Hey CE Hunter...I agree with you...sort of.  I see signing bonuses as a given at the VP level and above.  Now, civil engineers are always in high demand and there is definitely a shortage, but when you are talking about signing bonuses at the Department Head level and below, it really all depends on the area of specialization.  These days for instance, you won't see any signing bonuses for land development engineers - there seem to be enough to go around these days, and with the real estate market in the duldrums, there are unfortunately many good land development engineers out on the streets.  Now, there is a strong demand across the country for water/wastewater engineers and other environmental engineers...so, where there is a strong demand, there are signing bonuses.  It was about seven or eight years ago when all motors were running in civil engineering and even Cad Tech's were getting signing bonuses of a couple grand !!!!  From time to time I deal with engineers who still believe they are living back in the late 90's and they try to negotiate a signing bonus.  So, the long and short of it is, yes, there are a lot of signing bonuses flying around out there-if you fall in an area of specialization w/i CE that is hot...that's my two cents.