What is Civil Engineering? What does a civil engineer do?

What is Engineering?

Engineering is one of the applications of science and math to solve problems. Engineers are made to find out the work mechanisms and figure out the way to implement the scientific discoveries into real life.

The inventors and the scientists always get the credit for their discoveries and innovations, but the engineers are those who make scientific innovations and discoveries available for the real world. 

What is Civil Engineering? What does a civil engineer do?

What is Civil Engineering?

The process of using the scientific principles and theories to design or to manufacture a structure of several things like automobiles, buildings, bridges, tunnels, electricity, roads, etc. Which makes our daily life easy directly or indirectly is known as civil engineering. 

Engineering is a broad term (a wide field) so it is divided into several branches on the basis of their working field. For example, whoever studies about production, distribution of electricity is known electrical engineer, whoever study about physics or mechanical system is known as a mechanical engineer, likewise, the one who studies designing, manufacturing, and supervising the construction of buildings, roads, dams, aqueducts, etc. is known Civil Engineering. 

Among the engineering faculties, Civil Engineering is one of the most important and well-known engineerings because their contribution can be easily seen around us like roads, bridges, and many more. In today’s topic, we are going to discuss Civil Engineering.

Some of the topics like what is Civil Engineer, what Civil Engineers do, how much do civil engineers make, how to become a civil engineer, civil engineer job description Civil engineer courses and entry-level salary of Civil Engineer, will be discussed on below pointwise. 

Civil Engineering is a profession that designs and manufactures structure that helps to make general public life easier and comfortable. Civil Engineers designs road, bridges, tunnels, highways, dams, powerplants, and other infrastructures. 

It is a sector of engineering which maintains the infrastructure of the modern developing society. Huge buildings, railway tracks, tunnels, bridges, over bridges, airports, hotels, mines, dams, water supply medium, etc. All are designed and shaped by Civil engineers.

The main base of Civil Engineering is math, mechanics, and physics. Civil engineering is utilized in various settings including the public sectors like government jobs and municipal services and private sectors like construction companies and private builders. 

Civil engineering is a program related to planning, designing, construction, management, and supervision of physical work that is done in the proper way or not. It involves construction and management works of physical structure, roads, dams, tunnels, buildings, etc. It is an application that promotes the use of the system to manage complexity within a public context and the name is given Civil Engineering. 

What Civil Engineers do?

Civil Engineers are responsible person for designing and supervising the construction of public work projects. The main work of Civil engineers is to design and supervise the construction site workers and manufacture of the public works lie roads, highways, dams, seaways systems, buildings, airport, water supply, and other large infrastructure.

What is Civil Engineering? What does a civil engineer do?

Roads, buildings, and bridges are usually the first to come to mind whenever we talk about Civil engineers because they are the most commonly seen creation of Civil Engineers.

  Civil Engineers perform even a lot more than designing buildings. Even they work in the aerospace industry in designing air crafts and space stations. They are also part of shipbuilding industries, power generating industries, and many other industries which need constructed facilities. 

There are mainly 2 types of Civil Engineers on the basis of their work type. One is a Consultant and the other is a Contractor. A consultant is one who only focuses on designing a project, works on the table, and spends time in his office working with his clients.

While the contractor is one who supervises the work done by construction companies. They are mainly found on the construction site, the main work is supervising the work done by workers. 

How much do Civil Engineers make and entry level salary of Civil Engineers ?

 A career as a Civil Engineer helps to shape the society where we all live, this can be so extreme and exciting. Having a strong earning potential and opportunities for the advanced and updated society day to day, many Civil Engineers find their careers to be highly fulfilling.

The average salary of a Civil Engineer at the National level is nearly about $82,284 per year and varies from $30,000 to $160,000 that is according to experience, geographic location, and industry reputation. The top industries for Civil Engineers that provides satisfying salary are the federal government, local government, Engineering services, state government, and non-residential construction companies.  

The entry-level salary of a Civil Engineer remains low because it mainly depends upon skills and practice. It might be a lucrative profession but there are some ways that could help in increasing salary as a Civil Engineer. This can be done by the following ways:-

  • Changing industry from highest to lowest in the top 3 highest paying and reputed industries 
  • Changing the location of working can vary in salary because salary varies with geographic location.
  • Obtaining a license can also be another way to get salary increased because not all Civil Engineers are licensed. 
  • Acquiring a Master’s degree helps in increasing the salary by increasing the post in an industry of the individual. Because when a Civil Engineer completes his Masters, he can be easily promoted to the higher post. 

Civil Engineer Job description

Civil Engineers are responsible for designing, planning, supervision, implementation, construction, and maintenance of infrastructures like roads, bridges, tunnels, houses, offices, shopping complexes, water and sanitation medium, and many others.

The works in Engineering practice in the public and private sectors in the technical areas of environment, structural, transportation, and water resources engineering. Civil Engineers are fully prepared either to enter professional practice or to pursue advanced degrees. Civil engineers can work in any areas suggested for the following:- 

  • Execution and planning of all the site civil work
  • Ensuring the quality of construction and materials used in construction.
  • Project work scheduling and maintaining the project deadlines
  • Bill checking/bill certification
  • Designing and developing firms
  • Pursue engineering consultancies, specializing in private, residential, commercial and industrial buildings
  • Developing road infrastructure, water and flood management, project management
  • Assist in the review and recording of shop drawings.
  • Obtain all necessary approvals and reviews of project design data
  • Prepared technical drawings and plans
  • Checked drawings for conformity and accuracy
  • Made adjustments and change to a variety of detailed drawing as necessary
  • Develop specification-controlled drawing

How to become a Civil Engineer?

In Nepal, the process of being a Civil Engineer is slightly different from other countries. There is a total of 14 Engineering colleges in Nepal that offer Bachelor of Civil Engineering (BE Civil) affiliation to Tribhuvan University. The total number of seats available for BE Civil at Tribhuvan University (TU) is 1369. Bachelor of Civil Engineering is a 4 years course that has got a total of 8-semester programs. 

For getting admission to Bachelor in Civil Engineering a student should have scored a minimum “C” Grade in all subjects in class 11 and 12. OR The student who has scored a minimum of 45% in ISC (+2) or has completed a Diploma in Engineering can appear in the entrance examination of BE Civil. Those who pass the entrance exam are eligible for admission in BE Civil. 

I hope this article on “Civil Engineers” remains helpful for you.

Happy Learning – Civil Concept

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"Structural Engineer" with over 5 years of experience in estimation, structural design, and surveying. I am passionate about using my skills to create safe and sustainable structures. I am also a keen writer, and I enjoy sharing my knowledge and experiences with others.