Civil Engineering Essay Research Paper March 13

Civil Engineering Essay, Research Paper

March 13, 2000

Research Paper

Civil Engineering

Throughout my lifetime, I have never had to think very much about the working world and everything that went with it. All through high school I took classes I liked or thought would be interesting to me, but never thought that all of those classes were preparing me for what was to come. Before I knew it, it was time to go to college. The four years of high school had flown by and now it was time to choose a major for college. I had never given much thought as to what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. The only real occupations that I had really gotten to experience were teaching, the jobs that my parents had, and others such as doctors, dentist, most of the occupations that everyone sees while they are growing up. When I finally decided on my major, I chose engineering, but I didn’t know if I would like it or not. The only prior knowledge I had about it was the fact that my grandfather was an electrical and chemical engineer, and that my parents and teachers said that I would be good at engineering. Recently I have been interested in civil engineering, but what does one do with such a degree. What opportunities are available to a person with a degree in civil engineering on the job market. The broad curriculum that covers many different fields of engineering make civil engineering a major that allows a person to work in nearly any field they wish.

So what could a person do with a degree in civil engineering. Civil engineering is one of the most general fields in engineering, and is often considered the “liberal arts of engineering.” Civil engineering is also referred to as the “People” engineering, because wherever there is a civilization, there is a need for civil engineers. A person that possesses a degree in this field shows an understanding of mathematics, chemistry, and physics. Thus there are many different applications of jobs that a person can perform with this degree. As Jeff Olsen, a former graduate in civil engineering at the University of Cincinnati says,

Fortunately for an engineer, there always seems to be room for advancement, both inside and outside of engineering. If you want to stay “engineer” your whole career, there are typically two paths an engineer takes during their career. One is to remain technical your whole career. This type of person is someone that likes sitting behind a desk doing design all day, or overseeing and approving designs by others. The next type of career path that the majority of engineers go towards is engineering management. The person that follows the engineering management path is typically someone that has good communication skills, likes dealing with people, and is very good at handling multiple tasks at once.

A plus with a civil engineering degree (or any engineering degree for that matter) is that it opens the doors to many areas of other interests such as engineering equipment sales, business communications, or even politics. Also, there are many readily available job positions for civil engineers. Civil engineers held approximately 228,000 jobs in 1996, and the level of employment is expected to grow at about as fast as the average, if not faster, for all occupations through the year 2006 (Chua). The level of employment is a bit misleading due to the fact that this number only includes the civil engineers working in civil engineering positions. This does not include all civil engineers that may have used their well-rounded, technical degree for other parts of the workforce, such as business management.

With a degree in civil engineering I would have the opportunity to perform many different jobs. Due to the fact that this profession has been around since the 18th century, it is not difficult to see the many of the works done by civil engineers. From the earliest times, engineers have been involved in building roads, bridges, cathedrals, and aqueducts. Did you know that it was Alexander G. Eiffel, a civil engineer that designed the Eiffel Tower or that it was Joseph Strauss, another civil engineer who designed the Golden Gate Bridge (Telford). These ancient structures reveal a history of inventive genius and persistent experimentation. As for today, all you have to do is look around to see the many different structures that civil engineers design. They are capable of designing structures as large as the Millennium Dome in Greenwich and London, England, which is the world’s largest dome and the World Financial Centre in Shanghai, China, which will be the world’s tallest building at 460 meters once completed (Telford). Many projects, such as the ones just mentioned, have become world famous and they reflect the pride of local residents. Many of the things that we take for granted but which play a vital part in our everyday lives are the products of civil engineering. It covers construction of power stations that provide the electricity we use every time we turn on a light or watch television; the plant to purify our drinking water and to treat waste water; the roads we drive along and the airports from which we travel abroad. Every bridge, dam, oil rig, pipeline, reservoir, tunnel and waterway is a civil engineering project, as are many other smaller structures. Civil engineering is also very much concerned with how their work affects the environment. Reducing pollution, defe