I’ve worked in state government for 2 years now as an environmental engineer doing permit reviews for drinking water systems. I enjoy what I do but the pay isn’t really that great. Luckily, the restaurant I worked at throughout college has let me continue serving once a week. Considering I have to work 6 days a week between 2 jobs, I’m really not too concerned with the increase in work load that moving into the private sector would cause. I don’t have any design experience and I was curious if anyone went through a similar experience trying to get into the private sector?
My concern is also that my opportunities in the future will become severely limited if I stay in state government for longer than another 2 years. I’ve heard this not only from my own research but also directly from my manager. I currently have my EIT and have another 1.5 years or so until I can apply for my PE. I’m hoping to leverage my regulatory experience in lieu of design experience to not start out at minimum pay. I don’t want a position that’s full design work so ideally, it’d be a position that still has some regulatory qualities to it (preparing permit applications while also learning design on the side). Again, that’d be ideal but I’m really open to anything. Any advice or what you experienced in the industry would be appreciated!