Why study Civil Engineering?

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Q. I work for a civil engineering consulting firm based in the south of England. Recently “The Big Boss" came over on a trip of the regional offices, did a brief presentation and a Q&A session. One question, which left the otherwise loquacious gentleman stumped, was a simple query from a colleague of mine. “I have two sons (twins) one studied civil one electrical engineering, they both graduated about 5 years ago. The civil engineer works in London earns about 18,000 pounds a year with essentially no benefits, and has to share a tiny flat with friends. Cannot save a penny and generally works 10 hours days often 6 days a week (the life of a typical civil engineer). If he is lucky by the time he is 40 he may earn about 28,000 pounds a year. The electrical engineer started work for a telecom Co. on almost 20,000 pounds 5 years ago and now earns almost 45,000 (considerably more than his 55 year old father) with share options, bonuses and a company car. He never works weekends or is in the office after 6:00am. By the time he is 40 he can safely expect to be earning

A. Are there too many Civil Eng in the UK??? His son should have asked a few more questions re: the profession bfre starting his degree - I'd be interested to hear from UK based Civil Eng here to see if they echo any of the info on this post. My experience has been that if you are quiet and have poor social skills (and lack confidence!!!) then you'll pbly end up like his son - the answer is not to start Electrical Eng (unless he wants to - is this for $ only???) but rather to try and branch out from Civil Eng into more lucrative areas ie: project management (also, he could decide to get a business/management post grad degree of some sort) and more importantly to seek out new and better opportunities - apply for new and different jobs and not just in his home town!!! The truth is that there is not a lot of money in 'Design only' jobs - people have to be multi skilled and unless design is a passion (which doesn't sound like the gent in your story) then just look for other opportunities in the industry. It seems to me that many pple expect to get a degree and a job and the rest will come!!! Like for everything else in life, if something doesn't come to you then it might be a good idea to go after it. The good ol days (if they ever existed) when you got your degree and job for life are over - tell his son to get his act into gear and stop sobbing.

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