Register now or log in to join your professional community.
It mainly depends one 's ultimate goals as a civil engineer. Do you want to be a proficient design engineer in a specialist field or a renowned contracts director In putting up say, tall buildings or bridges. However as general mentorship advise,( from my humble experience),on completion of civil engineering studies, the consulting environment offers a solid all-round experience, if the firm has a structured training programme. One is able to gain practical design experience and site supervision of real projects and contract documentation (including preparation of BOQs and learn Conditions of Contract such as FIDIC/NEC/JBCC/GCC etc) . This should ideally be for5-8 years. Thereafter , the contracting environment offers better career development and remuneration . At that level one would be joining contractor as a site agent /senior site agent / contracts manager. As a contracts manager/director with solid design experience , one is able to appreciate construction challenges and anticipate problems before they occur. As to who has better remuneration at Director level in Consulting environment and Contracting environment is".. neither here nor there.., as that is determined by the performance of the firm .
Contract based - my say is be it small or medium project you have dedicated timeline and this constraint plus working with multiple talented resources here will help you understand and gain expertise alot better than in being part of one single porject for ages not sure whn its gonna complete and where will they land on...lol
I've worked as an engineer in the general contracts companies , major subcontracts companies and in the governmental sectors on various industrial projects in my career. In my opinion there are positives and negatives with each. I would say that the situation that an individual would find most rewarding depends on their personal likes and dislikes and strengths and weaknesses.
In my opinion, the best way to start the career is the Consultancy office. You may be exposed to different requests and different scenarios, therefore you have to do your own research and develop your knowledge. However if you are in your mid - career I would recommend aiming for something bigger and more challenging. Even if you don't have the exact knowledge, we all are here to learn. None of the CEOs woke up as a CEO, they had to work on it and start from the bottom.
Contracting company. It will get you the best chance at getting some experience in the industry you choose to follow for your career.
My option could be in anyone for an engineer to start his career journey and to be a successful engineer. Just keep respect learning any new skills and keep advance in your credentials.
As I have heard the trend of working could be:
working for others... self employed.... consultant..... inverstor..:)
but my opinion about getting higher level of experience is different of those options, it depends on an engineer capabilities and expects,.. in the permanent job the opportunities for training is more than contracts but in the contracts there is more challeging environment and they have to be more active,..and for consultancy they shoulld be enough mature and expert in the mentioned field.
Gaining real experience. Of the contracting company. Where you implemented. What has been handed over to the owner by advisory
Owner representation will give the best inspiration to work in technical aspects especially when you are directly hired and given the best remuneration and benefits, then you will develop the feeling of utmost concern and ownership of the assets. It will really depends on ones attitude and character.
I agree with sir William Chitsa
With answer of A. Vinod Jetley .
..............................................................................
