do you actually like your job?
have you had a job prior to your current one that you did not like? what made you stay for as long as you did?
how did you apply for jobs? interning, networking, seek.com, knew someone?
I actually do like my job. I had a fascination for trains since I was small, so to be working in the rail civil industry is a blessing for me.
If your question is if I had a different full time job than in Civil Engineering, then the answer is no. I worked the odd casual part-time job when I was at university, but that's about it.
But within Civil Engineering, I have jumped to different roles in Project Management and Construction. I count that I jumped role at least 4 times now.
My jump also varies from rail and road. That's because it is easier and some hard technical skills are transferable between the two, such as geotech, structural, drainage, etc.
When I was a graduate engineer, I was rotated every 6 months for 3 years. The longest I've stayed in a position outside the graduate position is 20 months. Why I stayed in Civil Engineering for 7 years, well because I'm good at it. Once you finish a simple job, they give you a more complex job. It's a neverending cycle and you get better and better. Plus I have no other desire like to go to Masterchef or something.
For all the roles, I applied for the jobs, went to the interview and got it. Of course I have applied to dozen other roles where I didn't even get an interview. My stats is about 10% success rate in my application. So the moral of the story is to never give up.
I have a friend who got a job from networking, he was part of a soccer team and he played tennis with his teammate dad who owned a small engineering firm. He got a full-time job that way, and he wasn't academically inclined. So networking is actually a big component in getting a job.
