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i don’t know that i fully have the words to describe it yet, but here is my description of the experience of a substantial amount of people who leave the “civil engineering pipeline:
when you’re first thinking about it or first hearing of the profession, you’re told over and over again that it’s engineering in the service of society. a prospective student once told me they were excited about civil because “it’s the most altruistic discipline.”
but then you get to engineering school, and maybe the first year is okay, but by the second you start questioning things. how does what i’m learning ACTUALLY make the world a better place?
and then at least for me once i seriously started learning about the industry, i was nauseated. i asked my professors and professional contacts things like “how do you find a company who aligns with your morals? how do you feel good about what you’re contributing?”
and the answer, overwhelmingly, re-nauseatingly, has been “your job as an engineer is to do what your employer or client asks you to.”
personally, i felt like i’d been lied to, and that i was going through four years of misery for something that didn’t exist. i still feel like that most of the time. if i was at a school where switching majors was an option, i would have done it years ago.
i don’t know what the solution is for this! either we try and make that altruism a reality, which seems... very daunting, or we stop pretending altogether. which feels awful.
