Nature of Work
Civil Engineering profession is one of the oldest discipline as is evident from the wonders of the world like Pyramids in Egypt or Great wall of China. Civil engineers design and supervise large-scale public work construction projects, such as roads, buildings, tunnels, dams, and bridges. They are responsible for gathering project requirements, testing and evaluating building sites and materials, and managing the overall building process from start to finish.
Essential Skills and Qualities
Civil engineer should have a strong understanding of industry and government standards, requirements, and guidelines. In addition, civil engineers should have strong leadership, decision-making, analytical thinking, technical writing, and communication skills. They must be skilled in math and physics, as well as map reading, reviewing blueprints, design techniques, and computer-aided design (CAD) software.
Work Opportunities
Choosing your first job is a critical decision that sets you on a lifelong career path. There are two high-level paths, and each branches out into more paths as you dive into your civil engineering career.
Project Based Construction :
You usually start off your career working as a site engineer in this path, and you’ll have opportunities to eventually grow into construction management, project planning, quantity surveying, estimation, cost management, risk management, and other project-related fields of expertise.
This line of work usually takes you through construction contracting companies that take on all kinds of building or infrastructure projects be it low-rise construction, medium-rise buildings, skyscrapers, or even roads, water resources, and other civil infrastructure projects.
2. Engineering Design and Consulting :
You can take on a job as a design engineer at a company that specializes in engineering design and consulting, and this job may be in Structural Engineering, Geotechnical Engineering, Transportation Engineering, Water resources Engineering, Environmental Engineering etc.
