Salaries and fringe benefits are the most obvious attractions for any potential employment; however, in the long term, these factors are not important, such as personal interests and the possibilities for professional and personal development. On the other hand, salaries, fringe benefits, job security, and working conditions should be thoroughly considered. Starting salaries for civil engineering graduates today should not be a major factor in the evaluation of job offers, since the differences between starting salaries from one organization to another tend to be small and generally are balanced by differences in the fringe benefits offered by one employer as compared to those of another. Furthermore, differences in starting salaries usually disappear after several years employment with a given organization. In other words, two individuals hired at slightly different starting salaries generally tend to reach the same level of income in a specific organization if they have displayed equal capability and perseverance. The salary ranges, in any event, starting salaries for recent civil engineering graduates are likely to be higher than those of graduates in many other professional fields.
Fringe benefits differ from salary in that they are usually more important to employees with dependents or with other circumstances that create special needs. A married engineer with a family may look more favorably on a job offer that includes payment of travel expenses incurred during the movement of family and belongings to the new place of employment, as compared to a job offer that does not include such a benefit. The health care and medical insurance provisions offered by a prospective employer are extremely important to married engineers with children, to persons with health problems, and to those who must support dependents with potential health problems. These factors are relatively unimportant, at least in the short term, to healthy, young, single college graduates. Obviously, the importance of health care and insurance benefits, as well as other benefits, will have varying degrees of importance to different individuals depending upon their particular circumstances. These benefits, however, must be evaluated carefully because they may have very great long-term significance.
Other benefits associated with employment as a civil engineer include unemployment insurance and retirement income. Almost all job assignments for civil engineers in the United States today will be covered by social security, which guarantees the engineer a modest retirement income. In almost all large engineering and technical organizations, supplementary retirement, profit sharing, or annuity plans are also available for all employees. The civil engineer considering a job offer should evaluate the benefits package available from a prospective employer, particularly with respect to the contribution provided by that employer to retirement plan payments.
As mentioned earlier, there is good job security in civil engineering today. There has been, and should be, a continuing steady demand for civil engineers in today's technological society. Nevertheless, job security will vary somewhat depending upon the civil engineer's particular area of practice and upon the type of job secured. For example, the civil engineer employed by a federal government agency will be protected by the provisions of the federal civil service regulations. Although in some instances the civil engineer cannot gain employment in such an agency without passing a competitive examination, he or she is protected against arbitrary dismissal by this system. He or she can usually depend on subsequent promotions and raises in grade if performance is satisfactory and her or his progress agrees with the well-established procedures for promotion in the particular agency. A civil engineer will be discharged from a civil service position only if he or she is documented to be an unsatisfactory employee or is found guilty of illegal or immoral conduct. Consequently, employment in a federal agency, or in state and local agencies covered by civil service regulations, carries a great measure of job security, although some layoffs have occurred since 1981 when the jobs themselves were eliminated.
Engineers were not immune from the corporate and governmental downsizing of the 1990s. Some corporations have outsourced or contracted out for services in an effort to save money. Also, some state and local governments have downsized, eliminating jobs, or they have contracted with private firms for services in an effort to save money.
Employment in private civil engineering firms is more vulnerable to economic fluctuations and the success of the particular private venture. Permanency of employment varies with the size and stability of the company or organization. In general, larger engineering organizations tend to be stable employers; however, civil engineers who are employed in organizations that are closely related to industrial production or to a particular element of the economy, such as defense spending, may face the possibility of temporary or permanent layoffs.
Employment tends to be less stable in very small organizations. The civil engineer who is self-employed as a consulting engineer obviously has no guarantee of employment since he or she depends upon individual client-consultant agreements. Consultants experience a certain fluctuation in demand in that sometimes they are offered more work than they can possibly accomplish, while at other times they are idle for short periods, waiting to be contacted by clients. Against these dangers of possible unemployment, the self-employed consultant can count on one advantage: being one's own boss. He or she establishes her or his own salary and retirement program. This is an added responsibility and risk in self-employment. The civil engineer must weigh all of the possible advantages and disadvantages carefully before embarking on a career as a self-employed consultant or before becoming associated with a relatively small consulting firm.
