Jobs And Interview

admin · Site Admin Joined: 05 Jul 2005 Posts: 689

Civil engineering is an exciting profession; it always has been, it is now and will be in the new millennium. It is a profession of great breadth involving many activities that maintain our environment and meet the ever changing needs of our society.

Civil engineering is all about creating, improving and protecting the environment in which we live. It provides facilities for day-to-day life, for transport and for industry to go about its work.

The civil engineering profession is innovative, creative, and takes its members to all parts of the world. It is not just a job for men - women are very successful as well and occupy senior positions within the profession. Civil engineers produce many things taken for granted within society. Every morning we might switch on a light, boil a kettle, use the bathroom, walk along a road, cross a bridge or take a train. Without civil engineering we would not be able to do any of this. We can all think of examples of well-known engineering projects in UK and abroad; the Channel Tunnel, the Black Country Spine Road, the Cardiff Bay Development and Coastal Protection Schemes, the reclamation of open cast mines and waste tips, the Millennium Dome, the new Airport in Hong Kong, to name but a few!

The world of a civil engineer usually begins with a particular need - perhaps a bridge for better access, a new bypass for traffic relief, a water supply for a remote village, or the regeneration of a community.

As a working civil engineer, you could be responsible for managing whole projects. In doing this your role could include:

negotiating and agreeing the work with

the client and the rest of the project team

investigating possible sites, assessing the environmental effects, consulting local authorities and those who may be affected

designing the works that will be constructed

planning how the project will be carried out; organising the supply of materials

managing project progress, cost and quality

assuring safety, controlling the risk and assessing the legal and environmental implications

carrying out feasibility studies for new developments

solving technical and organisational problems in the design office and on site

advising on the maintenance and refurbishment of existing structures

demolishing infrastructure that has reached the end of its useful life.

Civil engineers are in a unique position to see a project through from start to finish - all parts of it, not just the technical as- pects. Their training and ability to provide solutions equips them to work in many different areas in construction - with consulting engineers, contractors, local authorities, or agencies in developing countries. And not just in the construction industry - civil engineers have reached high levels in a wide variety, of other industries - oil and gas, finance and government.