<p>I know there are some well-informed Civil Engineers here, so can some of you kind of tell me what Civil Engineering is all about? I know they deal with the maintenance of bridges, building, etc., but what else do they do?</p>
<p>Also, is it true that Civil Engineering jobs are plenty and that you won't lose your job as much as other engineering disciplines? But in contrast you don't make as much money? I'm not as concerned with the money issue as long as they make decent money--job security seems to balance that out.</p>
<p>There's a few main sub-disciplines in civil engineering:
- Structural engineering
- Geotechnical engineering
- Transportation engineering
- Environmental engineering
- Construction engineering / management
- Water resources</p>
<p>They're all pretty different, but the one thing they all have in common is that they all deal with infrastructure and design/build the world we live in. </p>
<p>There are about 250,000 civil engineers in the United States, which is one of the most of any engineering profession (electrical is up there as well). There are also plenty of civil engineering majors who go into contracting and construction management, which is not really engineering, but closely related. </p>
<p>rheidzan says there are actually too many civil engineers out there and not enough jobs, but I disagree. Every publication/article I've read that deals with hiring civil engineers has said there aren't enough qualified people out there. </p>
<p>On average, civil engineers in this country make less money than other engineers. On the other hand, civil engineering and construction jobs are spread out more evenly across the country than some of the other disciplines. There's less of a chance you have to relocate to get a job.</p>
<p>The number of civil engineers out there is not the important factor as long there are jobs. It's the number of jobs in ce field that cannot absorb all of ce's. </p>
<p>I would not consider that 250k, 500k, or even 1M civil engineers too many, as long as the number of ce jobs exceed the ce's. </p>
<p>As of now, our society takes infrastructure for granted, and do not see the importance of it. This is why I think the ce field is shrinking in terms of number of ce's it can absorb, and we need better people that can represent/market ce's.</p>
<p>Also, when one refers to the BLS ce employment growth. It's only a projection. Projection is a projection, it's not exact and it's not guarantee.
As far as I'm concerned, people projected a $200/bbl oil and it's almost $100/bbl; people could project a $80/bbl, and next yr we could actually hit $200/bbl.</p>
<p>Oh, BTW, maybe... maybe, if there was a huge eq like that of northridge eq and destroyed lots of fwys, bridges and our infrastructure, maybe society wouldn't take ce's for granted.</p>
<p>I agree that the hard number isn't that important. What's more important is the rate at which civil engineers are produced compared to the rate at which CE jobs grow and the rate at which CE's retire. </p>
<p>The BLS numbers are a projection, but they are better than nothing. The weather forecasts are a projection, but we don't ignore it. </p>
<p>
[quote]
Oh, BTW, maybe... maybe, if there was a huge eq like that of northridge eq and destroyed lots of fwys, bridges and our infrastructure, maybe society wouldn't take ce's for granted.
[/quote]
It will take more than that. See I-35W, Hurricane Katrina, etc. The problem is there are no immediate gains for politicians when they invest in infrastructure. People just complain about taxes, so they're not as willing to spend the money.</p>
<p>Thanks for the responses. I've been talking to my dad lately about possibly going into Civil Engineering, and he's been saying that the only good field is in Transportation. I've been thinking about Structures, but he said I'd need to at least get a Masters to do that. Can anyone tell me the current and future standings of the different sub-disciplines of CivE? Thanks.</p>
<p>The masters in structures takes 1-2 years, tops, and often, you can get it paid for by the school. Just aim for anything above a 3.5 GPA and you should be able to get into at least a few programs. It's not so dreadfully painful*. </p>
<p>Career-wise, it's a good move. People will always need good structural engineers.</p>
<p>*(Unless you go to Illinois and your would-be advisor decides to uproot and move to another school just before you get there, leaving you to fumble around for another research opportunity and more funding, and then get put in a leaky office that grows mold, only to be thrown out of said leaky office and have your desk and workstation put in the basement hallway for four months while they rip out the carpet and forget about you, and since you don’t have an office, they take away your mailbox, and since you don’t have a mailbox, they take away your paycheck, and then your cat dies and you get pneumonia and land your sorry arse in the hospital… but the odds of that happening AGAIN to somebody else are pretty much nonexistent, so I wouldn’t worry. Also, the pizza is good. Go to Papa Del's.)</p>
<p>Your Dad is correct. I have spoken with managers from Engineering consulting firms, and they have also told me that they need Transportation engineers. Some of them have transportation project work offered to their firms that they have to turn down for lack of qualified people to do it.</p>