Interview with Taylor

Taylor, a civil engineer in Louisville, discusses his experience in the field. He enjoys the work itself but dislikes the office atmosphere and routine. Before becoming an engineer, he explored other careers such as being an electrician. Taylor got into engineering through a robotics program and finds the field interesting. He admits to being bad at math and science but relies on calculators for his work. His day-to-day involves drawing blueprints based on specifications and checking calculations. Taylor occasionally goes out to job sites and helps surveyors. He gets along with his older coworkers but wishes he worked with people his own age. Taylor believes his job is important because everyone needs bridges and roads. However, he feels underpaid for his work and thinks companies take advantage of workers due to the economy. He is considering applying to other engineering companies for better pay. Taylor is unsure if he sees himself in this field long-term and is open to other opportu Hi everyone, welcome to the first episode of my podcast girl unfiltered today We're going to be addressing the pay of Louisville engineers. I'm here with my friend Taylor who is a civil engineer in Louisville, Kentucky So Taylor, how long have you been an engineer? I've been an engineer at the company I'm at now about two years I was at another engineering company called like power design before there and I was there for like Eight months and then I came to this one because I knew some of the people that worked there and I was able to get them pretty easily and I've been there about two years now Do you enjoy it? I did enjoy it. I enjoy I enjoy what it is. I don't enjoy the atmosphere of where I work at I don't like the routine of coming into an office every day. I wish there was more Going out the sites or some sort of thing But the whole showing up to an office for eight hours a day with no windows sitting at a cubicle Talking to your cubicle mate over the same thing every single day kind of sucks But that's not really a job related. Actually, I'm just starting to ramble What other career paths did you explore before deciding on being an engineer I was an electrician for a little bit That was all right The issue with being an electrician is people are in the trade or honestly some of the worst people I've met Very conservative and I'm not very conservative and they definitely try pushing their conservative beliefs on me, which I did not like but Besides the electrical work. I worked like just like random jobs I've worked at a gas station before I came to Louisville now It was pretty fun working a graveyard shift at a gas station It was always entertaining it really told me when I started that uh, you're gonna be robbed at some point So I was pretty excited for that and I was kind of sad that I didn't get robbed when I ended up leaving Interesting point of view on that one. What made you want to be an engineer? I didn't want to be an engineer at first. I started this thing called Vex robotics with some buddies at my school and We did that for a couple years and I kind of enjoyed the whole design process and just kind of creating something with the team people from scratch that came from your mind, I guess and I did pretty good in Vex robotics. And actually I came into contact with the people at the company I'm at now Through Vex robotics. So it kind of just worked perfectly nice Have you always wanted to do something stem related? Uh No, I think that goes back to the Vex robotics thing That was a very stem related thing and it kind of opened me up to the world of stem and project lead the way but Before that I literally had no idea what I wanted to do I wanted to like to be a teacher or something, but I didn't always know what I wanted to do stem Are you a science and math guy? No I'm actually terrible at math and science, which is kind of funny even though I'm an engineer I have to do calculator math for everything. I'm terrible at mental math. The other day I Yeah, I just like I get in the habit of using my calculator so much for even simple math questions I'm popping the calculator out and it always leads to me getting roasted by my roommates or something What is your day-to-day look like in the office? Well It's pretty much the same thing every day. I Struggle getting out of bed for an hour Finally get out of bed and it's already way too late and then I have to just rush and put something on and get to the office I Wasn't a coffee drinker before I started this job, but every morning that I get to the office I always get a cup of coffee and it's really hard for me to stay awake sometimes just sitting in that desk chair But I'll get my cup of coffee and then I'll kill I'll waste some time by talking to every human in the office I'll just do my rounds talking to everyone and then uh, yeah, I'll sit in my chair I'll talk to my supervisor about what needs to get done if I don't have anything already and I'll just go through the the project, you know, it's pretty it's a pretty keep to yourself job surprisingly with a lot of stuff because As I'm more of an apprentice engineer But they'll hand me the work and I'll get it done and I give it back to them and then we'll just give me more Work, they'll give me comments on my work, but it's not really like I'm sitting down with a team of people Which honestly I would enjoy more but this job I'm just handed work and I do it and then I clock out at 5 and then I rinse and repeat the next day What do you mean by work? Like what does it look like? so I Do a lot of the drawing so I'll get the calculations from the actual Project engineer and They like okay needs to be this this this is this so I'll draw it based on his specifications And I don't do a lot of the math stuff yet because it's very injury entry level but Yeah, I'll draw based on the specifications he gives me and I'm basically creating a blueprint for the construction workers to look at so they kind of know what they need to have it based on and I'll also check the engineers math. There's just like a Another another safe point just to make sure it's all good and looking good. And then yeah Do you have any deviations from this day to day? Yeah We'll go out to Job sites a lot. It's actually really slow in the office right now And I'm just trying to try to do any work. I can to keep myself busy so since we have a survey crew I go out with them when there's any slow points in the office and I'll help them out with everything they need to like for example this week. I'm going to wetlands, Kentucky to the party and as they call it snake infested swamp water to plot basically property corners for this new property that I think it's all weird like someone to buy a property and it changes the The acreage and layout because it gets divided sometimes and you have to plot the new corners to map out the property So I'll help out the surveyors sometimes and it's it's fun I like to get out of the office any chance I get because it sucks sitting in an office with no windows Do you get along with your co-workers? I Get along as well as a 22 year old can with 35 year olds and 50 year olds and 70 year olds It's it boils my mind every day I work with people so much older than me and honestly if I work with people more my age I might enjoy it a little more but we get along it's It's not like we're very close or anything, but we get along enough to talk about the weather or something What makes your job so important, um I would say my job is definitely important because everyone's going to need bridges, right? Uh, everyone needs a road to drive on and if you didn't have that you're not going to get to where you need to go Like how are you going to get across the ohio river without a bridge? You're going to wear a boat but uh Definitely the bridges since I do a lot of bridge work. Um There's different types of civil work that you can do like sewage systems and such but I'm pretty happy. I'm in the bridge world I i'm pretty happy. I'm in the bridge world. I think any other world would be a lot more boring Do you think that you're paid fairly for your job, uh, don't even get me started on that Uh, as you know, I think i'm paid fairly. Um I get paid 17 an hour to do actual bridge design work and I think it's crazy. I I it blows my mind every day because I look at these other job listings and i'm being paid a lot more And I honestly think it has to do with how bad the economy is because a lot of places are just being stingy with Not only who they hire, but how much they're paying the person so Yes, it sucks. My company pays me a lot. I'm not going to just solely depend on my company I think that's more of an economical problem and the companies are trying to just take advantage of the workers as much as they can but if I really wanted to I could stay at this company for a long time and eventually i'd get the pay that I wanted but I'm, i'm very impatient. I'm trying to get As best of the pay as I can as soon as I can Have you applied at any other engineering companies? um Not yet. I'm definitely starting to think about it more and more because we just got our yearly raise and it was like two and a Half percent if you adjust for inflation for this year, it had to have been like six percent Which is way too low of a raise for me to want to stay there. So i've been looking at places Um, and i've been looking at strictly engineering jobs either i've been looking for anything that can make me more money In the meantime while i'm trying to finish up my degree with engineering So yeah, i've been looking at some jobs, but I haven't fully started the process yet Mainly because i'm so scared of how bad the job market's going to be Because I know so many people who are looking for jobs and just cannot get one Do you still see yourself in this field? like five ten years from now Um At this point whatever I think is going to give me the most money is probably what i'm going to gravitate towards Um, I would love to stay in this field I think it'd be entertaining But like I said before I kind of hate the office life. I thought I would enjoy it when I started it but it's very boring very monotonous and it's cool to have people you talk to in the workplace, but I definitely find myself thinking of what if I went a different way like going back to electrical work where I get to look at my hands more but I don't have a sure answer yet, but definitely whatever I think would make me the most amount of money No, I get that Do you think others would think that you're paid unfairly for your job? Oh, yeah for sure I've told all my friends about how how low I think i'm getting paid and they've agreed every single one of them have agreed How do you think that louisville would feel If they knew how much their first designers were making if I told the city of louisville How much one of their one of their entry-level engineers was making it'd be they'd probably be a little uneasy They'd hopefully all lie it together for taylor smith to get a better pay because that's how much they would care about me Right. No, absolutely If you could have a different job, what would it be? Um Well, I saw this really cool job listing the other day for a pokemon department manager through the decades making 25 an hour, by the way So that would be pretty cool. I get to just talk about nerd stuff all day making 20 making infinitely more money than i'm making as an engineer, which makes no sense, but Yeah, I just really wanted to get paid more. That's the goal So I want to go back to the trip you're taking this week Can you sort of explain what the day-to-day looks like on the field versus how it's different from office life? It's definitely super different. I mean some days where it's not like a full-on trip I'll get to the office and i'm gonna be working the desk For a little bit and then i'll go out on the site. It's more so whatever they need me for but Recently we had this guy just quit and they're really needing help and just what happens I have no work so I had the lucky undertaking of going to this place called wetlands kentucky and uh Basically, this is going to be a trip It was actually my first time going on like a full-on trip to do a survey job Usually it's like what I said where i'll just come to the office and then we'll leave after a little bit and then i'll come back But from my understanding with this trip that i'm going to be taking i'm like i'm going to be leaving early in the morning um To be riding with this guy that I knew nothing about Uh trying to make conversation with him For like two hours in the car, but we're going to get to our hotel Can you get unpacked and then we're gonna go to the job site. We're gonna Put on our waders and wade through like four feet of water for like 10 hours And you mentioned the snakes, yeah, I love snakes there's gonna be so many snakes there They gave us these snake traps Which are supposed to protect you from snake bites, even though they said we have nothing to worry about But they gave us a snake so Yeah, i'm gonna be doing that for way too long and then Eventually, we'll go back to our hotels I'm, really hoping we don't have to share a hotel room because I think that would suck but I don't think there's any way They'd make a share of hotel room unless they're just that cheap because they might be and then uh, i'm doing that for four days And then what's good about these trips is you get to work so much that you get your 40 hours early And then you can just leave and go home after your 40 hours. So the goal is to leave Before night time thursday and then get back and just have friday off That's awesome, do you get any sort of stipends while you're out? Like like getting paid yeah Yeah, they're telling me that This is pretty awesome So on days you're not staying the night you get 42 and on days you are staying the night you get 59 And it's pretty interesting to hear my co-worker talk about it because he also thinks the company's super cheap and he's like It's crazy how much money they're giving us for this trip. I haven't seen this much So I left out on that part and what's awesome about the stipend if you don't even have to spend any of it You can just not spend it and they'll just let you keep it So I went to kroger's Before this interview actually and I picked up a bunch of snacks and stuff so I could save as much money as possible Because i'm always i'm always looking for money and uh I'm gonna i'm gonna try to spend as little of my stipend as I can and then party hard and I get back Absolutely. What a good plan So you've been talking about the opinions you have on your job, but what would you say is the average life cycle of an engineer? um I would say the average life cycle of an engineer is pretty Pretty uniform with whatever the other engineer has to go through Uh, you go to school Depends on what school you go to like for example speed school You'll go for two years and you'll work for two years and you're already in the workforce and have the experience by the time you graduate But for someone like me or some other people who don't go to a special school like global speed Um, you'll get your degree and then you'll get a job and you'll work as an apprentice engineer for However many amount of years and then once you have the hours and the education that you need you'll take your project engineer test which basically gives you your project engineer license to kind of Lead projects and have be able to put your stamp on projects to basically show, you know what you're talking about and basically once you get that you're you're an engineer you'll have to retake the license if You have to get hours and if you aren't getting the hours that you need basically working you have to retake the test But if you're as long as you're working, you don't have to retake the test but what's interesting about that is you have to do it in different states, so like Some engineers I work with have their stamps in kentucky indiana And some have them in like tennessee or michigan or something So there's a lot there's a big variety and uh Yeah, basically once you pass that set pass that test you just work in an office for like 50 years Like some of the guys I work with and then you retire Wow, it's a very exciting life I think that concludes the interview today. Thank you so much taylor for joining me. Yeah, my wife's so interesting, you know Yeah, I really appreciate it Thank you Thank you guys for tuning in I hope you have a great week and i'll catch you next time So So You