward: 98hpw means 70 hours off--an average of 10 hours a day. Not too bad...

Otherwise? Well, I taught 8am classes, five days a week, and evening classes that ran till 9:30pm and 8:30pm (two days of each; just left after practice on Friday, say 6pm). So what have we got so far? That's 62 hours already, if my math is right.

Then there's travel-competition-travel on the weekend. Naturally that time commitment varies, but 20 hours is probably a decent guess at the average time required, considering some meets are local and others are overnights.

Then in the rest of the weekend you get some recruiting done--ten hours' worth might be a reasonable guess at the average--and you get some fill-in recruiting done on weekday evenings, plus maybe comb results for prospects while commuting (assuming you don't have to drive).

I think that puts a person in the 90-100hpw ballpark. Do that from September through early December; early January through May; screw off in the summer, just doing some teaching and recruiting, and of course supervise summer training, keeping in touch with each of your cross-country kids every week or two (so maybe only 50hpw); rinse; repeat.

Age --------- 27

Field ------- public trans

Hrs/wk ------ 36

Schedule ---- 2x10hrs, 2x6 1x4

Leave home -- 1ish

Get home ---- 7:30, or 11:30

most people do not realize how easy driving a bus is. the hardest thing I did today was drive a very fat man in a scooter to his home. granted Im not getting rich, but my life is very easy.

Age --------- 32

Field ------- Drug Kingpin/$15,000.00 per week

Hrs/wk ------ None

Schedule ---- Every Day OFF

Leave home -- N/A

Get home ---- N/A

Lol you suckers have no life

9/80 means that in a 14 day period you work 9 days and 80 hours.

Some people also call it working 9 9's. You work nine days of 9 hours per day (M-F, M-Th), and then you get a 3-day weekend.

-80 Below Zero wrote:

Age --------- 32

Field ------- Drug Kingpin/$15,000.00 per week

Hrs/wk ------ None

Schedule ---- Every Day OFF

Leave home -- N/A

Get home ---- N/A

Lol you suckers have no life

Please, elaborate.

Age --------- 23

Field ------- Bartender

Hrs/wk ------ 30-35

Schedule ---- Friday - Monday night sometimes a random week night thrown in

Leave home -- 4:30pm

Get home ---- 3:30am

And I go to school Monday - thursday 9:30-3:45.

it sucks

I'm in water/wastewater but I've seen a lot of the same. Particularly the "engineering judgement" you mentioned. So many times shortcuts are taken just to churn out more projects. As far as work/life balance it seems that smaller firms are usually much more relaxed. That's where I am now and it's not bad. Like I said before the pay is not as good, but to me it's worth it.

Koneko wrote:

Engineering? Accounting? Office manager? Holy crap you guys are white as hell. I can't imagine slogging my azz to the office 60 hours a week for chump change. I'm a self-made farmer and musician. I "work" as many hours as I feel like. Make decent enough money.

An obama man.