<p>I am junior majoring in Civil Engineering, but I am interested in getting into Private Equities or Hedge Funds. Any recommendations on what I should start doing. I know that an internship should be one of the first courses of action, but other than that, what else is there?</p>
<p>Civil.........</p>
<p>Explain, ?"Civil......"?</p>
<p>Dawgie was saying that the connection between civil engineering and a private equity firm is not that strong.</p>
<p>Also, PE firms are notoriously difficult to get into, especially for someone with no experience, and many hedge funds are struggling right now.</p>
<p>Yes, the connection might seem to be a little strange to consider, but my thinking was that with the engineering major (on top of a business minor, sorry I left that out before) would be able to show strong analytical skills as well as being a good problem solver. Two things I think most PE firms would be interested in. Also my University runs a CO-OP program, so by the end of my 5 years (Civil Engineering is a 5 year program) I will have 3 seperate 6 month internships.</p>
<p>From what I've heard from engineers, civil engineering is a joke compared to the rest of the others in terms of analytics and difficulty. I have no idea myself this is just what I heard, so I don't know how useful civil engineering will be.</p>
<p>Are you aware of the number of people with strong analytical skills and good at problem solving apply to the more entry level positions in investment banking, let alone the more lucrative PE firms and hedge funds?</p>
<p>I'm just saying, being a good problem solver and having 3 internships alone don't mean anything.</p>
<p>Dawgie you really must be a clown, civil engineering still requires the same math and science courses as every other engineering concentration. Think about what your saying the next time you drive over a bridge or go to the top of any highrise buildings. Are you going to be worried about the HVAC units working properly that the mechanical engineerings signed off on, the electrical work the electrical engineers signed off on or are you gonna want to know the building is structural sound.</p>
<p>Steve I appreciate your helpful feedback, I'm not saying that 3 internships and being a good problem solver would hold a lot of weight. Those were just some of the examples of what i could offer. I just want to know what steps I should take to get out of the engineering world an into the buisness world.</p>
<p>I've just consulted with my engineering buddy (Work experience: IBM, EMC), the fact that you bring up the that the basic courses are the same is no justification that civil engineering is NOT the easiest of all the engineer majors and is NOT a laughing stock amongst engineers. That being said, just because you took those basic courses that every other engineer has taken, math (Calc 1-3, differential or whatever) and physics I & II, does not automatically make you extremely analytical, and also does not make up for the fact that your major courses are signficantly easier.</p>
<p>Yea those civil engineers did a great job on the big dig project in Massachusetts. You heard about the ceiling panel that fell for no reason and killed someone?</p>
<p>Yes, my major courses are easier than those of the Aeronautical, Chemical, Computer, and Software engineering. Even at that Civil engineering courses are still far more difficult than business courses and the majority of other major courses that colleges offer. If your buddy and his IBM, EMC guys are going around laughing it up that Civil engineers take easier courses then them thats pretty pathetic. As for the job the Civil engineers did in Mass., the list is ongoing of engineer disasters that invovle every type of engineering, that was an extremely foolish point to bring up with that in mind, the fact that you can use someones death to make a point is disgusting.</p>
<p>Wing, I'm not an experience professional but from my own hardships its tough selling yourself as an engineer in the financial industry. If your not form a top 10 program its even a greater challenge. My opinion would see if your school offers any training courses on financial applications and take as much of those as possible. This gives something to put on your resume and frankly a skill that can be clearly a skill that may put to use (ie: working experience with Bloomberg) other than that network if you can get someone to refer you, your chances of an interview are much better once in the interviews its on your court to impress them</p>
<p>OP, do you go to a target school?</p>
<p>Way to miss the point, the FREQUENCY of bridge accidents is the reason I brought that up. YOU brought up the issue of thinking about the civil engineers that made bridges. Trying to promote the idea that my safety was in the hands of civil engineers, and I was showing you the result of trusting those civil engineers. The death of the person points out the severity of the mistakes that civil engineers make and you completely failed to grasp that point.</p>
<p>Thanks for admitting that civil engineers are indeed the DUMBEST of engineers by accepting the fact that your courses are easier than all other engineering fields. Way to go back on your own words and resort to name calling by saying my buddy at EMC is pathetic for laughing at your stupidity.</p>
<p>The biggest reason why civil engineering is easy is because they deal with static systems, almost every aspect that goes into the design of something a civil engineer would work with has very predictable static conditions and the variables aren't nearly as numerous as in other fields. </p>
<p>In what way is civil engineering harder than any other technically specific major? Do you know how to do the MACRS depreciation on land? Can you decipher cultural customs based on archeological findings of pots, tools, paintings, and etc? Can you predict how a stock will behave based on economic, social, and political factors?</p>
<p>thanks mike, i live in westchester county so networking is pretty easy because everyone you meet works in the finanical industry in the city, so getting an interview will not be to difficult, i just want to make sure i'm prepared. i certainly wouldn't want to walk in there with my calculator and say lets get to work. do you think a minor in business or something related would be enough?</p>
<p>i have absolutely no reason to deciper cultural customs based on archeological findings, nor would i ever want to, my names not indiana jones, maybe thats something you would do in Mass. but down here in NY that doesnt happen. as for Modified Accelerated Cost Recovery System, any moron with a property class and percentage table in front of them can calculate the land depreciation. and stocks depend on supply and demand which is obviously altered by each of those factors.</p>
<p>how about the floods in the midwest that are raising the prices of food and fertilzer</p>
<p>The remark regarding cultural customs was indicating that other majors have to do difficult tasks as well, much more so than civil enginering. It has nothing to do with whether or not you have a reason to do it on your own time. Also that depreciating land was a joke, you don't depreciate land. You might want to learn some basics about stocks, supply and demand? </p>
<p>Answer this, what would you consider the most difficult concepts in your major coursework are?</p>
<p>Obviously land doesnt depreciate, i was simply answer your foolish question, "Do you know how to do the MACRS depreciation on land?" for someone to know history of different cultures i find it extremely hard to believe that you could actually think thats more difficult than civil engineeing. either way we're not arguing about that, so enough said. as for knowing basics about stocks, yes i do know basics, but i don't think basics is going to cut it, so rather than being a douche bag, maybe giving simple feedback like that would be more helpful as per my original question.</p>
<p>for my major i have only taken preliminary major requirements, so nothing has been difficult so far, but the regular engineering course that i found to be somewhat challenging were thermodynamics and materials. obviously all engineering majors have to take those classes so i know your question was not answered. looking foward it looks like the challenging classes might be advanced static classes hydrology, hydraulics, mechanics, etc... while yes the varibles are predictible in these areas, being capable of learning these concepts would certianly prove applicable in any business environment.</p>
<p>Again, you missed the point on all topics. For instance, you think you could take some pots, list of items and other ruins from the Minoan society and come up with a coherent description of their culture with only a few points of controversy the way Arthur Evans did? You wouldn't even know where to begin. Thanks for admiting you know nothing about stocks and yet made the conclusion that it was easy to predict by the way. I doubt you could even explain the relationship about supply and demand regarding stocks.</p>
<p>You've only taken preliminary courses and yet you think you know the major is more difficult than other majors you know nothing about? And you admit that there is less complexity in the variables associated with civil engineering and yet you try to equate it to an interdisciplinary field such as business? For instance when analyzing a large corporation's potential growth in let's say the construction field to relate to your major. You have to look at be able to understand and apply some civil engineering principles while calculating the budgets for projects, not to mention you must consider how to manage the workforce and how public reaction will affect your company's standing. Business is volatile while civil is very static.</p>
<p>supply and demand is the relationship between prospective sellers and buyers of any goods. come on man i live in westchester county i grew up 20 minutes from NYC they teach us this crap in high school. i choose to become an engineeing major because i enjoy bridge and building structures and i wanted a challenge. your missing the point of my original post, while i still enjoy bridges and high rise buildings, my goal is to make as much money as possible, and after recent introductions with very important people i have found the best way to do that is in the business world. i find it very hard to believe someone in business wouldnt be able to understand that no matter what concentration of engineering it is, it's still engineering any way you cut it. it's showing that i have the ability to learn difficult concepts.</p>