For as long as I worked there, the company was split into analysis (they just do etabs models and design shearwalls and linkbeams) and design (they just do columns, slabs, beams, foundations).
Very few people in the office had the privilege to understand and do both. In the end, if you stay for too long you'd be stuck knowing only gravity design or only lateral design. All the drafting is also done by a separate department. So you never develop the real skills of a proper engineer. That is: being able to design the whole building and to draft it yourself. (That I guess should be the goal of a structural engineer right?)
Also analysis engineers are given very little exposure to clients etc. so they become sort of hens in the cage that lay etabs models instead of eggs. I liked to call their system - assembly line, rather than an engineering office.
Also, hours are crazy! If I left at 8pm I felt lucky! I understand bankers and lawyers work even longer hours. But they are also paid 4 times as much!
