What does a civil engineer do?
Civil engineers generally are involved in the design of public works. These include large buildings, roads, bridges, water distribution systems, dams, sewage treatment plants, and flood protection systems, such as levees and seawalls. Within the Civil Engineering field there are many specialties, such as structural engineers, geotechnical engineers, hydraulic engineers, and environmental engineers. What Civil engineers, and most other engineers do is develop drawings and plans for things. If you want to build a large office building you will need a number of engineers with different specialties. The structural engineer designs the structure, doing calculations to make sure it will stand up to the wind loads, live loads, and earthquake loads, and other loads. Then he selects the sizes and shapes for all the structural components, and makes drawings showing how everything is to be put together. The foundation engineer investigates the ground conditions, and designs the foundations for the structure, doing similar calculations and making drawings. The mechanical engineer designs the heating, ventilation and air conditioning system (HVAC), The electrical engineer designs the electrical system, and the hydraulic engineer designs the water distribution and sewage collection system. They all work together with the architect and the builder to get the job done. Many drawings are required, along with specifications of the types of materials to be used. The drawings are then released to building contractors who buy the materials and build the building. Many different specialized contractors are also required for a large building.
Is civil engineering fun?
Civil engineering is a way of life.One of the most challenging aspects of Civil engineering is the fact that you need vasts amount of patience and experience to start harnessing its true rewards. Until then, you need to look, ask and listen until you have mastered your speciality. Never be ashamed to ask the stupidest question of all. There are no stupid questions but only bad mentors.Another thing is that Civil Engineering has a very broad spectrum therefore you need to decide at an early stage same way as doctors where you want to specialise. If design is your thing then go after it but if application and construction fascinates you then join a contractor and chase after your dream.Important things to know -Civil engineering is a team work. Socialise and join as many groups as possible. A good engineer is a social one.Civil engineering is all about experience. Unfortunately contrary to accounting there are no strict sets of rules that will ultimately solve all problems for you.Civil engineering is all about preparing for the unexpected. When the planes hit the twin towers I was watching it on TV. Me and my collegues immediately knew that all these people had an hour or an hour and a half before those towers collapsed knowing that structural steel had 1 hr design tolerance to fire. It was indeed frightening to have predicted quite accurately the fate of all these people. May their souls rest in peace.Civil Engineering is all about planning. An important element of your work would be to learn to plan ahead and prepare. Plan and Prepare. You learn that and you are almost half way.
Why do you want to be a Civil Engineer? Is it because of money ?
The satisfaction of having helped make the world better. Building that water treatment plant, or designing that sewer system, or building that hydro-electric dam, and so on. Also, the glory of having designed and built that bridge, or that dam, or that building. Civil engineers make a relatively permanent and lasting product that we can see and touch. A new drug that we just made isn't something that we can walk on, or feel. A better computer chip isn't something that we can hold. Each will be made in huge quantities and distributed far and wide and will never be seen by their designers again. These are both worthy and noble undertakings, but civil engineers like stone, and soil, and steel, and concrete. So the satisfaction of the finished product plays a large role. The other attractive part of civil engineering is the application of physics and mathematics in a practical way. Moreover, the math and physics can often be employed outside, beyond the confines of the flourescent light of the office building. That is why.
Why do you regret being a civil engineer?
This is quite a sensitive subject to me.I studied at engineering school for 5 years (bacherol + masters), where i specialized in Structural Engineering. Afterwards I successfully worked for several years as structural engineer. I often designed structures of buildings and bridges.At some point I went back to college to study finance and changed career.I will try to be the most honest and straightforward to you.Civil engineering is a huge heart breaking disappointment.This might change from country to country, person to person, but this is my view.Civil engineering is among the less profissionally recognition engineerings. It is quite often to come across people that will simple say something like: “so, you work in construction putting brick together”. Even though you create considerably complex 3D models.Civil engineering is among the most underpaid engineerings. Comparing the paycheck among civil and some other hightech fields is just depressing. Nevertheless, you could get a considerably amount if you work in construction sites in the polar artic, south america and africa. However these higher wages are a reflection of being abroad in not so desirable countries.Civil engineering is all about running after deadlines. Many clients will not give a damn about the huge amount of work you have to do to make it happen. Be prepare to embrace huge doses of stress with little or no reward at all.Civil engineering is always seen as an architecture shadow . People will always recognize only the architect and severely despise all the engineers that contribute to the construction creation. Many times the ratio is 1 architec for 20 or 30 engineers. It doesn’t matter. The architect takes it all.Civil engineering upgrades at a very slow pace. A former college collegue once said: “it feels like if everything we use here was invented 100 years ago”. Well, I have to agree with him.There are many other reason to not choose this field.Good luck.
Petroleum Engineer vs. Civil Engineer?
I am glad I found this question. I'm actually a Civil Engineering graduate and I think I know the cons and pros of the fields pretty well now. Something really general, a simple rule of thumb in engineering is if you can work hard and get good grades you can get hired in a good company and you will be paid good money. As simple as that, engineering is really about the effort you put in, I actually got an interview with an oil field services company for next week and my major had nothing to do with oil, gas, or even petroleum. Generally though, petroleum engineers are more in demand, despite your grade. Civil engineers need grades and connections to land a good job in a design office or the field, mostly the field though. I know some of my friends got in the petroleum industry with very little grades and that's surprising. With petroleum engineering, you can get to travel around the world as your career progresses, you will work in harsh environments and you will know a lot about the industry. Whereas, a civil engineer is such a general term starting from the word civil, you can work in any of over a 100 fields, environment, bridges, roads, dams, buildings, wells, canals, hydraulics, programming, earthquake effects (seismic engineers), winds analysis (wind engineers), water treatment, sewage treatment, water supplies, irrigation, etc...it is very vast. So your BA in Civil Engineering will not be as special as a BA in Petroleum Engineering. If you specialize and get at MA in Civil Engineering maybe you will have a bit more value because you will be considered as a "Master" or specialist in that department. But as an advice, I would basically tell you to choose what you like... and then work your *** off in college, get that 4.0 GPA, it's engineering so your work will not go unrewarded.