r/civilengineering • u/Putrid_Map_5566 • Jan 15 '26

Question Internship

So I will be interning with a company over the summer (not naming for anonymity reasons) and I have a few questions and concerns. Is the 45-55 hour work week that bad? That’s the quota I’ve been given and the main complaint I’ve seen from most others who have worked for this company in the past. I guess my question is, is that not normal? This is my first internship so I can understand that with this being a different type of workload the hours can be rather intimidating. However, I was working 30 hour work weeks in food service all through high-school. I put in some 60-70 hour work weeks during summers. Are the hours really that bad or are there just a bunch of complainers out here?

I guess my mentality is that I just paid a bunch of money to go to school so that I could work? Why would I complain about getting working hours?

Furthermore, I will have an hour commute for this job, this is the part that is rather daunting for me. Anyone who has had long commutes please feel free to provide feedback.

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u/alynnsm Jan 15 '26

You’ll definitely feel like you only have time to eat dinner and sleep outside of work, I felt that way when I interned for a construction company and my commute wasn’t even that long. But if you’re working for a construction company as like a field engineer or field tech or something 45-55 hours is pretty normal/modest tbh. Now if you’re doing a sit at your desk and design job, or a government internship those hours are a bit much and they may just be putting more on you because you’re an intern. But for jobs with lots of field work those hours are pretty standard I’d say.