During early years, Engineering meant nothing but Civil Engineering. Civil Engineering is not just about site and construction. It is very vast and is applied in a small site to rocket launching stations.
Professions in Civil Engineering includes works such as roads, bridges, canals, dams, airports, sewerage systems, pipelines, structural components of buildings, and railways. The list is huge, but here we will discuss about the major career options in Civil Engineering.
Site Engineer:
This is the place where any Civil Engineer should rightfully be placed first. Without site knowledge, any knowledge you gain as a Civil Engineer will be incomplete. The hardships of the site are very challenging and many people find it difficult. But once you have completed this training, then you can get adapted to any of the streams of Civil Engineering with great confidence. Gaining experience from different types of site like roads, bridges, canals other than buildings will be added advantage. At site level you need to know AutoCad and MS Excel. A site Engineer can be escalated to many levels like Project Manager to General Manager and even to Vice President, or any such advisory post.
Civil Lab Technician:
A Lab technician has to work on the lab at site or any NABL accredited lab. You need to be aware of the various procedures of testing materials and should have a deep knowledge of materials. Lab Technician should always be updated with the new materials introduced and the IS standards. This can be a very interesting field for those who likes to learn constantly and is looking for a stable job, with little to worry. The escalations in position will be very less, especially if you are in site.
Estimation Engineer:
Estimations are very important in Civil Engineering. In fact any work, here, starts with an estimate and ends with an estimate. For example, when a work starts, an estimate is required for tender quantities. And finally when the work ends, the bills are checked against an estimate. So for those who wants to work in office can opt for this type of job. An estimation Engineer can also grow his career to contract management and adorn many managerial posts if he is truly ambitious. Many estimation softwares are available but my personal favourite is MS Excel. Estimation Engineer should also be aware of preparing bar bending schedules and Rate analysis.
Planning Engineer:
In my opinion, the Indian industry of Civil Engineering does not give adequate importance to planning. If you are looking for a job oversees, this is a very good option. Planning and scheduling are very important for economical and timely completion of a project. You should have good knowledge of work breakdown structure, CPM/PERT analysis, Pareto analysis, MS Project/ Primavera. You should also possess good communication skills, contingency planning skills, alerting the management on cost/time overrun etc. The job is very hectic and requires close co-ordination between the site, estimation Engineer, the Management, the client, the contractor and PMC.
Structural Engineer:
The structural design of a structural Engineer who has some site experience will be more practical than a designer with no site experience, and this statement needs no explanation. You have to be well versed in E-tabs, Staad-pro, SAFE, SAP 2000, to name among a few. You can also specialize in various fields of structural Engineering like bridges, concrete/steel, PEB/conventional and the list is huge. Providing structural designs with minimal compensation of Architectural drawings is a true challenge for Structural Engineers.
Geo-technical Engineer:
Geo-technical Engineers are responsible for providing data regarding the subsoil condition and advise the foundation for the structure. The Geo-technical report forms the basis of viability of project and for structural design. Along with strong theoretical knowledge, the more soils, you deal with, the more will be the accuracy of your recommendation of foundation. A specialized discipline in Geo-technical Engineering is Dam Engineering.
Hydraulic Engineer:
Hydraulic engineer is a professional who is responsible for designing hydraulic systems, the control and flow of fluids, especially water and using the fluid mechanics theory and principles to deal with the problems related to storage, collection, transportation, control and regulation of fluids. The hydraulic engineer develops conceptual designs for the various features which interact with water such as spillways and outlet works for dams, culverts for highways, canals and related structures for irrigation projects, and cooling-water facilities for thermal power plants. Hydraulic Engineer generally uses software programs related to hydrologic modeling like AutoCAD, Hy-8 Culvert, Hydraflow, HEC-ResSim & HEC-RAS. This area of civil engineering is intimately related to the design of bridges, dams, channels, canals, and levees.
Environmental Engineer:
Environmental Engineers has to deal with a wide range of science like chemistry, microbiology, hydrology, hydraulics, ecology etc. They provide solutions to water supply, waste water management, solid waste disposal, location and design of STP, water and air pollution etc. They are responsible for preparing and getting approval for the Environmental Impact Assessment report for huge projects. Wide variety of softwares are available for design of water supply and sewers, like water gems and sewer-Cad.
Transportation Engineer:
It involves planning, designing and maintenance of roadways, railways and waterways. Airport terminal planning and runway design also comes under this, but requires specialisation in the area. Main tools are traffic simulation softwares like SUMO, PTM Vissim etc, Planning tools like Primavera and mapping tools like GIS.
Town Planner:
A town planner or Urban planner prepares development plan, existing land use map, Zone plan, prepare development plan and works as Government official or in close co-ordination with Government. Softwares used include GIS (Geographic Information System) for mapping, Autocad for drafting and design, Google Sketchup/Lumen or any similar software for three dimensional visualizations.
Coastal Engineer:
This is a branch of Civil Engineering which do the planning, design, construction and maintenance of coastal structures involves control of shoreline erosion, protection of coastal areas against floods and tsunamis, control of pollution in nearshore water etc. The Engineer has to gain knowledge in oceanography, meteorology, hydrodynamics, soil mechanics, statistics and structural dynamics. Tools include mapping tools like GIS (Qgis), CAD/CAM for modelling, analytical theories of wave motion, currents/sediments (DELFT3D, SWAN etc), structural Mechanics (ROBOT, STRUBAT, TALREN etc).
Valuation Engineer:
A valuation Engineer might be a banks employee, working on their valuation team, or self employed. It mainly includes document analysis, real estate market research, preparing progress reports, valuation of properties and providing load recommendations. How much engineering you want to use in the field is up to you. You can go by the reports submitted to you, or use your analytical skills to check the reports. The job has its own risks and challenges. This is one of the jobs, where can actually see the material connection between estimate, a land deed which are just pieces of paper, and a land.
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