OT Civil engineers
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Hi,
Atm im doing mechanical engineering at uni, and mainly having problems with the physics type stuff, just cant seem to get the hang of it.
Im thinking of swapping to civil engineering, it all seems a bit more solid and more logical.
My question is, what type of stuff does a civil engineer do?
Im interested in the materials side of thing (metallurgy and materials testing would be a great job) and the testing and diagnosis stuff.
How much of civil is things like that?
Not sure how things relate on the other side of the world but opinions are always helpful.
Thanks for the help,
Joe

In boost we trust

it really depends which area of civils you choose to go into I'd say mate.....

If you go into contracting, in the UK, the job involves a large amount of surveying and setting out for construction, and the rest is mainly a manangement and co ordination type roll, issuing permits for various activities, planning works, calculating quantities, and the main one, is solving problems in the quickest, cheapest, and safest way as and when they arrise on site.
THe best thing about it is that you get to be out on site most of the day, and you're always working with new and differnt people. Come winter, that's also the worst bit about it!

Consultancy on the other hand, is all about the design / maintanence of a civils projectm,
Companies like Mott MacDonnald are employed (often directly by the contractor) to design a project, so on a major civils job, there is a huge amount of knowledge required, so you tend to get different people doing many different roles, so there is more scope to specialise in a specific area.

I'd say of all the people on my course, the more accademic guys (and girls) went onto consultancy, and the more practical people went into contracting

Mr. Prawn, the friendly Crustacean- slowly making steps towards forced induction.

What's the differance between a tomato and a Civil Engineer?









A tomato isn't a real vegatable, haha.

A joke that was banded around my electronics degree.

Having worked with Civil engineers for the last 6 months or so I would concur with the above.

If you are interested in materials and metallurgy then there are specific courses/degrees for this.

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You need to ask yourself what job you want to be doing 20 years time.

I have Mechanical Engineering qualifications but work in a predominanly Civil Engineering based industry.

It depends on what you want to do, but I can asure you that there is still a lot of maths and physics involved in Civil Engineering.

Civil Engineering is a wide field, but my perception is that in the UK they mainly work for public authorities or the larger utility and infrastructure companies.

Ask you self what you enjoyed more as a kid: taking old tellies apart or building sand castles on the beach

Saul Bellow - "A great deal of intelligence can be invested in ignorance when the need for illusion is deep."
Stephen Hawking - "The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge."

When i was little i always brought rocks home from everywhere. Ive had a look into geotech, just analysing the different soils and rocks and saying what you can build where.

Theres another uni in brisbane that offers a course in chemical and metallurgy engineering. But every semester has a maths unit. Too many decisions.

In boost we trust

Have a look at Hydrogeology.

As the world runs out of drinking water, then these guys are going to be in heavy demand. There is already a shortage in the UK.

Saul Bellow - "A great deal of intelligence can be invested in ignorance when the need for illusion is deep."
Stephen Hawking - "The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge."

Dont be afraid of maths whatever you decide to do in engineering it is a core requirement. The more time you invest in understanding it, the easier you will make everything for yourself.

I am a civil engineer in the petroleum industry in Norway.

to be a civil engineer/master of science in Norway there is loads of math. just can not avoid it.

We have several hydrogeologists hired for doing petroleum geology stuff instead as it is generally better paid.

As has been mentioned above, I don't think you'll get away from maths which ever discipline you follow!

(Got a week of higher maths in a couple of weeks time - Fourier series, Laplace tansformation, poles & zeros......hope the teachers good - she'll be earning her money that week!)