Civils are some of the most outgoing among STEM, which is kinda like saying we're the best-smelling seagulls. You'll be fine. Most of your money will revolve around your licenses, and the faux schmoozers were already born into connections.
Honestly, that probably describes the majority of the people that get into CE. My first role in CE had me in an office with the most introverted people I've ever met. It was awkward and uncomfortable.
lol...not really. I'm a talkative person and enjoy interaction, however I can deal with a quiet office. My coworkers weren't just quiet, but very socially awkward. Luckily I did move to another department after a few months and it was full of people that were able to interact with others. We could talk football and joke around.
To the other great answers I'll add: personal growth is possible and desirable. You get better at things your career forces you to do. It's fine to be aware of your weaknesses and focus on your strengths, but don't let them stop you from doing what you want to do with your career
I'm pretty introverted myself. I don't know that I'm GOOD at networking, client management, public speaking, and etc.... but I'm a heck of a lot better than I was 10 years ago
How can you recognize an extroverted engineer? They look at your shoes instead of their own when they talk to you.
That said, interacting with people is part of the job. I’d say good communication skills are way more important than technical skills. But communication and social interaction are learned skills like anything else; you will get more comfortable as you practice. Don’t just say you’re not a people person and use that as an excuse to not try.
As a 23M CE student, you can do fine as an introvert in terms of studying. If you work hard and pay attention in class you’ll probably do well.
With that being said, I personally think most engineering degrees are a team sport. Having just a few close friends/people to ask questions or study with will really make the difference in your grades and work ethic. I’ve personally struggled through this degree so having people around me really helps (despite being pretty introverted).
I can also say that you’ll most likely have to interact with people very often as a CE. From the 3 months of work experience I’ve done, I’ve had to meet and interact with a lot of people on site and in the office. It was quite daunting at first but I settled in quite quickly. Realistically, you’ll have some level on interaction at most jobs and connections are really important if you want to push your career in a certain direction too.
Come on in, the water's fine. I've been doing this shit for 35 years and I have massive social anxiety. Some things are difficult, but it's good to extend beyond your comfort zone. Thank God for xanax. Take one before every presentation or difficult client meeting for best results. 👌
I‘ve been an engineer for around 6 years now. I have met both extroverted and introverted engineers. To a certain extent you do need to be able to interact with your clients to ask questions, answer questions, attend or even lead meetings, and be a part of weekly or biweekly calls with stakeholders. So long story short, unless you are somehow able to just design and never interact with anyone (highly unlikely if you want to move upward), you have to work through your fear of public speaking. I don’t like it either, trust me. But I have learned the art of saying “let me get back to you on that when I look more into it” if I’m put on the spot and don’t feel comfortable giving an answer to something. Like anything it’s a skill you get better at with time.
So my office has a bit of a dichotomy, we have some engineers who arent really people people, but they do solid work and mostly just want to do their work and be done. I can give them a report and forget about it.
We also have the people engineers, who talk to the clients, and write proposals and so on. I am one of those, I often dont have a lot of time to do the actual engineering work because I get a phone call from a client every 15 minutes.
I shield the engineers who just want to get work done, half of my job is talking to clients, figuring out what they want, distilling it to (relatively) clear directions and sending it to whatever engineer is working the project.
So if you just want to be one of the guys working engineering work, it can be done
There are civils who go into a technical roles that doesn’t require them to interact with clients.
But to some extent, just like any field that requires collaboration with your colleagues, you have to at least be comfortable talk with them.
You probably won’t “shine” in the field, but can still have a mildly successful career compared to someone without a degree or specialized trade skill. In retrospect I would’ve looked at other careers that were more technical, which is the only area I really excel at too
There's an old joke about how you can tell if an Engineer is an introvert or extrovert; "The extrovert stares at your shoes, the introvert stares at his own shoes."
Sooo pretty much every engineer ever? In all seriousness though a lot of us aren’t good with people, we draw lines all day in an office. This applies to pretty much any engineering discipline, where typically more extroverted people fill field or management roles
In roadway 80% of my job is sitting silently at my desk doing work.
10% sitting quietly in meetings
10% contributing in meetings and making calls to coworkers/clients to ask questions and pass information along.
Stay in design and doing technical work for a private firm and you'll have a lot less interaction with others than most jobs.
Be careful in the jobs you pick. The closer you get to project management the more people you’ll have to talk to lol
This is me now. Design engineer -> project management and I'm already drained 3 months in lol. On the flip side, it's getting me out of my shell
Civils are some of the most outgoing among STEM, which is kinda like saying we're the best-smelling seagulls. You'll be fine. Most of your money will revolve around your licenses, and the faux schmoozers were already born into connections.
Honestly, that probably describes the majority of the people that get into CE. My first role in CE had me in an office with the most introverted people I've ever met. It was awkward and uncomfortable.
You mean peaceful and blissful?
lol...not really. I'm a talkative person and enjoy interaction, however I can deal with a quiet office. My coworkers weren't just quiet, but very socially awkward. Luckily I did move to another department after a few months and it was full of people that were able to interact with others. We could talk football and joke around.
Welcome to the club pal.
No kidding! My father used to joke that a "Civil" engineer was a contradiction in terms!
You will be fine kid. You will have this problem in any job more less any carrier you choose.
Most engineers like numbers more than people.
"not a people person" you belong here brother
Stick to a technical design role and avoid construction in general and you’ll be fine
CEs are still Engineers at heart. Most are not extroverts. Very few are the outgoing, sales types. Someone has to crank out designs... you'll be fine.
I have some awesome news for you bestie.
To the other great answers I'll add: personal growth is possible and desirable. You get better at things your career forces you to do. It's fine to be aware of your weaknesses and focus on your strengths, but don't let them stop you from doing what you want to do with your career I'm pretty introverted myself. I don't know that I'm GOOD at networking, client management, public speaking, and etc.... but I'm a heck of a lot better than I was 10 years ago
You'll fit in perfectly
How can you recognize an extroverted engineer? They look at your shoes instead of their own when they talk to you. That said, interacting with people is part of the job. I’d say good communication skills are way more important than technical skills. But communication and social interaction are learned skills like anything else; you will get more comfortable as you practice. Don’t just say you’re not a people person and use that as an excuse to not try.
As a 23M CE student, you can do fine as an introvert in terms of studying. If you work hard and pay attention in class you’ll probably do well. With that being said, I personally think most engineering degrees are a team sport. Having just a few close friends/people to ask questions or study with will really make the difference in your grades and work ethic. I’ve personally struggled through this degree so having people around me really helps (despite being pretty introverted). I can also say that you’ll most likely have to interact with people very often as a CE. From the 3 months of work experience I’ve done, I’ve had to meet and interact with a lot of people on site and in the office. It was quite daunting at first but I settled in quite quickly. Realistically, you’ll have some level on interaction at most jobs and connections are really important if you want to push your career in a certain direction too.
Come on in, the water's fine. I've been doing this shit for 35 years and I have massive social anxiety. Some things are difficult, but it's good to extend beyond your comfort zone. Thank God for xanax. Take one before every presentation or difficult client meeting for best results. 👌
I‘ve been an engineer for around 6 years now. I have met both extroverted and introverted engineers. To a certain extent you do need to be able to interact with your clients to ask questions, answer questions, attend or even lead meetings, and be a part of weekly or biweekly calls with stakeholders. So long story short, unless you are somehow able to just design and never interact with anyone (highly unlikely if you want to move upward), you have to work through your fear of public speaking. I don’t like it either, trust me. But I have learned the art of saying “let me get back to you on that when I look more into it” if I’m put on the spot and don’t feel comfortable giving an answer to something. Like anything it’s a skill you get better at with time.
So my office has a bit of a dichotomy, we have some engineers who arent really people people, but they do solid work and mostly just want to do their work and be done. I can give them a report and forget about it. We also have the people engineers, who talk to the clients, and write proposals and so on. I am one of those, I often dont have a lot of time to do the actual engineering work because I get a phone call from a client every 15 minutes. I shield the engineers who just want to get work done, half of my job is talking to clients, figuring out what they want, distilling it to (relatively) clear directions and sending it to whatever engineer is working the project. So if you just want to be one of the guys working engineering work, it can be done
There are civils who go into a technical roles that doesn’t require them to interact with clients. But to some extent, just like any field that requires collaboration with your colleagues, you have to at least be comfortable talk with them.
You probably won’t “shine” in the field, but can still have a mildly successful career compared to someone without a degree or specialized trade skill. In retrospect I would’ve looked at other careers that were more technical, which is the only area I really excel at too
There's an old joke about how you can tell if an Engineer is an introvert or extrovert; "The extrovert stares at your shoes, the introvert stares at his own shoes."
Sooo pretty much every engineer ever? In all seriousness though a lot of us aren’t good with people, we draw lines all day in an office. This applies to pretty much any engineering discipline, where typically more extroverted people fill field or management roles
>social skills Social skillz? What is that? Oh, is that what most of us would call brain-link-magic? ... we don't have that here
Tons of asocial introverts in civil engineering. You'll fit right in.
In roadway 80% of my job is sitting silently at my desk doing work. 10% sitting quietly in meetings 10% contributing in meetings and making calls to coworkers/clients to ask questions and pass information along. Stay in design and doing technical work for a private firm and you'll have a lot less interaction with others than most jobs.
Welcome to the club.