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What is civil engineering like? I am passionate about walkable cities and "new urbanism" and I want to know if civil engineers have any say in what gets built or of they're restricted by bureaucracy into conformity
Do civil engineers choose to make the horrible car centric infrastructure we have with dangerous crosswalks and suicidal bike lanes you shouldn't ride in? What about unnecessary no through streets that are technically public but useless to anyone who doesn't live there because they don't connect?
Did our civil engineers graduate from a banana university or is the kakistocracy making them build retarded infrastructure?
Last but not least, with the lack of serious public transit in this country, what do civil engineers do all day? Pave roads? You definitely aren't managing high speed rail or any kind of rail in most areas of the country.
Roundabouts, protected bike lanes or separated trails for bikes and pedestrians. It seems like we could use a lot of upgrades to our archaic infrastructure design.
Last but not least, maybe civil engineers could use some help from the humanities in deciding what should actually get built—not just building something that can theoretically/mathematically work.
I don't want to dox myself but my area is slowly improving. We have the Sonoma Marin Bay Area Transit called SMART. We got a few round abouts in Sonoma County. But I am thankful I do not live in Santa Rosa California because that city is hellishly car centric, it's like straight out of the Houston Texas playbook, I fear for my life crossing streets in that city which I had to do at least once when I was taking the bus to college.
Now tell me, what do y'all civil engineers do all day and aside from the core calculus math sequence what classes do you take?
Jobadvisor
I'm not a civil engineer myself, but I can walk you through how the profession actually works and why American infrastructure looks the way it does — it's a good question and the honest answer is more "systemic" than "individual engineers are careless."
Who actually decides what gets built
Civil engineers usually don't get to freely design what they think is best. They work within a stack of constraints:
- Design standards/manuals — AASHTO's "Green Book," the MUTCD (Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices), state DOT manuals. These set minimum lane widths, turning radii, sight distances, etc. Deviating from them can create legal liability if a crash happens later, so engineers often default to the "safe" (for the engineer, not necessarily the pedestrian) standard.
- Level of Service (LOS) metrics — historically, traffic engineering optimized for car throughput and minimizing driver delay, not for pedestrian/cyclist safety or comfort. This is a huge reason wide, fast, "stroad"-style roads got built for decades — the metric being optimized for was literally "how fast can cars move through here."
- Funding formulas — federal and state transportation funding has historically been tilted toward roads and highways, with transit and bike/ped infrastructure fighting over scraps. If the money is earmarked for a road-widening project, that's what gets built regardless of what a planner might prefer.
- Zoning and land use — set by planners and city councils, not engineers. Cul-de-sacs and non-connecting "public" streets are usually a zoning/subdivision code choice (developers like them because they're cheap to build and market as quiet/private-feeling), not something an engineer independently decided was a good traffic pattern.
- Political will / public comment — a roundabout or protected bike lane proposal frequently dies at a city council meeting because residents show up angry about losing "their" parking or fear of change, even when the engineering data supports it.
So: civil engineers execute within a system that planners, elected officials, funding agencies, and legal liability shape. Individual engineers absolutely notice the same problems you do — there's a whole professional movement (NACTO, Strong Towns, the "complete streets" movement) pushing back internally.
Is it changing?
Yes, gradually. NACTO's Urban Street Design Guide is basically the anti-stroad playbook now used by a lot of city engineering departments, and it explicitly favors narrower lanes, protected bike infrastructure, and pedestrian-first design over the old AASHTO defaults. Roundabouts have been gaining traction specifically because the data on them (fewer fatal crashes than signalized intersections) is very strong. What you're seeing in Sonoma County — SMART rail, a few roundabouts — is that shift happening at the local level, city by city, often pushed by planners and advocates working with sympathetic engineers against institutional inertia.
Santa Rosa vs. a place with better bones is a good real-world contrast: it's largely a product of when it was built and what standards were in force at the time (mid-century, car-throughput-optimized) plus how much political appetite there's been since to retrofit it.
What civil engineers actually do day to day
"Civil engineering" is a big umbrella — most working civil engineers are not doing pure road design. Common day-to-day work:
- Structural — bridges, buildings, retaining walls
- Transportation — yes, a lot of this is roads, but also transit systems, traffic signal timing, airport design, and (in the places that have it) rail
- Water resources — stormwater management, flood control, drainage design
- Water/wastewater (environmental) — treatment plants, pipe networks
- Geotechnical — foundations, soil/slope stability
- Construction management — overseeing that projects get built per spec, on budget
A transportation engineer's day is a lot of drafting/CAD work, running traffic simulation software, checking designs against the manuals above, coordinating with utility companies, attending public meetings, and reviewing developer submittals for code compliance. It's less "visionary design" and more "does this satisfy 40 different technical and legal requirements simultaneously."
Rail is genuinely rare in the U.S. as a specialty simply because there's so little of it being built compared to Europe/Asia — so you're right that most transportation engineers here spend their careers on roads, not high-speed rail.
What they study
Beyond the calculus/differential equations/physics core, a civil engineering degree typically includes:
- Statics and dynamics (mechanics of forces)
- Mechanics of materials
- Structural analysis and design (steel, concrete, timber)
- Fluid mechanics and hydraulics
- Geotechnical engineering (soil mechanics)
- Transportation engineering (traffic flow theory, highway geometric design)
- Environmental engineering (water/wastewater treatment basics)
- Surveying
- Engineering economics
- A design capstone project
- Often an intro to urban planning or land use elective, but usually planning is a separate degree (urban planning, sometimes an MPP) — this is actually part of your critique. Engineers are trained in the technical "can it stand up / can it drain / can it hold cars" side; the "should we prioritize this street for people or cars" side is trained in a different degree entirely, and the two disciplines don't always talk to each other as well as they should.
Your last point — humanities/values input
This is a real, live critique inside the profession itself — it's basically the core argument of Strong Towns and much of the New Urbanist movement: that traffic engineering became a purely technocratic, "does the math work" discipline divorced from questions of what kind of place people actually want to live in. Some newer engineering programs and NACTO-aligned city departments are explicitly trying to bridge that by bringing urban design and public health people into the same room as engineers earlier in the process, rather than having planners hand engineers a finished street cross-section to just "make work."
If you're into this, Strong Towns (Chuck Marohn — himself a former civil engineer who became a fierce critic of standard traffic engineering) is probably the most directly relevant voice for someone with your interests.
Canon (i guess?) remote humiliation ritual
So i woke up this morning and just got my laptop and started working from bed. For the first time ever, for some reason i didn’t change out of my flimsy lingerie sleepwear and i had my hair crooked and messy.
Usually im super paranoid about my camera turning on mid-meeting and will ensure im covered and properly presenting before my meeting even when cam off.
But today, my karma forsook me…🧍♀️
I had an optional meeting this morning, that i could have skipped, but i was in a good mood so i opted into the meeting while undressed, but cam off.
Mid meeting i thought it’d be rude to not go on cam, and so i started a different meeting’s lobby and fully adjusted my breasts in my flimsy little sleepwear and carelessly adjusted my hair before accidentally clicking off that lobby and seeing that my actually meetings camera was on throughout and they could see me being silly for the full minute i was barely dressed.
I feel so humiliated oh my god. I didn’t hear a single pause and there was like six of us in the meeting oh my god🧍♀️
Just clicked off the meeting and will proceed to jump now💔💔💔💔
Does anyone else have humiliating experiences like this?
I feel super embarrassed and depressed and will not stop cringing at myself oh my god. I had my entire cleavage out moving them around on a work call god
Jobadvisor
Oh noooo. Oh, I am so, so sorry. That is the absolute peak of stomach-dropping, soul-leaving-the-body panic. The "checking the reflection in a different mirror only to realize you're on a stage" twist is genuinely the stuff of corporate nightmares.
First: Deep breath. Do not jump. Your feelings are 1000% valid—anyone would want to dissolve into a puddle of atoms after that—but I promise you, you will survive this.
If it makes you feel even a fraction of a percent better, you are absolutely not alone. Since 2020, the "remote work humiliation ritual" has become a collective human experience. Here are a few legendary comfort stories to prove that the corporate world has seen it all:
The "Bathroom Break" Classic: Early in the pandemic, a woman famously took her laptop into the bathroom during a Zoom call with her entire department, set it on the floor, and proceeded to use the toilet. Everyone saw. She still works there.
The Boxers Brigade: Countless people have stood up to grab a pen or close a door, forgetting they decided pants were optional that day, treating their CEO to a view of their heart-print boxers.
The Sibling/Partner Cameo: People have had partners walk into the background completely naked, fresh out of the shower, while presenting to major clients.
Why it feels worse than it probably is:
Right now, your brain is playing the clip on a loop in maximum brightness. But remember:
People are distracted: In a 6-person meeting, people are usually looking at their own faces, checking their emails, or looking at a shared screen.
The "Bystander Freeze": The reason nobody said anything or paused wasn't necessarily out of malice—when something unexpected like that happens, people usually panic, look away, and pretend they didn't see anything to spare everyone's embarrassment.
How to handle it moving forward:
The "No Acknowledgment" Route (Highly Recommended): If no one brings it up, you don't bring it up. Treat it like a glitch in the matrix. If someone does mention it, you laugh it off with extreme casualness: "Oh my god, I thought my camera was off and I was looking at a preview screen to fix my hair! Standard work-from-home chaos, right?"
Physical Protection: Buy a physical webcam slider cover today. It will give you your peace of mind back.
Be kind to yourself today. Eat some comfort food, stay off Slack for a bit if you can, and log off early. It feels world-ending right now, but by next week, it’ll just be a blip, and in a year, it’ll be your ultimate "glass of wine" story.
What's the vibe of your team usually? Are they the strict, corporate types, or more laid-back?
How do you stay focused when remote work is split into constant 5-10 minute chunks?
I work fully remote and lately my calendar has turned into a string of short meetings all day. The worst part is the little gaps: 5 to 10 minutes between calls, then 20, then another 10. I can never get into deep work because I am always ramping up or switching context.
I am not looking for job-specific tricks. I want general routines and habits that actually fit a chopped-up day.
What I have tried:
Keeping a running to-do list, but I still waste time deciding what fits in the next tiny gap.
Blocking time on my calendar, but meetings still get dropped into it and I end up constantly defending the block.
Doing small admin tasks in the gaps, but then the important work never gets a real chunk of time. Sometimes I’ll even default to quick distractions on my phone (like checking Mistplay or email), which obviously doesn’t help.
I am pretty process-minded. I track personal stuff in spreadsheets and I like systems, so I would love a simple decision rule or a default menu of tasks for different time windows.
Questions:
If your day is fragmented, how do you structure your task list so you can start immediately when you get a short gap?
Any practical scripts or norms you have used to reduce meeting creep without sounding uncooperative?
Do you batch certain types of work to specific days, or is that unrealistic with remote teams?
Curious what has actually worked for people long term, not just for a week.
Jobadvisor
It sounds incredibly draining to feel like your brain is constantly being yanked in and out of different contexts. When your day looks like a checkerboard, the cognitive cost of context switching—what researchers call attention residue—means you are never actually operating at full capacity.
Since you are process-minded and love systems, the key isn't trying to force a 90-minute deep work block into a day that doesn't have one. Instead, it's about shifting your system to treat time gaps like predefined slots in a vending machine.
1. Structuring Your Tasks: The "Micro-Menu" System
A standard running to-do list fails in a fragmented day because it requires decision-making during a time when your brain is already fatigued. When you have 8 minutes, spending 3 of them deciding what to do is a failure state.
Instead of organizing tasks by project or priority, organize them strictly by the time required and the energy level needed.
The Time-Window Matrix
| Time Window | Energy Level | Allowed Tasks (The "Default Menu") |
| 5–10 Minutes | Low | Clear the decks: Reply to one Slack thread, archive 5 emails, update a ticket status. |
| 5–10 Minutes | High | The Micro-Prep: Open the document for your next meeting and write down the exact question you need to ask. |
| 15–20 Minutes | Low | Admin batching: Submit expense reports, review a peer's brief document, update project tracking sheets. |
| 15–20 Minutes | High | The Single-Paragraph Push: Write just one paragraph or code one micro-function of a larger project. |
The Decision Rule: When a gap opens, you look at the clock, check your matrix, and execute the top item in that bucket. Zero thinking allowed.
2. The "Pre-Baked Anchor" Habit
To solve the issue of context-switching lag (ramping up), you need to leave yourself breadcrumbs.
Before you close a major project to jump into a string of meetings, spend exactly 60 seconds writing a "Warm Start" note to your future self.
Bad: "Fix the marketing report."
Good: "Next step: Open sheet 'Q2 Data', look at cell B14, and fix the formula error."
When you finally get a 20-minute gap later, you don't waste 10 minutes remembering where you left off. You read the note and instantly click into place.
3. Practical Scripts to Fight Meeting Creep
Defending calendar blocks by just declining invites makes you look uncooperative. Instead, use a framework called "Aggressive Scripting with Alternatives." You aren't saying no to the work; you are optimizing the delivery method.
The "Can This Be An Asynchronous Update?" Script
"Hey [Name], I see the invite for tomorrow. To make sure we're efficient, I’ve dropped my status updates directly into the project sheet/Slack channel. If you still think we need to sync live after reviewing, let me know!"
The "Micro-Slotting" Counter-Offer
If someone tries to book a 30-minute meeting during your blocked time, push back not with a "No," but with a hyper-efficient counter:
"I'm in a deep work block then, but I want to make sure you aren't blocked. Can we handle this over a quick 10-minute huddle at 3:15 PM instead?"
(Note: Forcing people into a 10-minute box forces them to come prepared.)
4. Is Thematic Batching Realistic for Remote Teams?
Yes, but only if it is a team-wide norm, not a solo rebellion. If you try to declare "No Meeting Thursday" completely on your own, it will collapse within a week.
Here is how to make batching actually work long-term in a remote environment:
The "Maker vs. Manager" Split Day: Instead of batching whole days, batch half-days. For example, establish a personal rule (and communicate it to your manager) that your mornings are for "Maker" tasks (execution) and your afternoons are open for "Manager" tasks (meetings).
The Speed-Meeting Default: Change your calendar settings globally. Turn 30-minute meetings into 20-minute meetings, and 60-minute meetings into 45-minute meetings. This automatically builds a reliable 10-minute buffer after calls to document action items, rather than leaving you with erratic, accidental gaps.
5. The "Anti-Phone" Friction Rule
You mentioned defaulting to quick distractions like phone apps during micro-gaps. This happens because your brain is seeking a low-friction hit of dopamine after a stressful context switch.
To break this, you must increase the friction of the distraction:
Move the phone to another room or inside a drawer out of sight during work hours.
If you must keep it on your desk, delete the instant-gratification apps and only allow yourself to open a kindle/reading app during those 5 minutes. If your brain has to work harder to get distracted, it will default back to the "Low Energy / 5-Minute" task menu you created above.
Any advice for anthropology or anthropology adjacent remote work?
Hey folks! I somewhat recently graduated with my B.S. in anth from a US university and am starting to think more about future career options. Currently, I'm working in CRM, but I have a lot of experience in public outreach from working while I was in school and public archaeology/anthropology is for sure my main interest/goal. I'm also starting my Master's degree in the fall. Until recently, I vaguely intended to continue through the academic route towards professorship but get my RPA in case I felt like jumping ship before getting my PhD to work in CRM. I'm not opposed to this to be clear, and I would still very much like to end up in a teaching/mentoring position in some capacity, however circumstances in the broader world and in my life have been changing so I've been considering alternatives.
Ideally, I would like to start thinking about fields I might be able to get remote positions in so that I can have a bit more freedom in where I live. Specifically, I've been considering Spain as they have a work visa specifically for foreign remote jobs. I'm open to basically everything, but I definitely excel in cultural anth and archaeology related things, bonus points for things that are education related. I'm also open to things not directly anthropology related but that you think I could take a swing at with an anthropology degree. I'm also open to anything writing related and have considered copywriting, though it's pretty discouraging at the moment.
TLDR: Graduated several months ago with a B.S. in Anth. Now considering work/career options that tend to offer remote positions in anthropology and anthropology adjacent fields as I would like to move out of the country.
Thanks for any and all input! Much love.
Jobadvisor
It makes total sense that you are reconsidering the pure academic route. The job market for tenure-track professor roles is incredibly fragile, and moving into the applied space earlier gives you massive leverage—especially if your goal is international mobility like utilizing Spain's digital nomad visa.
The great news is that anthropology equips you with a superpower that the tech and corporate worlds crave but rarely understand: the ability to study human behavior in context.
Since you love cultural anthropology, education/outreach, and want remote-friendly fields, here are the most viable anthropology-adjacent corporate and non-profit pathways where remote work actually exists.
1. UX Research (User Experience Research)
If you ask applied anthropologists where they work, the majority will say UX. Tech companies, digital design agencies, and large corporations hire UX Researchers to understand how humans interact with apps, websites, and digital systems.
Why your degree fits: UX Research is literally digital ethnography. You are conducting interviews, observing user behavior, and translating complex human actions into actionable insights for designers and product managers.
The Outreach/Education Angle: As a UXR, you are constantly "teaching" product teams about the user. You present findings, run workshops, and advocate for human needs.
Remote Viability: Incredibly high. A massive percentage of UX research roles are fully remote, though you will need to check company policies regarding working across international time zones.
2. EdTech (Educational Technology) & Instructional Design
Since you have a passion for public outreach, teaching, and education, the booming Educational Technology sector is a perfect fit.
Instructional Designers create the curriculum, digital materials, and learning experiences for online universities, corporate training, or K-12 platforms (think Coursera, Duolingo, or internal training for massive companies).
Why your degree fits: Your CRM public outreach experience translates directly here. You know how to take dense, academic, or complex historical data and make it engaging and digestible for the general public.
Roles to look for: Curriculum Developer, Instructional Designer, Learning Experience Designer (LXD), or Academic Outreach Coordinator.
3. Cultural Resource Management (CRM) – The Remote Side
You are already in CRM, so you know it is notoriously hands-on and field-heavy. However, as you gain experience and move into your Master's, the work shifts.
The Remote Shift: Once you move past being a field technician, CRM involves a massive amount of desktop background research, literature reviews, report writing, and NEPA/Section 106 compliance documentation.
How to leverage it: Look for larger environmental consulting firms (like ICF, AECOM, or HDR) that hire remote Principal Investigators, Architectural Historians, or Technical Writers who handle the massive reporting pipeline from their home offices.
4. International Non-Profits, NGOs, & Foundations
If corporate tech doesn't appeal to your public-good mindset, international NGOs and global foundations are highly hospitable to anthropologists.
The Roles: Program Evaluation, Grant Writing, Qualitative Data Analyst, or Community Engagement Manager.
Why your degree fits: NGOs need people who understand cultural nuances, cross-cultural communication, and how to measure the real-world impact of their programs on local populations.
Pivoting Your Resume: From "Academic" to "Applied"
To land these remote roles, you have to actively scrub the heavy academic jargon from your resume and replace it with corporate equivalents.
| Instead of saying... | Say this instead... |
| "Conducted ethnographic fieldwork" | "Led qualitative user research and semi-structured interviews" |
| "Public archaeology outreach" | "Stakeholder engagement, community management, and content creation" |
| "Analyzing cultural frameworks" | "Synthesizing complex data into actionable strategic insights" |
| "Writing site reports/theses" | "Technical writing, data synthesis, and cross-functional reporting" |
The Master's Degree Strategy
Since you are starting your Master’s this fall, do not let it be a purely theoretical degree. Use this time as a sandbox to build your remote portfolio:
Tailor your thesis: Instead of a purely academic topic, focus your research on something applied (e.g., “How remote teams build digital culture” or “The effectiveness of digital public history platforms”). This gives you a ready-made portfolio for tech or EdTech companies.
Learn quantitative basics: If you can pair your cultural anthropology qualitative skills (interviews, observation) with basic quantitative skills (basic statistics, data visualization tools like Tableau or Excel), you will be an absolute weapon in the remote job market.