Hi guys. need some advice here. been working over a year as a consulting engineer in construction field. thinking of becoming a project engineer. But not so sure what are the pros and cons... Anybody with experience mind to share? what i can say is life as consulting engineer is not too bad. almost 9 to 5. well, sometimes might need to work OT or travel outstation. but what i think consulting engineers lack is on-site experience! project engineer would normally take care A - Z of a project which allows you to have more control isn't it? what do you guys think? please please please share your experience!

Yes normally take care of A - Z of a project will give multitasking experience to you. Sometimes project engineer need to handle problems occur from higher bosses. Based on my experience, I have no choice to choose the supplier because my bos is friend with supplier bos. But this supplier quality is is horrible. I've to answer many many quality issue with customers. Sometimes need to go back late night because of quality issue. Need to telan customer maki hamun. Take thing positively, I learn a lot.

hi TS, I am in the same line with you. Since you are new, based on your situation, I would say consulting is having more advantages in terms of learning. We do not need to fully station at site to gain site experience. You have to think and ask a lot of questions and find the answers by yourself. Do not expect the working environment to spoon feed you. For me, I am working full time in consulting office. Whenever I got the chance to go to site for meeting or inspection, I will surely observe, take photos and communicate with the contractor. But in the other way round, the project engineer at site will seldom have the chance to experience the design process.

This post has been edited by josephlau7966: Feb 20 2012, 05:08 PM

Thanks for the response guys. Appreciate it! But the thing about consulting engineers is... the pay is damn low! project engineer earns more i think?

true.. especially developer..^^

& the consulting engineer always lacks the knowledge on how to actually construct a structure..in other words, hand on....theres so much more 'interesting' problem on site than in office.

fyi: im a project engineer myself..i'm more hands on rather than office based.

This post has been edited by feekle: Feb 20 2012, 09:04 PM

i am also fresh graduate consulting engineer.. i think consulting engineer can learn more compare to project engineer.. thats my opinion

yeah....this is the disadvantage of being a consultant engineer. They can hardly deepen their knowledge on the construction work at the site. Thus, their design is sometimes unfeasible. And here comes the site engineer to do the magic. Anyway, i am much more interested in engineering design. That's why I am still sticking with consulting firm.

By the way, both types of engineer have their own strengths and weaknesses. We couldn't conclude who is more important.

Conclusion : both are equally important..

most probably this one more into one side opinion.

consulting engineer != project engineer
project engineer = consulting engineer

why i say so, it's because consulting engineer will work through a theory a lot. The other person will try to solve a matter for you.
Project engineer is the one that need to take care about the project, need to know the basic why the problem occur and solve by himself. more into hand on..

For TS, if u accept challenge, go ahead with project engineer, and u will learn a lot of basic thing that can use when u face the real thing outside..

In terms of prospect, the key to step up higher in consulting line is getting PE license. Engineers at site don't really bother to get PE license for career advancement but they may find it harder to establish their own business since it needs a huge amount of capital. Am I right???

Not quite..if u have enough $$ just hire one PE..simple as that..
Most of the time, being a subcon is good enough..

This post has been edited by feekle: Feb 20 2012, 09:53 PM

Erm...

I have been in this line for almost 4 years as an M&E consultant engineer and these are my 2 cents.

In the context of CONSTRUCTION, if u want to remain in the construction line for the time being, what other forumers mentioned is nevertheless true. Consultant, theory. Project engineer, hands on. But look on the other side, u can't possibly solve problems without having certain amount of design knowledge. Most experienced project engineers or what we usually call contractors solve problems based on experience, but when u ask them on their basis to the solution, they can't simply answer u. My advice, if u really want to stay in construction, firstly brush up ur design skills, i would say a minimum of 3 years, before joining contractor firms, say for another 3 years, then only u join a developer as a project manager. By then u would have obtained enough knowledge of both design and practical, not to mention age, which can play a convincing role. As for Ir, it relaly depends on ur path of life. Ir is actually more for consultantcy, for contractor and developer, its less of practical use but instead a status in this field and ppl would somehow respect u. Money wise, in an ascending manner, consultant, contractor, developer. with a basic increase of 20% per jump (just a guideline).

couldnt agree more.

my previous experience, 2 years M design exp + 0.5 years full time M site experience in a M&E consultant firm (10 projects mostly high-rise & infra), ^20% to another consultant firm. at 2nd consultant firm, suddenly a o&g opportunity came in, then jumped (monthly various claimed allowances up to >100% of my basic when extensive traveling) and never look back since.

Once in a century opportunity, even better than strike 4D.

Thank you all for sharing your experience. All are great advices! Btw, for consulting engineer in Malaysia, there aren't many BIG civil engineering consulting firms around isn't it? From what i know, big players are only a few like SKM, AECOM perunding, maybe TY-Lin... Is it better for us to stay in a small private firm (where you can learn A - Z, but actually is being exploited by chinaman boss! ) or join an established international firm? I have a friend working in the big firm, but seldom get the chance to go to site. everyday just sit in front of computer and design, design, design. I guess this is the bad thing about working in big firm? you get less chance to go out? unlike small private company where you have to take care of everything thing? Anyone from big firm mind to share your experience?

no definite answer for you. it is about the "timing" and the "projects" the companies are awarded. if one is happened to be at the correct "timing" from preliminary concept design until hand-over stage then it is great.

mind you that M&E consultant hardly sent their fresh young engineers to be full time based at site except C&S. i was a M and always requested my superior if any chances drop by, then i was willing to be full time based at site. then 1 day opportunity came as got 1 vacancy at site which was reporting to RE. then i was posted to there. it was very tough, 6 days/week. every day walked few kilometers or sometimes got luck can hop into sub-con's 4WD or main-con vehicles. climbing scaffolding. sweating under hot sun and the worst suddenly the sky turned into dark and raining. writing the reports/checklists under hot sun/raining. site acceptance test during day time or mid night also. good if can do inside air-con container or when inside under construction building. if no water-log on road or in the tunnel then i was very happy as no need to wash my safety boots. at site, just always remember finished up your report & submit on time, always at standby when main-con is calling for inspection, lot of the sub-con can talk funny stuffs after office hour or during inspection, depends. i lost a lot of weight during half year full time at site.

in office with autocad, bq, tender doc, spreadsheet calculations most of the time, weekly progress meeting with other disciplines/clients, perform site audit. services my previous company for M cold water & sanitary plumbing, acmv, fire protection system, water pump sets sizing, lift & escalator, lng pipeline, etc.

This post has been edited by ch_teo: Feb 21 2012, 08:36 PM

In my personal opinion, if u r from the civil background, i would say, there are many more things other than buildings and structures. Maybe u can try out hydro power plant, bridge building, some firms like ARUP are good firms, did u heard that they got the opportunity to participate in the 100 storey building design process?

Well, I would say both in office and site have different experiences. If u cannot sit still, then site is better lo. If u are a couch potato, office then. Well, on site, yes, sub con can give u every excuse and reson under the moon and stars, but u must not be gullible enough to buy their excuses. Site walk is definitely tiring especially when the lift is not complete and no one dares to take the shaky construction lift.

In office, u would be considered lucky to handle BQs, calculations, designs and stuff. If u have a terrible senior, who is selfish enough, u would be handling progress claim, material approval, data entry after receiving tender replies and O&M, which i term these stuffs as less productive work.

For now, I'm actually more curious at the future of construction industry.

that's what i call a real man's job