Introduction

Greetings to everyone. My name is PK, and I'm a civil and structural engineer with five years of industry experience. I completed my bachelor's degree in civil engineering from Jadavpur University and my master's degree in structural engineering from IIT Kharagpur, both of which are very reputed institutions in India. Today, I'd like to share my experiences, insights, and advice for students and professionals interested in the field of civil and structural engineering.

Education and Industry Experience

I've always been passionate about civil and structural engineering. After completing my M.Tech, I entered the industry and have been working here for almost five years. This journey has given me a comprehensive understanding of both the academic and industry aspects of civil and structural engineering, which I believe gives me a very good grasp of the requirements and criteria in both areas.

Nature of Civil and Structural Engineering Jobs

Many people think civil engineering means site jobs, site supervision, and construction work. But if you closely monitor the job market, there's a very good engineering job in civil and structural engineering that's office-based. I'm doing one of those kinds of jobs. Basically, I design all the buildings and structures using software, prepare drawings, and send them to the site for real construction. This is a very good office-based job, and such jobs are available around the world.

What's most satisfying is that what I have studied in the theoretical books, I'm implementing in my software and drawings. That gives me immense satisfaction. So yes, civil engineering isn't just about fieldwork; you can build a very good, not just ordinary, but a very good career in design and software applications if you have a strong grasp of theoretical concepts and are good with software.

Key Subjects and Topics in Civil and Structural Engineering

Fundamental Subjects

In civil engineering bachelor's programs, we focus on general subjects, while in M.Tech in structural engineering, we delve into specific structural subjects required for design and drawings. The key subjects you should focus on are:

1. Strength of Materials:

   • As the name suggests, this subject characterizes the material strength and properties—how it behaves under shear, bending, torsion, etc.

   • It helps you predict how real buildings will behave when subjected to loads like wind or earthquakes.

   • First thing is how material behaves.

2. Structural Analysis:

   • This involves finding the forces in elements like beams and columns.

   • It builds on the knowledge from strength of materials to calculate how much force an element must resist.

   • Second thing is how much force I have to resist.

3. Design of Structures:

   • Once you know how a material behaves and how much force it needs to resist, you proceed to design the steel or concrete structures accordingly.

   • This involves determining the sectional properties and material specifications needed to withstand the calculated forces.

   • Third thing is what properties or what sectional properties I have to give to resist the forces.

So this is basically the structural engineering. These three things are the grips of structural engineering and design.

Essential Topics

Within these subjects, some key topics you should master include:

• Bending Moments and Shear Forces: Crucial for understanding how structures will respond to loads.

• Torsion: Understanding how materials behave when subjected to twisting.

• Trusses and Roof Structures: Solving for forces in trusses and industrial roofs.

• Beams and Columns: Fundamental elements that require in-depth understanding.

• Foundation Engineering: Basics of geotechnical engineering are essential for designing foundations.

• Steel Structures: Knowledge about column buckling, beam bending, and beam-column junctions.

You cannot neglect these topics. There is no room for ignorance and no room for error. These are the backbone of your career. At whatever level you go in structural civil engineering, these will be with you throughout your life.

Essential Software Tools for Structural Engineers

In today's industry, knowing how to use software is crucial. While theoretical knowledge is fundamental, software proficiency enhances your capabilities.

Learning Approach

When you're in academics—like your first, second, or third year—you need to first understand how to solve simple problems by hand calculations. If you don't do hand calculations, you'll never learn how a software is solving the problem. Software is nothing else but a tool to do calculations quickly; they are based on the same codes and principles you learn manually. So, you have to know how they are solving it.

Commonly Used Software

• STAD Pro: Used for general structural analysis. It's widely accepted worldwide, including in the US, UK, Gulf countries, and Southeast Asia. It's a great software.

• ETABS: Specialized software for analyzing and designing high-rise buildings.

• Finite Element Analysis Software: Abacus and ANSYS are essential for detailed finite element analysis. If someone is focused on finite element methods, these two are very important.

• Foundation Design Software: Foundation 3D and MAT 3D are used for designing various types of foundations.

• Other Notable Software: RISA and SAP2000 are also popular, especially in the US and UK.

Nowadays, YouTube has lots of playlists to learn software. Even we also teach every software nowadays. So you have to have one software knowledge to get a good job, to at least start with some internship or job. Only theoretical knowledge will not get you any good job.

Recommended Projects for Students

When you reach the final phases of your academics, like bachelor's or master's, you need to decide what to pursue. There are two major branches:

1. General Civil Structural Engineering:

   • If you want to be a general civil structural engineer, you can take up projects like analyzing a G+3 (four-story) building.

   • You have to calculate all the loads, and by hand calculation, you have to decide what loads are coming, design all the elements.

   • You have to verify all the results with the software—how much is coming from hand calculations and how much from software.

   • That's a very good project. These kinds of projects are easily done and are very good.

2. Finite Element Analysis:

   • If you're interested in finite element analysis, you can work on projects like analyzing a beam-column junction.

   • You can take a concrete beam and change the materials from steel to some other element and see how the beam is behaving.

   • This kind of things are very popular in Abacus and finite element analysis.

If someone wishes to go into that field, then he or she can do this kind of projects.

Advice on Education and Skill Development

First and foremost, don't ignore the basic subjects. Whatever you do in your career, these subjects will be with you forever. There is no room for negligence or error in subjects like strength of materials, structural analysis, and design of structures. You need to know each and everything from top to bottom.

If you're not understanding, please reach out for help. You should understand every bit of that. There is no escaping on that.

Also, you need to be good with at least one software tool. Having software knowledge is crucial because only theoretical knowledge won't get you a good job. You need to complement it with practical skills.

Try to do some small projects in your university. If you do some internships, you do some good projects, and you go ahead. Along the journey, you will learn lots of things, and then you can improvise after that.

Interview Preparation and Industry Expectations

When you're going into the industry with only academic background and no job experience, interviewers will judge you purely on your merit in structural engineering understanding. They won't ask very fancy things but will focus on fundamental concepts:

• Shear Forces and Bending Moments:

  • They may ask if a shear force is coming on a beam, how the bending moment and shear force profile will be.

  • Those are fundamental things.

• Torsion Effects:

  • If a beam is failing in shear, then how to counter it.

  • If a beam is under torsion, how do you calculate it and counter it.

• Foundation Design:

  • How to design a simple rectangular isolated foundation.

  • What are the checks required for a simple isolated foundation like overturning check, sliding check, uplift check.

  • How to do it.

  • How the reinforcement will be given in an isolated foundation.

• Steel Structures:

  • In a truss, where is the compression member, where is the tension member.

  • How the bracing pattern will be.

They will ask you only the basic things, primary fundamental concepts. They will not judge you on how much you can do the software things because those can be learned in the office itself or on the job. But the fundamentals cannot be learned in an industry. So those have to be understood in your academics only.

A lot of times, the interviewer will ask you to explain the process of how to find or calculate wind load and earthquake load in a high-rise building. These are fundamental processes. Those processes have to be explained clearly.

If you can explain clearly for a single structure, then it can be implemented to hundreds of structures, and software will take care of the calculations.

Insights on the Current Job Market

During COVID, many projects were halted, and the job market plunged. But as we're moving back to normal, the job market has opened up significantly. Now, everywhere, high-rise buildings, bridges, oil and gas projects, petrochemical projects, and renewable projects are starting up again.

What happened during COVID, all things have stopped. So lots of companies shut down, and lots of things happened. Now, our civilization has to move ahead, whatever might be. So COVID has given a period, not a full stop.

Now, as we are moving to normal, we already moved into normal things. So all the market throughout the world—it's not specified to any geography—the projects are now again opened up like anything. So to be honest, now a trend is that people are going to IT things, even after doing some business, they are going to IT things. So companies are frustrated to get a very good structural engineering guy who is interested.

So the market is very open now. From the start of 2024, the market is very open. It is open in the US, UK, even in Gulf countries, Southeast Asia—everywhere it is there.

If you are doing business from any country, you look up your country's any job, there will be vacancy in civil structural engineering. And there also, the payment, the salary also has been standardized. What that was in the last 10 years or 8 years ago, now a candidate can be satisfied with the salary and the quality of work.

So I can confidently say that nowadays, very, very good jobs are there for civil structural engineering. I'm not even bluffing. If someone is hearing it, they can search online in whatever country they might be, and for civil structural engineering freshers, there will be hundreds of jobs there. And those are design jobs, not in construction field jobs.

Day-to-Day Responsibilities of a Structural Engineer

Let me walk you through a typical project I'm working on. I'm designing a structure that's 80 meters high, which is approximately a 25 to 30-story building.

• Load Calculation:

  • First, I have to understand what loads are coming.

  • I prepare in Excel spreadsheets or do hand calculations.

  • What loads are coming out first?

• Modeling:

  • I model it in any structural engineering software.

  • For example, we are using STAD, which is a worldwide software accepted anywhere in the world.

• Designing Elements:

  • I have to design the concrete and steel separately.

  • That thing I have to give to the designers.

• Collaboration with Designers:

  • They are the ones who prepare the drawings, often using AutoCAD.

  • I provide the input like beam sizes, column sizes, openings, all the inputs required for their drawing.

  • They take some time and prepare the drawing.

• Verification and Approval:

  • It comes back to us for verification—whatever you have given, it is okay or not.

  • Once I've checked everything is okay, I'll sign it and send it to the site.

  • Then at the site, they will construct it.

This is the fundamental procedure of a structural engineer's life. If some structure is complicated and big, it will take one month. If it is a very small and easy structure, then it will take two days. But the procedure is the same.

Final Message to Students

To all the students studying civil and structural engineering, it's a beautifully designed and fundamentally very nice subject. It is, I think, one of the very few subjects where whatever you create, you can see it in real life. Unlike IT things—they are also creating things—but you will see in a real-life example, that is another pleasure someone will feel.

So fundamentally, you do good in subjects. I'm not telling you have to study every subject because in civil engineering, some 40 or 50 subjects are there. But those four or five subjects, whatever I told, those you should not neglect. You should understand very, very in-depth. There is no room for exclusion there.

If you're not understanding, please reach out for help. You should understand every bit of that. There is no escaping on that.

Then you try to do some small projects in your university. If you do some internships, you do some good projects, and you go ahead. Along the journey, you will learn lots of things, and then you can improvise after that.

And I wish everyone, in whatever capacity and whatever they're doing in civil engineering, very good luck. I'm sure they will be doing very good and absolutely best in their career.

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to share my understanding and experiences on this subject and topic. If you have any questions or need guidance, feel free to reach out. Have a nice day!