Is civil engineering worth it (7 facts )?

In this post, we’re going to discover the 7 important faces that indicate that civil engineering is worth it as a degree. If you are interested to major in civil engineering you should know these facts before you make your decision.

1 – Civil engineering, the market demands

the median salary of a civil engineer is $88,000 according to BLS. so it is a very encouraging and reading occupation. Today Civil engineering employers number is 300,000 and creates yearly new 24,000 occupations.

So as a civil engineer you will have good financial stability in your career, getting this job. In addition, civil engineering has a lot of opportunities of getting to work in related industries for taking theses following specializations

  • architect
  • structural engineer
  • geotechnical engineer and so on
  • environmental engineering
  • construction engineering
  • Transportation engineer

So even if you don’t find a job in a specific industry you can still be hireable in another, simply because civil engineering is a broad industry.

2 – Civil engineering is less stressful than other occupations

If we compare civil engineering and any other engineering occupation we’re going to find it less stressful compared to computer science and businesses.  Computer science occupations have the first dropping rate due to the stress.

 This domain is so competitive and changing because it’s related to a technology that involves faster than any occupation humans exert. Then businesses came to the second position according to the sensitivity of this job position. 

Because sales are the first and the most interesting thing that a company focuses on which relates to businesses.

 So as a civil engineer you would have the advantage to take a less stressful occupation compared to these previous Industries. it doesn’t mean that civil engineering is not stressful but is less stressful compared to other occupations.

3 – most of the time you will spend outdoors

environmental engineering hard

The beauty about civil engineering is in most times you would be spending Outdoors or in a remote position. That’s being said working in the construction environment and dealing with different occupations like electrical or geo Technical engineers.

This is a great opportunity for people who are extroverts and hate cubicle jobs. It is not like computer science engineering jobs or economics occupations you would have a lot of freedom and flexibility to move between your office and different construction sites.

But it doesn’t mean that you will always be working outside offices as a civil engineer Because in some cases civil engineers work and take a cubicle job occupations like designers who spend most of their time in front of the computer.

 So you have to be aware that civil engineering is not always done outdoors or in remote jobs.  this is going to be good news for people who are introverted and like to work as civil engineers. 

you could read this related article: Stem for INTJ’s (7 important facts to know)

4 – you might not have a good life balance

As we said working as a civil engineer doesn’t mean always you’re going to be comfortable in all cases and or scenarios.  In some cases, you will have a short deadline to complete the project which means falling under a lot of stress.

 So, in this case, you will be working more than 40 hours a week that’s being said working on weekends to just finish the work by the accorded deadline.

A reputation in this industry is very important because a small tiny mistake can cause a catastrophic risk to fail completely a project. It won’t be easy to ensure the responsibility of building a 20-floor building or a bridge so it won’t be easy at all.

So you would have a lot of responsibilities especially if you are an engineer construction manager where you have to manage construction workers and other engineers on the construction sites. This occupation is more stressful than working in an office alone designing a piece of plant.

5 – natural disasters are always happening in the United States

Regardless of the stressful days, civil engineers can face. But in general civil engineering is the safest engineering occupation in the world.  Simply because civil engineers are going to be always in a demand regarding the market fluctuation.

 A great example of that is the natural disaster and catastrophes that happened in the world.

 for instance in the United States every year there are a billion dollars of damages caused by tornadoes, inundations, or fire forests,  especially in these 4 famous cities:

  • California
  • Oklahoma
  • texas
  • Alabama

 As you can see on the TV a  single tornado can ruin and destroy all city buildings in just a few minutes and release billions of dollars of damages that civil engineers should spend years to fix or rebuild again.

 unfortunately, this is not good,  but civil engineers take advantage of that,  which creates new occupations and job opportunities To establish these affected Cities. And that seems not to be avoidable because every year these natural disasters happen.

 and even with the problem of global warming, we expect to have more of these cases, unfortunately, but luckier and worth it for the civil engineering industry.

6 – The population growth of the planet 

The other interesting factor that makes civil engineering worth it that people ignore, is on each year the population growth of planets is Raising by 1% which means, in every year the world population increase by 7 million That being said new houses, hospitals, schools to build, etc…

In 2050 is expected that the world population will be at 10 billion, which is very challenging for the earth’s resources, And also so civil engineering occupations to find innovative ideas to support this huge number of popularity.

7- civil engineering is evolving with technology

Civil engineering is an occupation that is evolving with technology.  in other words, civil engineers used today different Technologies compared to what it was before,  the great example is today civil engineering is harshly oriented toward 3D printing.

 Today we find a lot of companies using 3D printing machines to build houses insignificant or record amounts of time, a lot of people might see that as a threat to civil jobs. But in fact, there is a great opportunity for new civil engineering specializations to rise above.

Maybe in the future, we’re going to find specialization in 3D printing engineering which require a student to take a single career to learn all about 3D printing and how to use it as a civil industry engineer.

So if a domain embraces technology and Innovation there is no worry about it fading or disappearing.

you can watch this video below to know more about 3d printing technology in civil engineering

Conclusion

So if you are worried or asked if civil engineering is worth it, you don’t have to worry 3d printing is worth pursuing your career. Is the best choice for students who are passionate about buildings and construction.

yassin.ajanif

Yassin ajanif is a physics graduate and electromechanical engineer width more than 5 years in the field. My goal and my team are to share our experience to help you succeed in your career as a stem major. we talk about all tips, problems, and struggle STEM students face in their career and how to overcome them.