In the late 1980’s I met an alumnus of my college who had been a civil engineering major, one of the toughest majors in the school.
Circumstances had taken him away from C.E. related work for seven years, which according to him was enough to make his technical knowledge obsolete & now he was forced to sell real estate for a living.
I would have flunked out of C.E. in a heartbeat. These were the guys who wore their K&E slipsticks in holsters and were terribly intelligent & I mean that sincerely.
Oh please... Civil engineering was the EASIEST! All those people do is push dirt around. Try Chemical Engineering.
I took a CIvil E course as an elective and made an A, just by knowing how to convert units. :-)
“their K&E slipsticks”
I had one of those! Still have it.
Then there were the Frieden and Marchant calculators.
I think if a youngster saw a Frieden do a square root they’d fall out of their chair.