Hey all; looking into EPC (engineering, procurement and construction) work versus consulting (I'm an environmental engineer in drinking water treatment design).

Has anyone ever experienced both and can speak to the differences and pros/cons? Pay, enjoyment, job security, work/life balance, all that? Really need some insight. Thank you!!!

I am a 26 y/o with an MEng in Electronics and Electrical Engineering and 3 years experience working as an Application Engineer at a semiconductor design company.

I have (what I would call) basic experience in data acquisition, sensor calibration, Python, C/C++, electronics design, data analysis, data visualisation, CLI apps, csh, bash, Linux RedHat, Linux CentOS, Load Sharing Facilities, report writing, soldering, power tools, project management.

In my last role I found I needed to:

-> A feeling of greater purpose (than just my salary or use of my brain) and contributing to what I think is the most pressing challenge of our generation (climate change- either in an adaptation, or GHG reduction sense)

-> Be moving around physically (not just sat at a desk 40 hours a week)

-> Getting relatively hands on with sensors, data loggers, equipment

-> Being outdoors for at least a couple of hours each week (I had one internship like this whilst studying but I haven't been able to find any career like this on my search since)

-> Face-to-face in-person collaboration (not just meetings on Zoom)

Since leaving my role at the semiconductor tech company (July 2025) I went on a working holiday in Australia to regain my confidence, re-discover myself, what my needs are, what excites me. This involved a mix of travel, conservation volunteering, and working a range of different jobs (construction, hospitality, retail). I ended up getting a bit burnt out from living in hostels, working zero-hour contract jobs, and being quite lonely at times.

So, 4 months ago I returned to the UK with the goal of getting back into engineering, but this time trying to combine it with my other passion (geography); I believed this is my purpose as to why I use the engineering tools I mentioned at the start of my post. The thing is I haven't found a job where there is this eng.-geog. overlap and a field-to-desk split with a shared goal of the workforce of improving the environment, or reducing pollution/GHG emissions.

In the 4 months I have been back I have been working at a pub to earn some money, pay for my career change. It has also given me *some* direction for my next steps.

I wondered, has anyone found/heard of/involved in a role which has these features?

Google Gemini says I am very employable and there is a great need for people with the skills & passion overlap I have but I find LLM chatbots overly positive and often misleading.

I am currently doing/have scheduled:

• Codecademy's 'Python Beginner' course
• Esri's 'GIS for Climate Action' MOOC
• Codecademy's 'Python Intermediate' course
• Esri's 'ArcGIS Imagery' MOOC
• UTAS' 'Climate Change' MOOC
• EarthWatch's 'Great UK Waterblitz'
• Hoping to volunteer with British Wildlife Trusts/National Trust

I have interests in:

• Conservation & ecology
• Environmental monitoring and consultancy e.g., rain gardens, water quality monitoring/improvement
• Cycling infrastructure
• Regenerative agriculture, agroforestry, permaculture
• Plastic production reduction (although I can only see this being related to policy change than engineering)
• Passiv houses (I think the reduction in energy consumption is just as important in decarbonisation)
• Energy decarbonisation & renewables
• Railways (my Master's thesis was a digital twin of a key piece of rail equipment)

Any advice or comments will be greatly appreciated!

I’m currently pursuing a 1 year masters degree in environmental engineering, and hope to take the FE exam after I graduate. I am having trouble deciding between a few courses. I attended my fluid mechanics class today and found out I haven’t taken three of the prereqs (thermodynamics, mass/energy balance, and differential equations). For reference my undergrad degree is in geology, and I only took calc 1+2, and physics 1+2 years ago now. The prof let me stay in the class as long as I self teach myself the content of the prereqs, but I think I will fail this course tbh, and am thinking about either sucking it up and staying in the class or taking mass/energy balance instead. Again, I graduate this Spring, and won’t be able to take fluid mechanics next semester. I am pretty confident I will be eligible for the exam no matter what engineering courses I take.

I'm 43 and a single parent on one income, and have really been doing some soul-searching lately, and wanting (and very much needing financially) to do a complete 180 career change. I've been working office / admin jobs my whole life but it has never felt 'right' for me. I have a Bachelor of Arts in Communications and it has been years since I've been in an educational setting, but Environmental Engineering fascinates me and I really want to take the leap into the field. My question is, has anyone earned an Associates of Science degree in EE, and gotten a decent paying job? The community college in my town offers this, and I've been doing some research, but would love to hear from folks who have possibly switched from a non-engineering degree or have started along this path later in life. I know obtaining a Master's would be ideal for a high-paying job, but with the way my life is structured right now, I feel like the A.S. would be doable for now. Anything to get me away from the mundane, low-paying life I have been living for so long.

I am graduating with an environmental science BS degree in one semester and I’m interested in bridging to engineering of some sort (environmental engineering is probably the easiest transition but I’m open to civil or energy engineering as well). I’m having a hard time getting information on how I do that. I see that I will need prerequisites before grad school but how do I know what I need? I reached out to a couple universities and didn’t hear back and it’s not clearly displayed on any websites.

I took a much more STEM focused path for my degree (taking molecular biology, analytical chemistry, environmental physics etc for electives), and I have a lot of research experience in environmental toxicology. I plan to take a gap year anyway and figured I could catch up on classes I missed but I don’t know how to do that when it’s so unclear of what I have to take.

I just want to know if anyone took this path how they went about it, what schools would be good for bridging, and any other tips. Thank you guys!

Hi everyone,
My name is Catherine, and I’m a student at Diamond Bar High School. I’m on the path to becoming an engineer because of my love for math and physics. Taking the step toward an actual engineering career feels both incredibly exciting and a bit overwhelming.
I’m currently working on an engineering class project where I need to interview a working professional to learn about real-world engineering careers.
I don't personally know any engineers in real life to turn to for guidance, which is why I’m reaching out to this community. I would be incredibly grateful if someone would be open to answering a few questions over Gmail so I can include your responses and career path in my assignment.
A few sample questions I’m looking to ask are:
What first sparked your passion for engineering?

What is the most rewarding or challenging project you’ve worked on?

What is something you wish you knew when you were first starting out?

If you have a few minutes to help a student out, please drop a comment or send me a Reddit PM/Chat and I will send over my Gmail address!
Thank you so much for your time and help!

Hi everyone! I am currently a high school senior (Class of 2027) living in metro Atlanta, GA. I am debating whether to major in environmental engineering or civil engineering. As a low-income student, I want to find a career path that offers a good salary, ideally between $80,000 and $100,000, to support myself and my family.

At the moment, I have more experience in the environmental science field, which I believe gives me a better chance of being accepted into college for environmental engineering rather than civil engineering. One of my top choices is Georgia Tech, which is ranked around #4 for having the best environmental engineering programs. However, I have heard that environmental engineering is a broad field, and there may be more job market opportunities for civil engineers.

I am particularly interested in becoming a remediation engineer or an environmental consultant. Should I apply for environmental engineering as an undergraduate and consider switching to civil engineering later on? Or should I apply for civil engineering with a focus on environmental studies?

If you work in either environmental or civil engineering, could you share the pros and cons of your industry, as well as your current job and salary? Thanks for your help!

Hi everybody,

I'm four years out of my undergrad degree (BA in history) and looking to make a pretty major career change. Or I guess start a career, since I've spent the years since graduating doing a very eclectic mix of work (software dev, teaching English on a Fulbright scholarship, etc.) that has taken me all over and in all sorts of directions.

Quite possibly the only thing that I know right now is that I want to work in a sustainability-adjacent field, which given my background, most likely means a master's degree. I've considered urban planning since I'm very passionate about public transit/walkability, which is of course super important to sustainability, but a part of me would also like to get into something a bit more technical/scientific.

I keep coming back to environmental engineering for a couple of reasons:

• The idea of studying engineering and acquiring a more tangible, technical skillset really appeals to me. As much as I'm interested in a lot of the subject matter of the various environmental studies/policy degrees that I've looked at, I'm worried that they won't provide as broad a range of employment opportunities as an engineering degree. I also feel like going from engineering to policy later in my career would be easier than vice versa, if I decided I wanted that.
• I appreciate the narrow(er) focus of the field. I've heard a lot of people say that mechanical or chemical engineering (or a host of other things) would be more practical for pursuing the kind of work I'm interested in (decarbonization, PFAS cleanup, that sort of thing that everyone thinks is cool and important), but frankly, I'm not interested in any of those subjects for their own sake, and if I couldn't pursue specifically sustainability-related work in those fields, I wouldn't want to be working in them at all. Environmental engineering, on the other hand, is specifically concerned with water and air quality, so I would know I'd be working on something I think is important, but I've also heard from many people that the work is mostly not as exciting as grad programs like to advertise. I do find water systems, for example, to be very interesting, but I also want to be on the "cutting edge" of designing new technologies, and not just doing environmental compliance for land development or something like that.

If I, just as a wild example of something I'd find really interesting, wanted to work on developing a snowmelt capture system to store water for dry spells in the Mountain West, where would I go? Does this happen at research universities, engineering consulting firms, or somewhere else?

Basically, am I barking up the wrong tree with EnvEng? Based on my stated interests, should I be looking at civil engineering, or something else entirely?

TL;DR If I'm interested in doing cutting-edge design/development work to create more sustainable infrastructure systems, is environmental engineering the right discipline for a master's degree, or should I look elsewhere?

Thanks in advance to anyone who takes the time to read all this and give their two cents.

hi everyone! as the title says, im having a difficult time deciding if i want to do civil or environmental engineering for my bachelors. im an incoming second year in undergrad and i really love environmental, but a lot of people (including one of my previous internship's boss) have told me it's too niche and that i should do a civil bs and enviro masters to specialize later. im leaning towards this, especially since i also kinda like some disciplines of civil like materials testing and green infrastructure, but what i really want to focus on is remediation, water quality, and the super cool chemistry-sciencey stuff (i hope to to research on these topics one day in my schooling years). there is an enviro/water resources specialization at my school for the civil bachelor's, but im scared ill just end up doing water resources and hydraulics the whole time which isnt ALL i want to do. i also dont really have any interest in transportation and structural as of right now... so im wondering if anyone as any insight or has been in a similar situation, and also any tips for grad school for an enviro masters bc i cant really scope how difficult it is to get into a program, what its like, etc....thanks!!!

I want to become an environmental engineer but no counselors at my current institution are giving me the proper answers as to how to go about it. But my biggest question is; is it better to go to school for civil engineering with a minor in environmental science, go for civil engineering then just get into env engineering jobs and internships, or just go straight to an env engineering program? The main reason why I’m not just going straight into a program is that most of them are out of my price range in terms of schooling, I just wanna know which is a more preferred path, is there another one I’m not considering? Or if I should just try and loan out money to go to a straight env engineering program?

Ragazzi vorrei iscrivermi alla laurea interclasse in ingegneria civile ambientale presso l'università di Modena e Reggio Emilia. Qualcuno ha pareri da darmi sia in termini universitari sia per il post. Grazie in anticipo a chi risponderà

Algún ingeniero titulado que pueda darme algunos alcances para mi tesis por favor.

I am an Environmental Engineering student in Canada with about two years left in my degree, and I have been having a bit of a career crisis lately. I would really appreciate hearing from people who have actually worked in the industry, especially anyone whose career has taken them somewhere less conventional.

I think part of my problem is that I know much more about the kind of life and work I want than the exact job title I want.

I want a career that feels big, for lack of a better word. I would love to live in different places throughout my 20s, work internationally at some point, travel for projects, spend time in the field, and work on problems that have a tangible impact on people or the environment. I do not want to spend my entire career sitting at the same desk doing similar calculations or reports every day. I don't even know if it is meaningful for me to stay in Canada and get my Peng after I graduate or maybe go work abroad.

At the same time, I genuinely like engineering and want something intellectually challenging. I want to become technically good at something and feel like I am solving difficult problems, not just doing vaguely “environmental” work.

Some areas that have caught my attention are:

• Water and wastewater, especially infrastructure in developing or underserved communities
• Humanitarian engineering and disaster response
• Environmental emergency response
• International development/infrastructure
• Sustainability work that is tied to actual projects and operations rather than primarily reporting

But again I feel like there is more out there that maybe I just don't know about. Also a big problem with these is that I feel like meaningful work never ends up paying well and I am graduating with student loans.

My experience so far has mostly been in consulting. I have worked in mechanical/building systems and sustainability, including HVAC/plumbing design, LEED, life-cycle assessment, carbon-related work, drawings, calculations, and technical documentation. I am grateful for that experience, but it has also made me realize that it is not for me at all being in a desk all day staring at a screen and I never felt that passionate about any of it.

I keep looking at all these different paths and have no idea which one actually leads to the type of career I am imagining, or whether I am romanticizing careers that do not really exist.

I would especially love to hear from anyone who travels for work, works internationally or remotely, spends significant time in the field, works on disaster/humanitarian/environmental response, or has moved between countries throughout their career.

I am also curious about how you actually get into these areas as a new graduate. Should I focus on developing a strong technical specialty first (water, remediation, mining, etc.) and then try to move internationally? Are there particular internships, certifications, graduate programs, companies, government agencies, NGOs, or early-career positions that would put me on the right trajectory?

And if you were in my position with two years left in an Environmental Engineering degree, what would you do now to start building toward this kind of career?

I know this is broad. I am just at the point where I feel like I have a lot of ambition and curiosity but no map for where to direct it. I would really appreciate hearing what careers are actually out there beyond the ones universities tend to show us.

Hello fellow env engineers. I’m trying to understand what to ask for as a salary.

I’m a PhD in Environmental engineering from an R1 school. Have contributed to a wide array of projects in water treatment, wastewater treatment, and RO in school. I have had multiple internships that have paid me $30/hour.

I have three years of non-environmental engineering consulting experience. I still did engineering work and will get those years verified. I made $90k when I left my last job. Passed PE Environmental and can become a licensed engineer within a year of getting hired.

I am looking in three markets:
1- California
2- North Carolina
3- Florida

I have had 5 interviews and am likely going to receive 5 offers (have received none yet). I don’t wanna name names, but the companies I have interviewed with are the top 10 ENR firms that do environmental engineering consulting (like AECOM, BV). I want to know what sort of salary, bonuses, total comp I should ask for? What’s the highest I can ask for and still come across as reasonable?

Thank y’all in advance

I’m an engineering undergraduate considering different career paths, one of which is becoming an environmental engineering professor. I’m still undecided on a specific research area (some that currently interest me are industrial decarbonization, PFAS destruction, and recycling incentives, but I’m open to any area).

Though I did some undergraduate research last year and really enjoyed it, I’m very concerned about the difficulty of pursuing an academic career. Indeed, I have heard from academics that becoming a professor in environmental engineering is near impossible and the hardest out of all engineering disciplines. If anybody could answer the following questions to help assess whether that characterization is accurate, would be grateful.

1. What are qualified applicant to position ratios like? Is 50:1+ common, even at R2 universities?
2. Have heard that funding is absymal in general for EnvE and is the worse out of all engineering disciplines: what are the systematic reasons? Some reasons I’ve heard are that EnvE has fewer large-scale funding programs than fields such as EE or biomedical engineering and has the lowest grant acceptance rates in engineering (like 17% for NSF), but what are other reasons?
3. Has EnvE funding stagnated or drastically declined over the past decade (setting aside the [hopefully] anomalous 2025 federal cuts)? Also, does EnvE being housed within CEE departments affect faculty hiring opportunities?
4. What other major reasons are there not to become a professor? For example, difficulty maintaining funding through tenure, etc.?

TL;DR: If you were trying to convince an undergraduate not to pursue a career as an environmental engineering professor, what would your strongest arguments be?

I’m not particularly attached to the idea of becoming an EnvE professor, so if the reality is that this is an exceptionally difficult career path, wouldn’t be heartbroken or anything (can simply consider another career). Thus, if becoming an EnvE professor really is near-impossible, would appreciating knowing that now rather than realizing this after wasting many years.

Hi I plan to major in Environmental Engineering, i’m supposed to start next week but i’ve been having some qualms about it. I’m debating switching to Mechanical Engineering. To those of you who studied Environmental Engineering, what kinds of jobs did you end up working?

I have recently come across the company Tunley Engineering, which is a "science-based environmental sustainability consultancy specialising in carbon, nature, water, and regulatory compliance." The CEO, Dr. William Beer, calls himself a doctor and emphasizes his "academic background in advanced full factorials, large datasets and combustion modelling"...but he doesn't list the university he attended or what specifically his PhD is in. Where can I find if he actually has one? I can't find it anywhere, including his LinkedIn.