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Posted: Wed Mar 18, 2020 5:59 am Post subject: Making Career as a Good Structural Engineer
Hello Friends,
Many of the Young Civil Engineering students have asked me a typical question over Sefi, FB, LinkedIn, Twitter etc. as - "How to make Career as a Good Structural Engineer? ". I would like to summarize my views here in the form of a post, for the benefit of all budding engineers. . .
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1. The Voyage of a Structural Engineer begins with the Sound understanding and observations of 'Physics' / mechanics of bodies. Hence Structural engineer should be a good observer about the 'Responses' of materials and objects when subjected to loads.
If you observe the nature carefully for one continuous year (i.e. velocity of water in a river, blowing winds, waving of tall trees, response of fishes in water, animals, stability of birds, upright vertical stone cliffs etc.) then your are 50% closer to your target of being a good Structural Engineer.
2. Drawing is a Language of an Engineer, those who are willing to be a good structural engineer shall be able to draw good freehand pencil sketches, which resembles to the reality. So you should always maintain a small sketch book with you.
3. Attending Part time (late evening) Lectures / workshops once in a Week to understand the spread of the engineering field and the opinions / study by different wizards on the same topic.
4. Reading Engineering Bulletin and technical papers is another important point in the career development of a budding structural engineer. Reading bulletins of IABSE, ICE, etc. is important.
Budding engineers may opt for the membership / chartership exam of some of eminent Engineering institutes like - ACI, ICE, IstructE, IABSE, IEI etc.
5. Codes and Standards and Reference Books - reading national / inter national codes and standards, commentaries on them, comparison of old and new codes etc. is a vital component in the career development. To start with, a college student should carefully read and understand the provisions of IS-456 code.
While reading any code / book, we must take 'self' notes in a small dairy or a note pad and preserve it for future reference.
6. Visiting Engineering trade fairs - to know the existing and upcoming trends / technologies / products related to concrete, steel, timber, post-tensioning, grouting, anchors, chemicals, drilling and blasting etc. one must visit trade fairs like - Constro, Bauma, Concrete Show etc.
7. Join a Library - A good library like BCL / IIT etc. contains valuable national international references / codes / books / magazines. One myst get the membership of one than merely seeking for 'Free' online literature.
8. Model making and Filed / Lab experiments - the model making and experimentation improves our understanding regarding the behavior of materials and objects. Simple experiments using Lego can be done even at home. Now a days engineering kits like 'Mola' is found to be very effective by the budding engineers.
9. Software - software is only a tool to verify the structural behavior. By just knowing operating the software, one can not become a great structural engineer.
10. Field / Site Visits - Budding structural Structural engineers prefer to work under AC in a cover office space; remember this will never make you a good structural engineer !! You have to move out and explore the construction sites around your city and observe several technical activities going out there.
11. Public Interactions - good structural engineers comes within the common public itself by the virtue of knowing the public, their demands, their likes, their dislikes, their pain-points, their festivals, humors, beliefs, culture etc.
12. Documentations / Data management - Structural engineer shall preserve the information (designs / drawings / site photos etc.) in properly organised format and shall refer / use it time to time. Indexing of the data / files is key to success.
13. Interacting with Wise People - budding structural engineers shall discuss / agree / argue / debate / fight (sometimes) with the wise people in the profession on various fundamental aspects on engineering and excel his / her understanding about it.
Knowledge enhances by sharing !
** Structural Engineer should not restrict himself to merely concrete or Steel structures, but also should be vigil to learn any new engineering theories in - concrete technology, Electro-Mechanics, hydrology, geo-technical engineering, metalurgy etc.
Being structural engineer is a pride yet a responsibility !!
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A just tried to cover 13 Golden Rules towards becoming a Good Structural Engineer - but the list is not just limited to this . . . I am sure this post will encourage you and prove to be eye-opener towards career appraisal.
Posted: Thu Mar 19, 2020 4:44 pm Post subject: BECOME A CHARTERED ENGINEER ALSO
Dear Er. Abhyankar
Your list is very good . I want to add one more item :
After 5 years of Structural Engineering experience , in USA Engineers go for becoming a LICENCE PROFESSIONAL ENGINEEER ( P.E.) and in some states a LICINSE STRUCTURAL ENGINEER ( S.E. ) also . In India we call them CHARTERED ENGINEER .
Joined: 21 Feb 2008 Posts: 5538 Location: Gaithersburg, MD, U.S.A.
Posted: Thu Mar 19, 2020 8:53 pm Post subject: Re: BECOME A CHARTERED ENGINEER ALSO
Dear Er Pandyaji
We also have P.E. in India one issued by the Engineering Council of India and the other by the Institition of Engineers(India).
The Chartered Engineer certificate is also issued by the Institution of Engineers (India). Any Engineer who is a member of the Institution of Engineers (India) can get it.
Warm regards
Subramanian
VPandya wrote:
Dear Er. Abhyankar
Your list is very good . I want to add one more item :
After 5 years of Structural Engineering experience , in USA Engineers go for becoming a LICENCE PROFESSIONAL ENGINEEER ( P.E.) and in some states a LICINSE STRUCTURAL ENGINEER ( S.E. ) also . In India we call them CHARTERED ENGINEER .
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