A Month as a Civil Engineer: What I Didn’t Expect


Updates / Friday, July 6th, 2018

July 4th marks one month since I started my first job in the engineering world, and there’s a lot I’ve had to learn in just a few weeks.


Back in May, I graduated from Purdue University with a degree in Civil Engineering.

I couldn’t have been happier to be done with the seemingly never-ending classes, homework, and tests. Everyone always tells you that life outside college is so much different, but no advice can really prepare you for what it’s actually like.

Working a full-time job in a career you’ve been studying years is so different from the classes that prepare you for it.

The first and most substantial difference to me was the pace and lack of significant schedule changes.

When I was in school, every semester I would have a new schedule, new classes, new building; everything was different. Some nights I would go to bed at 9 pm and some nights I wouldn’t sleep. Now I work every morning at 8, take my lunch every day at noon, and leave the office every day at 4:30. So far, this has been the biggest issue I have with a full-time job, but it’s just how life works for those who work desk jobs.

Fortunately for me, I have a relatively flexible schedule and can change those hours around if I get sick of it, as long as I’m hitting 40 hours every week. This is something everyone needs to realize and be aware of when they are pursuing a career. Not every job requires a similar 8-4 or 9-5 setting like mine, and if that’s something you can’t see yourself handling, then look for jobs with more flexibility early on. I knew I would be able to eventually adapt to the strict schedule, it’s just something I’ve had to get used to.

I’m sure once I get into the groove, I’ll get used to waking up at 7 am every morning.

For right now, I’m constantly looking forward to 5 pm, so I can come home to Lynn and relax in my new house, away from the craziness that is adapting to a new job.

Everyone knows that college kids are broke.

Everything in college is either stupid expensive (textbooks, fees, tuition) or dirt cheap (ramen noodles and stealing your friend’s WiFi.) Finally having a steady income is probably my favorite part of finally working. I can budget out my month, I know if I’ll be able to afford something or not, and I can finally make some bigger purchases I was never able to make before.

After all, the reason we’re all working in the first place is money.

Luckily my job offer out of college was very reasonable (they’re definitely paying me more than I deserve, I don’t have a damn clue what I’m doing…)

Before I ever even started working, I built an in-depth budget spreadsheet on excel and was plugging in the numbers I knew along with guessing the ones I didn’t. I was trying to do whatever I could to prepare for the amounts of money I would be making because I didn’t want to overspend or not save enough. The number one piece of advice from people who’ve done this before say they wish they would’ve saved more when they were younger, so that’s something I’m really trying to focus on.

One Month as a Civil Engineer - Brogan + Lynn

Something I hadn’t thought about when I started my job was what the style of work, or the “flow” of the office, would be like.

When I was still in school, I did the majority of my work myself, alone. I would study on my own, complete homework on my own, and take tests on my own. In engineering, there are lots of group projects and an emphasis on doing work as a team/implementing leadership skills, so I understood that stuff like that would be expected. But in the real world of an engineering career, you’re not doing anything on your own.

Right now, since I’m so new, I’m basically doing glorified intern work while I get a grasp on all the new material/projects my company does. Yet anything and everything I’m involved with is coming from another engineer, and I never have anything solely placed on me. Thankfully the people I work with are all great and very easy to work with; they all understand I’m new/everything is fresh for me, and I have a lot of questions.

For these first few months, I’m just trying to take it all in.

I want to learn and benefit the company as much as I can; after all, the more money I make them, the more money I’ll make in the long run. Working with people you respect and enjoy makes it all the easier to look forward to going to work every day and want to do the job.


These first few weeks have been exciting, but I’ve only just begun.

There’s a lot I’ve yet to experience, so maybe I’ll write another post somewhere down the line looking back on these days and how easy they were.

Brogan + Lynn Blog

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