Negotiating Your Career in Structural Engineering

The fact that a young engineer does not understand the significance ofplanning a career until around 10 years post graduation. This is true for nearly all of us engineers except maybe a selected few. When a youngster steps out of their college as a qualified engineer, full of accomplishment and dreams and hopes for the future, they are too occupied with the success and are also too happy and relieved to have attained a commendable triumph. Apparently, thinking about a career immediately after accomplishing this big feat is not the first priority at this young age. It is sometimes the sense of freedom and ecstasy which takes them to a new high and clouds their minds for some time. It is in the aftermath of this ecstasy that young graduates find that he has little knowledge of how to take the first step in his career. This guide aims to remove the deliberation of the unsure and unknown future and the lack of awareness of what to do next and of what needs to be done to kick start a career. Not knowing what to do is a dangerous situation in itself. I have seen young engineers struggle to decide what to do. Your teachers in your colleges are good academicians but unfortunately seldom know about the practicalities and challenges which you will face and should brace for, in your career in the industry. They are a different class, more focused on the research and academic aspect of engineering and have great capabilities and expertise in those areas. Unfortunately, this kind of expertise may not help you in getting a job in the industry. Through this book, I have attempted to guide you on how to take some tangible, concrete, and quantifiable physical actions which can help you start your career and move up in life. I have tried to make it as simple as possible and laid down the precise steps which you may need to take from the start till you become a renowned personality in your field. This guide is not meant to be an inspirational or spiritual guide for your inner self; on the contrary, it gives advice, on the real world and talks about the measurable actions you can take to promote your career. The Book also has a very elaborate chapter on how to prepare your CV and a separate chapter on how you can start your own enterprise. Some Reviews:1- The book provides a smooth walkthrough for a career development of structural engineers. It gives insight on the basic requirement and knowledge required for navigating a successful career path as a structural engineer. The book is well structured and covers the details of various training needs, information about various design consultants & companies, structural engineering software, etc. The book also has a section for entrepreneurship, which is very enlightening, and also has a chapter on preparing and presenting a CV. I strongly recommend this book for all civil engineers, students of Civil Engineering and specifically those who want to pursue a career as a structural engineer. Dr. Anubhav, (Ph. D. IIT Kanpur) Add. General ManagerNTPC Ltd., India2-Choosing and pursuing a career can be quite difficult, as the decision taken from the options known & available in today's times will decide the rest of the life ahead. Therefore, one has not only to choose a field but the future. Having been a civil engineer for the last more than 50 years working with lot of structural engineers on different projects across the country & abroad, I have seen the changes in the field of structural engineering & adventures in this field. In line to define the role of a structural engineer and to turn someone's dream in to reality with a lot of space & opportunities for creativity, I am delighted to see a guide in the form of this book where in the author has done a 'manthan' to provide to aspirants in the field of Structural Engineering as a career. B. B. KumarExecutive Director in NBCCExecutive Vice President in NCC LtdPresident Construction in Dhoot Group