How to Prepare Yourself for the Unsaid Civil Engineering Roles
Civil engineers are supposed to do everything from designing and building water system to expressways. Their job roles is restricted to analyze, plan and implementation of constructions that need to be done for their clients. However, they are supposed to undertake various unsaid job roles too, the various less known roles and how a future civil engineer should prepare for them is discussed here.
Once you are done with 2 – 3 years of your civil engineering course from the top civil engineering colleges or from not so top colleges, you must be heading towards the final year after which you will finally be able to earn the rewards of your 4 years of hard work that you have to do in an engineering college. This final year is as crucial as it can ever get.
Now that you have find your calling and have made the final decision of going into the civil line, with so less time in your hands, you not only have to prepare for the known responsibilities that you will be supposed to handle but also the unknown ones.
Known Roles of a Civil Engineer:
In these four years of studying Civil Engineering, it’s expected that you would have come across the job description of Civil engineers on more than one occasion. These are the general responsibilities for you to follow in order to make you an efficient engineer. To refresh what you have learned, here are the known roles a Civil Engineer needs to follow:
- Analyzing
The civil engineer is required to analyze various aspects of a construction job like the proposed location of the site, the construction detail of what is supposed to be done there, they are also supposed to know the process for finishing the full construction job one by one.
- Planning
They are required to plan the steps of process that comes after the analysis stage. They are supposed to do the planning with help of reports that should detail everything from what was planned, what actually happened, the remarks of the construction process if any.
- Have Information
Civil engineers are supposed to have all information related to construction materials, the laws of the land in which the site is located. They should have practical working knowledge of all equations, applications etc. that will be used to design or develop an infrastructure.
- Paperwork
As a Civil engineer, you will be supposed to maintain a lot of paperwork related to data, reports, graphs etc. Civil Engineer is the one everybody goes to in case of any clarifications or miscommunication, so you need to be ready with your paperwork in order to provide clarity.
The above mentioned roles are one of the most common ones which are followed by every Civil engineer irrespective of the country. It’s important for you to know and practice each of them before you step out of an engineering college as a Civil Engineer. In order to execute these roles perfectly, you need to educate yourself perfectly and develop all the above mentioned skills to the core before stepping in a corporate.
Unsaid Roles of a Civil Engineer:
Once you follow everything that has been told to you in college as part of your civil engineer course, the next thing you have to do is to prepare yourself for what cannot be taught to you and can only be learned firsthand as a professional engineer. Like every college in India, college from which you will be graduating as an engineer will also not tell you everything related to how it is to be a professional. It’s not their mistake per se; it is just left unsaid because of two prime reasons:
- No two companies are same
- No two people behave in a similar manner in similar situation
However, there are some roles that every civil engineer has to follow and no civil engineer is taught in college. They are:
- Have boundaries and follow them
As a civil engineer, you need to have and maintain ethical and professional boundaries that arise from both your personal and professional lives. At work you need to make sure that you stay inside the border of the scale, scope and the overall temporal and physical limitations of the job.
- Maintain balance
As a civil engineer, you need to know that there will come a time when the project that you are developing is according to the rules of the company but the client will demand something else. At such a time, you need to balance what the client requires and what is the best interest of the company.
- Communication
You will be answerable for everything that happens in the project that you have developed, there will come a time some day when you will be asked to justify your orders or choices. Make sure you know how to communicate clearly while maintaining the reputation of the company and your job role.
- Maintain records
Having a habit of keeping all the paperwork intact will pay you big time in the future. Get comfortable with the idea of making daily reports, graphs etc. they come in handy at time of need.
- Integrity
It’s one of the most important traits that you need to have as a Civil engineer. This will help you to deliver projects on time and according to client’s need. It will also protect you from going easy rather than by working hard.
The above mentioned roles for you as a Civil Engineer can be practiced well while you are still studying. These roles although how small may sound right now, but can make or break your dream of becoming a competent professional.
Always remember that becoming a Civil Engineer is still easy as compared to continue being one. Do your homework well and work hard, it will always pay and will keep you going strong in your dream.
About Author :
A professional writer and an avid reader, Tripti has been in the writing industry for 2 years now.
Her work ranges from articles on education to property and employment.
You can email her on itripti.rai@gmail.com and connect with her on twitter @itripti
