Top Job Thursday

Civil Engineer

Civil engineering is a professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including works like bridges, roads, canals, dams, and buildings. Civil engineering is the oldest engineering discipline after military engineering, and it was defined to distinguish non-military engineering from military engineering. It is traditionally broken into several sub-disciplines including environmental engineering, geotechnical engineering, structural engineering, transportation engineering, municipal or urban engineering, water resources engineering, materials engineering, coastal engineering, surveying, and construction engineering. Civil engineering takes place on all levels: in the public sector from municipal through to national governments, and in the private sector from individual homeowners through to international companies.

Careers
There is no one typical career path for civil engineers. Most people who graduate with civil engineering degrees start with jobs that require a low level of responsibility, and as the new engineers prove their competence, they are trusted with tasks that have larger consequences and require a higher level of responsibility. However, within each branch of civil engineering career path options vary. In some fields and firms, entry-level engineers are put to work primarily monitoring construction in the field, serving as the "eyes and ears" of senior design engineers; while in other areas, entry-level engineers perform the more routine tasks of analysis or design and interpretation. Experienced engineers generally do more complex analysis or design work, or management of more complex design projects, or management of other engineers, or into specialized consulting, including forensic engineering.

Civil Engineering Offers a Flexible, Well-Rewarded and Diverse Career With The Chance to Work and Travel All Over The World.
Our society would not work without civil engineering. Infrastructure supports our daily life – roads and harbours, railways and airports, hospitals, sports stadiums and schools, access to drinking water and shelter from the weather. Because it works, we take it for granted. Only when parts of it fail, or are taken away, do we realise its value.

Today, civilisation relies more than ever on teams of inventive people to design, build and maintain the sophisticated environment that surrounds us. People who find they are drawn to civil engineering as a career look to find challenge, self-expression, achievement and personal reward through their work. If you would like to combine your technical knowledge and creative flair to solve problems, civil engineering is an excellent career choice.

Have a Say in What the World Will Look Like
How many jobs affect how our environment looks and works? For many civil engineers, it is the way they can change our surroundings and improve the lives of millions of people that draws them to the profession. They see whole projects through each stage from feasibility to design and implementation.

Help the Developing World
For civil engineers, solving infrastructure problems in the developing world is just as demanding – and rewarding – as solving problems in the developed world.

They are needed after earthquakes, during droughts and at times of war, to help the local population rebuild or maintain the conditions that will keep them alive. If you have a real sense of adventure and a commitment to help those in the greatest need, you could join RedR, an organisation that sends volunteers to disaster areas all over the world.

Job Satisfaction
The major highlight for most civil engineers is the satisfaction of seeing tangible results of their hard work, from designing and constructing Heathrow Terminal 5 to rebuilding bridges in war torn Iraq. The infrastructure civil engineers create benefits society for many years to come.

http://www.science-engineering.net/why-civil-engineering.htm, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_engineering