I am a recent graduate (MS Structural Engineering - June 11) from Los Angeles. The LA job market for a recent grad in SE is horrendous (probably for CA as a whole.) and the possibility of leaving LA for a while have started to dawn on me. If would be great if the structural engineers or anyone can on this board can give me some info into the Houston market. Much appreciated. (brief history: my college friend was obsessed with this message board at one time; that's how it was brought to my attention. I signed up to find out what it was and rarely touched it since)
I can't speak to the Civil/Structural engineer market specifically, but I work in the Refining/Chem Plant contract engineer business on instrumentation and we interface with civil/structural guys all the time. I can say that business in my field SEEMS to be slightly picking up lately, so if you inquired as to positions at some of the bigger contracting companies, ie Jacobs, Fluor, Worley Parsons and some of the smaller ones like S&B, etc then you might get some bites.
I work for a large engineering firm that contracts mostly with oil and gas, and chemical companies. It's definitely picking up for us, and we're hiring, but there's still a lot of people out on the street, so we get a lot of applications for every job. You should have a decent shot here, though.
Thank you so much. I studied SE hoping to design buildings and highway bridges in LA. Never seriously thought about the industrial sector until now, but it's still structural nonetheless. Is it better for me to actually move to Houston and search from there?
I am a structural engineer, and work for my father's engineering firm. While the market is definitely picking up, there is still a LONG way to go in terms of getting back to the norms of 2005-2007. The public sector is still feeling some pretty heavy effects from the economy, but it seems like the private sector has picked up substantially compared to about a year ago. I deal mainly with residential home design, and our portion of the market took a pretty hard beating for a couple of years, but has bounced back since then. Let me know if you have any specific questions, and I can try to answer them as best I can.
I work in architecture, not in Houston though, my understanding is that the Houston construction market is probably a bit better than the national market but like the rest of the country is still down. I feel for you as this a very tough time to be graduating in the construction fields. My own advice to someone like you is if you were thinking of post graduate education you might look into that. Otherwise you might want to do what I am doing now and looking into the Asia market.
Let me give you a brief summary of the structural market here in LA: there's a hiring freeze across the board for all public agencies (bureau of engineering, dept. of building and safety, dept. water and power, Caltrans - transportation...) The private sector (residential and buildings) is about the same. Same goes for the bridge market (HDR, Parsons, Parson Brinckerhoff, AECOM, HNTB, CH2M Hills) I know for a fact that only a small number of structural engineers get to work on a skyscraper in their lifetime. So realistically we're looking at 1-2 storied residences and 1-5 storied buildings. I really want to start out at a small or midsized firm where I get to learn residential as well as commercial design (being well rounded in all facets of design is something I really look up to -- timber, masonry, steel, and concrete) The chance of me landing something in LA this year or the next is rather small. I am wondering what are my chances (be as specific as you can) of me finding something in Houston. I already have the EIT and my structural library (books, codes, design manuals) is about the same as that of a professional SE; that's why I am a bit anxious to get out of LA given the chance.
Thanks. I actually did a structural internship in Lima Peru last year. Had to learn Spanish, Peruvian people, culture, cuisine, work, all at the same time. (it took me about a week to learn how to take a 30 minutes bus ride from home to work LOL) I dont mind living and working in South America at all, but Spanish is too much for me to overcome. I'll look into the Asian Market as a last resort though.
The one thing Houston has going for it is the fact that we are, in a sense, somewhat insulated from the problems that the rest of the America is going through right now. Because we have such a diversity in terms of where our main revenue stream comes from (energy, medicine, oil, etc..), we will never truly feel the effects of the recession like the rest of the country (I'm talking in terms of residential building.....as far as everyday life, people in Houston are having to buckle down just as much as the next city). As far as actually finding a job here, I would say you would have as good of a chance finding a job here as an SE as anywhere in the country. Moving to Houston to specifically look for a job is probably too risky for my tastes, but depending on your personality, it might just be a risk worth taking for you. I personally couldn't tell you of any job openings with any of our competitors, but sending out some resumes, or making some cold calls probably wouldn't hurt. Like I said, Houston is about as good of a bet for you to find a job as anywhere else, so it's definitely a good place for you to start your job search. Good luck!
I represent lots of groups in the construction industry, design included...all commercial. From what I can tell, they seem like they've been immune to the depths of the problems felt by others in their industry around the country.
There are about 20-25 structural firms in LA where everyone in the field knows about (KPFF, Degenkolb, Miyamoto International, Saifu Bouquet, Brandow Johnston, John Martin...) and 50-60 other smaller firms. Would you please provide me a similar list for Houston, or any structural firms that you know of. That would probably save me a few days of searching. Thanks of for the help thus far. I plan to be in Houston the end of July.
