<p>I was talking with an adviser about engineering and what she had to say and how she spoke of the profession kind of turned me off to the whole idea. This lady told me the whole profession is rather "snooty" and that an engineering career isn't worth pursuing if you don't have a love for math and physics. Her comments were rather negative and she was unable to even provide me with more information or point me in the direction of answers. I figured I'd try my luck getting answers else where. </p>
<p>I'm possibly interested in pursuing a career in civil engineering but really have yet to make up my mind. I enjoy working on the computer and have a strong knowledge of CAD software. I like the idea of creating something physical in the world to better the community. I understand the importance of the infrastructure that surrounds us that most take for granted. From my understanding most civil engineers work partly in office and partially in the field which defiantly interests me. </p>
<p>I guess my question comes down to the doubt this person instilled in me; Do you really have to have a strong love/interest in math and physics to make it in this field?</p>
<p>Now I don't mind muscling though these classes if that's what it takes, but I certainly would not consider someone who loves math and physics. I struggled a bit with math and physics classes my freshman year and would not be one to read into these subjects for fun.</p>
<p>As a physics professor at a university where a large number of the students are engineers, I can say that not all of them love physics. However, for the most part, they are good at math and science in general. I think that in order to enjoy engineering, you have to want to build things and that is often what a physicist does too.</p>
<p>In order to get through the Engineering curriculum, you do need to take a lot of mathematics since a good civil engineer must know how to calculate how the structure he/she designs will perform. Engineering is a quantitative profession.</p>
<p>I hate physics, it’s boring subject, I managed to sit through a year of lecture. I study math because it is a useful tool to solve problems, not because I love it.</p>
<p>I am now a civil engineering student, and I love the stuff I learn, such as environment problems, how transportation works, how structures are built, etc. I am doing good in most of my classes.</p>
<p>Now you see, you don’t need to love math and physics to do well in engineering, you just use them as tools, you do have to be good at math and physics though.</p>
Most CivEs with PEs and advance degrees are either underemployed or not employed, and the field is not coming back in the near future. So ready urself if u wanna go into this field…</p>
<p>I don’t think it is fair to say that most (more than 50%) of civils are unemployed or underemployed. I think there are a good number of them who have been in place for years who aren’t going anywhere. (I’m thinking of one in paticular who has been with the same company for 22 years.) But I do think it is fair to say that the new grads are having a very hard time because the field isn’t expanding.</p>
<p>I’ve seen so many of them just never saved em… So from now on imma start posting dooms and glooms of civil engineering field here when I find it.</p>
<p>I never liked math very much but I was good at it, and never took physics in high school (why bother, I was going to be an art teacher) but I found real fullfullment when I transferred to Civil. Math is a tool. Physics is a tool. You are right about the creativity. I love doing design doing work in ACAD and seeing it built.
For pete’s sake guys, quit bashing civil engineering. Right now, we are in a recession, and construction is cyclical. So there are fewer jobs out there. The wheel will turn and in a few years there will be more jobs available. However there are many varieties of non-construction related civil work available. A civil engineer with a P.E. can work almost anywhere and I have. I’ve done Utility management, consulting, industrial structures, and now I’m the house engineer at a municipal water pollution control facility. I solve problems, design stuff, and manage projects. A civil engineer is not going to make the big bucks a chemical engineer might, but the variety of places to live, and the variety of work is tremendous. I have worked in two jobs that disappeared in the last 5 years but I have never been unemployed, nor had to go to a job with less pay. My husband and I have been working for the last 33 years straight.</p>
<p>For rheidzan - "Quote:
At 60, he fears his prospects of getting a job are very slim, even though he has a degree in civil engineering and has vast experience in project management. "</p>
<p>I think his job prospects are impacted much more by that 60 number then by the civil engineer degree part. There is a lot of discrimination against older people out there.</p>
<p>Based on the description of the man, I would surmise that he is not a civil engineer, but rather just has an engineering degree from four decades ago. After a certain point (definitely after 40 years), your degree doesn’t matter anymore. Heck, I only got my civil engineering degree four years ago and my (construction management) company is already transitioning me from managing civil/structural work to managing mechanical/electrical installations.</p>
<p>As for the OP, you do not need to love math & physics. You just need to understand it, tolerate it and be able to use it as a tool. I enjoyed my upper level civil engineering courses significantly more than the math & physics courses.</p>
<p>In case you haven’t noticed, one of the industries most affected by the recent economic cycles (bubble boom and subsequent crash) was construction. It is not a surprise that civil engineering graduates now are having a hard time finding jobs, even if the graduates in 2005 were finding jobs easily.</p>
<p>It also means that choosing a major because it is the “hot” major right now is risky in that if you commit to that major at the top of a bubble boom, you may graduate a few years later in an industry or economic downturn. E.g. civil engineering majors who started in 2005 (top of the bubble) graduated in 2009 (bottom of the crash).</p>
<p>I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again. It’s still possible to do quite well in civil engineering. My husband and I will make more money this year than we ever have, and we’ve owned our own consulting firm, just the two of us, since 1999. We’ve found the secret is to diversify. If we did only residential design, or only commercial projects, we’d be in trouble. We do residential, commercial, industrial, industrial, and insurance (inspections to investigate damage claims) work. The large firms in the area hire us when they get projects but don’t want to hire new employees. </p>
<p>We also know other engineers who are doing fine. And my husband is approaching 60!</p>
I have a problem with this. I tried to find where the actual report is and could not find it. Unlike some naive people, I don’t really take what the media says without checking it first.</p>
<p>According to BLS the number of employment for:
Civil engineers - 278,400
Mechanical engineers - 238,700
Electrical engineers - 157,800
Environmental engineers - 54,300</p>
<p>On the other hand, a search on indeed.com as of 11/22/11 (i copied this from my old post, too lazy to do the search again) found openings for:
CE - 10,000+
ME - 42,000+
EE - 45,000+
EnvE - 15,000+</p>
<p>
Where does that 40 years come from? Some say after 5 years, the other 20 years. If it doesn’t matter anymore and experience matter more, what about that 60 year old engineer?
Sure. The LA City Engineer’s degree was mechanical but he was doing a lot of civil works. It’s all about your ability to work, not your degree.
I’ve been in the industry long enough to know there’s a “rigidity” in the type of work you do. Afterall, you will be a more competent PM if you have the right background.
So one thing I’d like to point out, the reason why your company put you in managing mechanical/electrical must’ve been lack of work in civil/structural and they still wanted to keep you there so they put you to managing mechanical/electrical. </p>
My point was based on the wording, it doesn’t sound like that person was an engineer. He only had an engineering degree.</p>
<p>
We actually have quite a few new skyscrapers starting up in the foundations and early superstructure phase. One’s a 75 story hotel/condo, a 1350 ft high residential tower, a second campus for a university, and we’re also doing an airport terminal. With my new expanded role, it looks like I’ll be finishing off my current project, which may take a year. There’s definitely a lot (relative to recent years) of new construction for us going on here. </p>
<p>Cornell University put in a proposal for a $2 billion campus for engineering in NYC at the end of October. They already received a very generous donation of $350 million recently specifically for this project, so it doesn’t sound like funding will be an issue. I’ve heard that things are starting up for Hudson Yards, which is a 16 acre mixed-used development in Manhattan.</p>
<p>I don’t know what it’s like elsewhere in the country, but things appear to be on the upswing here.</p>
<p>As I said, some of the results seem a little strange to me, enough so that I have questions about the validity of this research. But it’s still a much better starting point than your careful review of the comments section on USNews. </p>
<p>Wow. Just wow. Why is it that when people do well, they’re considered “lucky”? We work really hard. And you do have a lot of nerve to suggest that I’m lying.</p>
<p>I clicked on your link. How in the world did you come up with 50,000 for the number of civil PEs in Maine? That would mean that almost 4% of the population is made up of civil engineers, lol (scary thought). The website shows 2,909 results. And those aren’t the civil engineers who live in Maine - you should read more carefully. Those are the civil engineers licensed to practice in Maine - probably employed by out-of-state companies who had a project in Maine at some point. If you look at the first 20 engineers on the list, only 6 of them live in Maine. So a rough guess would be that there are (6/20) * 2,209 = 873 civil engineers IN Maine. If you are going to quote statistics, you should be careful not to mislead people.</p>
<p>I DO ask engineers how they’re doing. I belong to the Structural Engineers Association of Maine and go to several meetings a year. Some engineers say they’re slow, but keeping the lights on. More engineers, though, say they’re doing really well. No one I know has gone out of business.</p>
<p>The engineers on THIS website are telling you things are improving and giving you examples and links. In addition to Ken’s examples, we just worked on a very large, brand-new hospital complex being built in Augusta, Maine, which is not exactly a giant metropolis, lol. We’re also working on a job for a defense contractor in Pennsylvania. Tomorrow morning, my husband is going down to a local A/E firm to help them out with a project, because their structural engineers are overloaded with work.</p>
<p>I would suggest you be very careful about labeling people. Ad hominem comments are not allowed on this website. Reading the Terms of Service might be useful so you understand the rules.</p>
<p>To be fair to rheidzan, it’s very likely that things are much worse in his neck of the woods than in ours. I just remembered that a few months ago, the North America CEO of my company said that he had recently traveled to a few places across the country and some places were better than others economically. He had met with some politicians from California (I believe they were local officials from Sacramento and Oakland) and did not get a very good vibe from them or from what he saw during his visit. New York, Chicago and Texas were the bright spots.</p>
<p>I don’t mean to brag or be unsympathetic to people who are jobless. I just want people who are majoring in Civil or Structural to know that there are jobs out there. I’m a junior in college studying Structural engineering who recently accepted a summer intern job offer from a major oil and gas fabricator. I interviewed against Mechanical Engineers, Industrial Distribution and many more. I know it’s just an intern position not full time, but i have friends who went to the career fairs just like me and can’t find an internship. Some of those people are civil, some of them are mechanical and aerospace.</p>
<p>Thanks…alot…for your advice in field of Engineering…i am a freeshman.also…but…i neet some.mor information.of CIVIL ENGINEERING…because.i am studying.in AFGHANISSN…so our method of teaching.is little bit.not fair…can you help me in this field if i need some information.will you…cooperate me…for increasing.my career.in this feild</p>
</p>