civil

Civil Engineering At Work ‘Site Seeing’

Here’s an opportunity, to do different things you crave while on the move. Civil Engineering, as a professional engineering discipline, gives you an insight into design and planning, construction, supervision, quality control and maintenance of physical and naturally built environment.

So, as a civil engineer, you would be called upon to use your skills to fashion various infrastructure related tasks such as buildings, rail, roads, bridges, highways, tunnels, dams, canals, sea ports, power plants and airports, traffic control, runways, mass transit, transmission towers, industrial plants and more. What’s more, Civil engineering takes place at all stages – in public sector from municipal through to local and national governments, and in the private sector from individual home owners through to international firms.

OVERVIEW
It could have been the construction of the Egyptian pyramids or the Qanat Water Management System, by far the oldest and longest canals in the world. May be the Parthenon by Iktinos in Ancient Greece, the Appan Way by the Romans and the Great Wall of China constructed by General Meng Tien at the instigation of Chin Emperor Shih Huang. Or closer home, the stupas in Ancient Sri Lanka like the Jetavanaramaya, irrigation works in Anuradhapura and Taj Mahal constructed by Emperor Shah Jahan for his beloved wife in the Indian city of Agra. Whatever, the role of played by Civil Engineers in our lives go back to these historic marvels located in various parts of the globe.

Intriguingly, the earliest practice of Civil Engineering as a discipline is presumed to have originated as a result of man’s quest to abandon erstwhile nomadic practices for a more organised and sheltered existence. Later, the term was coined to incorporate everything civilian, to separate it from military engineering then in vogue.

According to Manikandan Lakshmanan, writing in his blog, developing earthworks to serve as fortifications is an example of military engineering, creating earth walls to contain livestock falls under the purview of civil engineering.

The best attempt as demystifying one of the world’s oldest and broadest disciplines is made by the charter of the Institution of Engineers founded in London that defines Civil Engineering as: “the art of directing the great source of power in nature for the use and convenience of a man, as the means of production and of traffic in states, both for external and internal trade, as applied in the construction of roads, bridges, aqueducts, canals, river navigation and docks for internal intercourse and exchange, and in the art of navigation by artificial power for the purpose of commerce, and in the construction and application of machinery, and in the drainage of cities and towns.”

OPPORTUNITIES GALORE
The discipline of Civil Engineering offers tremendous scope for employment to persons with specific skills and abilities and the demand for the professionals are burgeoning day by day depending on the area of specialisation. Just about every infrastructure segment presents excellent opportunities with roads and highways, ports and airports, railways and power are the stand out sectors where staggering sums of investments have gone in. Aside, those keen on academic advancements can still go in for Masters or doctoral degrees that should see them comfortable in the world of research and teaching in India and abroad.

A graduate can look at working as a consultant for some for some of the leading firms or international organisations, or opt to be a job creator than a job seeker by taking the entrepreneurial route. A cursory glance at some of the sub sects of Civil Engineering no doubt gives an impression there is something for everyone.

• Bio Engineering
• Coastal and Ocean Engineering
• Environmental Engineering
• Geotechnical Engineering
• Materials Science Engineering
• Structural Engineering at Nano Scale (Nanotechnology)
• Transportation Engineering
• Water Resources Engineering
• Construction Engineering
• Irrigation Engineering
• Soils and Foundation Engineering
• Hydraulic Engineering
• Earthquake Engineering
• Geophysics
• Geodesy
• Surveying
• Municipal or Urban Engineering
• Earth Science
• Biomechanics
• Atmospheric Sciences
• Forensic Engineering
• Computation Science and Engineering
• Control Engineering

ELIGIBILITY
Any one aspiring to be a civil engineer should have a Bachelors Degree (BE / B Tech) or Post Graduate Degree (ME/MTech/MS) in Civil Engineering. The basic eligibility criteria for a BE / B Tech in Civil Engineering is 10+2 or equivalent examination, with Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics as subjects of study. To qualify for BE/B Tech, marks secured in the final examinations of 10+2 and the performance in entrance examination are evaluated. The entrance examination for the IITs is Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) and All India Engineering/ Architecture Entrance Examination (AIEEE) for other major institutions.

The Associate Membership Examination of the Institute of Engineers (AMIE) enables working people in the private and public sector or diploma holders to acquire a Bachelor’s degree through distance education for career advancement. In addition, some institutions have their own separate entrance examinations.

After graduation as a BE/BTech in Civil Engineering, one can look at ME/MTech/MS in diverse areas of interest.

PAY AND PERKS
As a fresher, just out of college, a civil engineer could be eyeing anything between Rs. 2.5 lakhs to Rs. 4.5 lakhs per annum after graduation. Those who have risen to the middle level rake anything between Rs.6.0 lakhs to 12 lakhs annually, while Project Managers or Senior Civil Engineers easily earn more than Rs. 14.0 lakhs annually.

Aside, a litany of incentives and perks go with the position or job. Salaries with multinational companies are correspondingly higher or if the Civil Engineer branches into niche areas.

CAREER PROSPECTS
A typical career path for Civil Engineers is not different from other branches of engineering. Naturally, those walking out of the gates of their campuses should be willing to undertake tasks that have fewer risks or less responsibility.

As they prove themselves on the job, they are entrusted with jobs that are high on competency and responsibility but less on supervision.

This, however, varies within each of the branches, the nature of the job and the organisation. Supervisory duties, analysis or design interpretations are some of the assignments an apprentice civil engineer begins with before being allowed to embrace complex or specialised roles.