Civil Engineering - Careers, Salary, Jobs, Scope

Why CIVIL ENGINEERING?

Civil engineering is a stream of professional engineering which includes constructing and maintaining civic utility structures such as roads, bridges, dams, and other kinds of buildings. It also keeps public health and sanitation in mind, and also strives to build eco- friendly structures. The course is offered both at undergraduate and postgraduate level.

Civil engineers will generally work as specialists in the field of town planning, which is on the rise these days. The working hours of civil engineers are normal office hours, with some extra hours and weekend work when project deadlines are approaching, as opposed to contractors, who oversee all building processes and work outdoors at all times in all weather conditions.

Top Civil engineering colleges in India–

• Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Mumbai
• Birla Institute of Technology & Science, Pilani
• Delhi Technological University, Delhi
• Anna University, Chennai
• National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli

No travel as such is involved unless your company takes up a project outside the city. Civil engineers are employed by the government for developmental work, and by private construction companies like Tata Projects as well.

CIVIL ENGINEERING: Jobs and Career Opportunities

There is a lot of scope for civil engineering graduates, both for further studies and for jobs. They are listed out as follows-

1. Civil engineering graduates can work in government departments, public sector units, multinational companies as well as private organizations. The various positions that can be held in the abovementioned organizations are listed out below
2. The graduates can also go for an M.Tech with a specialization like Structural Engineering, Traffic and Transportation Engineering, Environmental Engineering, Geotechnical Engineering, and so on. For this, GATE exam needs to be cracked. They can also go for PhD and subsequently to teaching.
3. They can also appear for IES (Indian Engineering Services) and other exams like IPS or IAS
4. They can also become a part of a CSIR lab or of a corporate entity and work in the Research and Development departments and explore new and upcoming developments in the field of civil engineering

Positions that can be had in various government or private sector organizations-

Building control surveyor

They make sure that all regulations are completely followed during the construction of any structure, like a building, bridge, flyover, etc. and they ensure all safety guidelines are checked. On big and complex projects, they are also consulted in pre-construction stage for ensuring there are no safety risks and suggest ways of cutting costs.

Consulting civil engineer

It is a popular job profile, where you will be required to liaise with the clients and manage, plan and supervise building projects. This can involve working in different settings and commuting back and forth from the site to office and home frequently, particularly for new recruits.

Contracting civil engineers

Contracting civil engineers oversee the actual groundwork during a project construction and basically convert the plans of a consulting civil engineer into a real structure. They manage human and other resources on the site and ensure there are no time lags or security or safety mishaps.

Design engineer

Design engineers are included in the initial designing phase of the project and mitigate any issues pertaining to the design aspects of the execution. The design engineers will need to have a thorough knowledge of design software like AutoCAD, and they must also have strong leadership and project management skills.

Nuclear engineer

Nuclear engineers, as the name suggests, primarily work on designing and running nuclear power stations. They can be involved in designing new systems, maintaining existing systems and making them more efficient, or to improve the sustainability of the power plant.

You can also be involved in decommissioning existing power stations and planning and execution of safety procedures for the radioactive waste transport and disposal. There can be various specializations within a job for a nuclear engineer, such as health and safety specialist, instrumentation and control engineer, process engineer, project engineer, quality engineer, reactor operator, etc.

Other job profiles include-

• Site engineer
• Structural engineer
• Water engineer
• Geologist
• Quantity Surveyor (will include foreign travel)
• Officer in Field Quality Assurance Department

CIVIL ENGINEERING: Salary

Civil engineers earn a salary between Rs. 1, 63,000 to Rs. 7, 94,000 per annum, with an average salary of Rs. 3, 25,000 per year. Experience plays a big role in determining remuneration in this job. High paying job profiles include STAAD, Engineering Design and Project Management.

A civil engineer with over 3 years of experience can earn up to an average of close to Rs. 5, 00, 000 per annum. Due to an increased interest in town planning and increased focus on safety standards, civil engineers are in great demand these days.

CIVIL ENGINEERING: Recruiters

The major companies that recruit civil engineering graduates are as follows-

• Jaypee Group
• Gammon India Ltd
• Balaji Railroad Systems Ltd
• Punj Lloyd Group
• Jaiprakash Associates
• Nagarjuna Construction Company
• GMR Group
• Hindustan Construction Company (HCC)
• Expert Technology
• Hiranandani Construction Pvt. Ltd
• Godrej Properties
• Prestige Estates
• Oberoi Realty
• DLF
• IVRCL Infrastructure & Projects Ltd
• Kelkar Consultants Pvt. Ltd
• Larsen and Toubro
• Nircon Engineering Consultants
• RDS Projects Ltd
• Macro Marvel Infrastructure Corporation Ltd
• Potential Consultants
• Simplex Projects Ltd
• Vadakar and Associates
• Shapoorji Pallonji & Company
• Sobha Developers Limited

Public Sector Companies hiring Civil Engineering Graduates:

• NTPC – National Thermal Power Corporation Limited
• BHEL – Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited
• ONGC – Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited
• HAL – Hindustan Aeronautics Limited
• GAIL – Gas Authority of India Limited
• SAIL – Steel Authority of India Limited
• IOCL – Indian Oil Corporation
• BSNL – Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited
• ISRO – Indian Space Research Organization

Specialisations

The various specializations offered within civil engineering focus on different aspects of the science, and candidates can choose according to the career they want to pursue and the areas in which their interests lie.

A list of various specializations is as follows-

• Geotechnical engineering
• Environmental engineering
• Transportation Engineering
• Urban Engineering
• Materials Engineering
• Coastal Engineering
• Construction Engineering
• Structural Engineering
• Hydraulics & water resources engineering
• Geoinformatics
• Engineering Geosciences

CIVIL ENGINEERING: Syllabus

The students of civil engineering study subjects which hone their skills for construction, design and safety compliance. The following subjects, both theoretical and practical, are studied at the undergraduate level-

• Civil Engineering Materials
• Construction Management
• Construction Practices
• Elements of Surveying
• Engineering Geology
• Environmental Engineering
• Hydraulics
• Introduction to Transportation Engineering
• Soil Mechanics
• Transportation Engineering Lab

Popular Colleges offering CIVIL ENGINEERING

The top colleges for studying civil engineering in India are mentioned below. For seeking admission, the candidate needs to have studied Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics in Class 12^th level. Most of the below mentyioned college accpet IIT-JEE exam rank/score.

Requirements for CIVIL ENGINEERING

You should consider opting for the profession of a civil engineer if you are confident about your aptitude in the sciences (Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics). Also, you should consider the fact that you might be required to devote a part of your professional career supervising on the construction of projects out of doors, in all kinds of weather, or in potentially harmful sites such as nuclear power plants, especially during the early part of your job, when you are a fresh graduate.

For admission into an engineering college of repute, you should have a good mark in your class 12 examinations, as well as IIT-JEE entrance exam. For a good placement offer, you should have a consistently good mark throughout all the semesters, and especially in the last year.

Why should you choose CIVIL ENGINEERING?

The demand for civil engineers on the rise today, because of their need in town planning, which is all rage these days, and people’s need for safety compliance in their homes.

Civil engineers can also found good jobs in various central and state agency- undertaken construction projects.

Also, for those with a business streak in their mind, there is a growing market in civil engineering startups these days, because of the untapped potential in this sphere, and therefore there is a lot of potential here. Civil engineers can collaborate to form startups and brainstorm new and innovative ideas about construction and design.