What is the average work schedule for someone within the engineering field?

Hi, there are so many factors here, including type of industry, type of engineering, and type of company (for example, startup versus established company). Especially entering the engineering world out of college, I would take the perspective that you're going to work very hard (more than 40 hours per week), and you're going to learn so much, that your efforts continue to be an investment into your career. Ideally, if there is something that is driving you to work 50-60 hours per week, it's something that gets you excited. For example, pushing a new product to market, or helping a customer to launch a product; if you're working for a startup, then long hours and low pay are a tradeoff for the possibility of equity later if the company is successful; then also in this global environment, you may need to be available (for phone calls if not in the office) at odd hours, in order to communicate and collaborate with other parts of the world. I have experienced all of these things, which have made me happy to work odd hours at times, travel away from home, and work at times up to 50-55 hours per week.

If you're entering the engineering discipline thinking that it's important to limit to 40 hours of work per week, then you're limiting yourself. Take note when you find companies where the engineers are motivated, and don't mind going through cycles of heavy work. You can expect to find de-motivated engineers if they are always in the mode of heavy work load and pressure; and the opposite of end of the spectrum, where the work load is light and the hours are low, may also be a warning sign that something in the model isn't efficient, and you might not grow from the experience. I have seen engineers be unprepared for career transitions when they realize that in recent years they have been enjoying an easy work life, but have not been growing or achieving things that will help in the job market.

There reall is no set answer to this question. If you are a lower level employees, perhaps paid at an hourly rate, then you will likely work 40 hours a week. Depending on what sort of engineering you do, that could be a M-F 9-5 type job, or it could be out of hours. If you are a bit higher up the pay scale, you may be working more hours in order to bring projects in on time, or to meet deadlines, or just to handle the sheer amount of administrative work that can be required.

Your work/live also depends on what sort of work you do. When I started, I was with a geotechnical engineering firm. I was a field engineer, on site, to ensure compliance to design and to provide solution if necessary. If a project was working, our company had an engineer on site (if that is what the customer paid for). If they were building an office building, and the developer was in a rush, and he wanted to pay for construction crews to be out there for 14 hours on a Saturday because the weather was good - then we were out there too.

If you look into a field like pipline engineering, mining, deep water drilling, etc, there is a good chance you will have to make many trips away from home. If you look into something like computer engineering, you will most likely travel less, but still may have some long hours when trying to bring in projects.

Something else to conside when applying for a job is to look at where the company's employee base is. I work for a gobal company. Somtimes I have meethings (conference calls) with people in vastly different time zones. That meas that sombody is taking that call at 3 AM sometimes.

You really have to look at the type of engineering you are going into to determine if it will require a lot of job site travel. Then you can begin to look at the actual hours.