Getting A Job

Ciara22

Hi guys,

Im in my final year of Civil Engineering, and have to say, didnt do too well since first year (repeated 1st year, repeated exams in 2nd and 3rd year!!)
Hopefully this year will be better :rolleyes:
Anyway, I'm not that confident of finding a job due to the poor history y'know. And writing a CV, should you really put all past results on there?
Anyone been in the same situation and still got a pretty decent job, and what are employers really looking for?

Cheers

Andystoran

Hi,
I studied engineering got a pass dgree scrapped my way through college. I worked in Recruitment for a while before going back into Engineering.
Dont put your results for each subject on your CV.Put down a list of subjects that you studied.
You wont have much hasle finding work in Civil Structural. There arnt enough grads in the country for all the jobs available. I unfortunately have manufacturing Engineering degree ans with the price of labour in this country dont have asmany options as yourself.

I hear the smaller contractors are easier to work for.

godtabh

Ciara22 wrote:

Hi guys,

Im in my final year of Civil Engineering, and have to say, didnt do too well since first year (repeated 1st year, repeated exams in 2nd and 3rd year!!)
Hopefully this year will be better :rolleyes:
Anyway, I'm not that confident of finding a job due to the poor history y'know. And writing a CV, should you really put all past results on there?
Anyone been in the same situation and still got a pretty decent job, and what are employers really looking for?

Cheers

A friend in my class had to do repeats every year for 4 years. He didnt repeat any years so I suppose thats the one difference. But he has a very good job. One you get a job and get experience your results in college become less and less important.

If your worried about your CV just put your final year results on it and let them ask the question about other years if they want

Irjudge1

As above just give the final result i.e 2.1, 2.2 etc and list the subjects which you studied without giving inidival exam results.

There is no shortage of work out there. Give a good interview and you'll get a job. Once your in the door then it's all dependent on how you perform at work and you can forget about results.

Employers are looking for people who will get off their backsides and are willing to put in the effort to get the job done. Good communication skills are essential. The technical side is important but once you have a basic grasp of engineering you'll be suprised at how quickly you settle in to it.

Best of luck

godtabh

Your course will give you the understanding on how a problem can be solved. Once you start working you will learn another skill set that will allow you to solve real world problems with the help of the people who will work with you. You get a good mentor and your sorted

Voodu Child

Nobody ever puts each years results on their CV. Only thing that matters is final degree score, and even then, so long as you dont fail i wouldnt worry too much.

You should see some of the graduate dunces my employer has taken on, and its one of the top contractors in the country. Absolutely useless f*cks, havent a clue what they are doing, and no commitment to getting the job done. Id run the lot of them if it was my call, but they just cant get the staff, a lot more jobs than people to fill them (in construction).

Youll be grand.

godtabh

voodoo_child wrote:

Nobody ever puts each years results on their CV. Only thing that matters is final degree score, and even then, so long as you dont fail i wouldnt worry too much.

You should see some of the graduate dunces my employer has taken on, and its one of the top contractors in the country. Absolutely useless f*cks, havent a clue what they are doing, and no commitment to getting the job done. Id run the lot of them if it was my call, but they just cant get the staff, a lot more jobs than people to fill them (in construction).

Youll be grand.

Did you know everything when you left college?

Voodu Child

Nope i didnt know everything, but I was willing to learn, and I was willing to put in long hours to get the job done. And I cared - I wouldnt do something half assed, or leave in the middle of an important pour.

Nobody knows everything (or even much) straight out of college, but there IS a difference between a good graduate and a bad graduate, and my point is, ive seen plenty of bad (lazy etc) graduates walk into great well paying jobs and keep them, simply because the employer cant find anyone better.

The relevance of this to the OP was just to illustrate that there is a skills shortage at the moment, and you dont have to be a hot-shot with a first class degree to get a good job.

godtabh

voodoo_child wrote:

Nope i didnt know everything, but I was willing to learn, and I was willing to put in long hours to get the job done. And I cared - I wouldnt do something half assed, or leave in the middle of an important pour.

Nobody knows everything (or even much) straight out of college, but there IS a difference between a good graduate and a bad graduate, and my point is, ive seen plenty of bad (lazy etc) graduates walk into great well paying jobs and keep them, simply because the employer cant find anyone better.

The relevance of this to the OP was just to illustrate that there is a skills shortage at the moment, and you dont have to be a hot-shot with a first class degree to get a good job.

Sorry what I was trying to say (or point out) was not every body knows everything when they leave college and that you will be learning all over again.

I just felt that the OP might be scared off with your comments if she felt that is the kind of reaction she is going to get once she starts working which might scare her off

Ciara22

Yeah I dont really know much to be honest, even after nearly five years! But thankfully I have common sense and sure I learn quickly (years of last minute cramming)
The other thing is, I stupidly never got any work experience in the construction business during my summers off. I suppose Im just lucky that there seems to be quite a shortage of grads out there or else I'd be joinin the dole queue!

book smarts

What area do you want to go into? Most graduates go into either Civil/Structural Consultancies, or join Contractors. Unless you want an academic career- results are not that important- at least get an honours degree for accreditation when going for chartership in a few years.
However get as good a degree as possible because you may find the business world boring and academia may be just the thing for you - even at a later stage.

In either consultancy or contracting you will find that the job gets more business oriented as time goes on and less technical.

Consultancy consists of -meetings, liasing with Contractor/Architects/Mech/Elec/Steel Fab/Local Authority etc. (phone calls), faxes, organising sketches and drawings/details, computer modelling and calculations, basically. Even then you will find that you are re-hashing old designs, using about 7-8 structural models (Truss, Portal frame, Simple and Continuous beams, Flat Slabs(FE Analysis), over and over etc). It takes about 6 months before you get the hang of it. Computers make your job SO much easier. There are spreadsheets for loads of it.
You will find that as a design engineer your max salary about E50k. As an associate, maybe E60k+. The only way to make more is with your own consultancy, where you might make E200k+, but a lot of hassle.

Contracting is setting out, liasing with loads of different people, site management. Site management is hands-on, and can only be learned on-site. The attitude to have on site is one of- If I don't know whats going on, then I'm going to find out! It is more complicated than consultancy in volume but not understanding. It's not for everyone, but some love it. Site Engineering E60-80K+, but long hours. Site manager then Contracts Manager= Big bucks E80k-E150k maybe

Staring salaries are crap- E15-E20k?. Which is a shame.

I found that the degree only proves you have the ability, the real learning is done on the job. The most inportant thing is- do you get along with people, and ultimately interviewers have 2 concerns- Can you do the job, and will you take the least money?

book smarts

What area do you want to go into? Most graduates go into either Civil/Structural Consultancies, or join Contractors. Unless you want an academic career- results are not that important- at least get an honours degree for accreditation when going for chartership in a few years.
However get as good a degree as possible because you may find the business world boring and academia may be just the thing for you - even at a later stage.

In either consultancy or contracting you will find that the job gets more business oriented as time goes on and less technical.

Consultancy consists of -meetings, liasing with Contractor/Architects/Mech/Elec/Steel Fab/Local Authority etc. (phone calls), faxes, organising sketches and drawings/details, computer modelling and calculations, basically. Even then you will find that you are re-hashing old designs, using about 7-8 structural models (Truss, Portal frame, Simple and Continuous beams, Flat Slabs(FE Analysis), over and over etc). It takes about 6 months before you get the hang of it. Computers make your job SO much easier. There are spreadsheets for loads of it.
You will find that as a design engineer your max salary about E50k. As an associate, maybe E60k+. The only way to make more is with your own consultancy, where you might make E200k+, but a lot of hassle.

Contracting is setting out, liasing with loads of different people, site management. Site management is hands-on, and can only be learned on-site. The attitude to have on site is one of- If I don't know whats going on, then I'm going to find out! It is more complicated than consultancy in volume but not understanding. It's not for everyone, but some love it. Site Engineering E60-80K+, but long hours. Site manager then Contracts Manager= Big bucks E80k-E150k maybe

Staring salaries are crap- E15-E20k?. Which is a shame.

I found that the degree only proves you have the ability, the real learning is done on the job. The most inportant thing is- do you get along with people, and ultimately interviewers have 2 concerns- Can you do the job, and will you take the least money?

godtabh

book smarts wrote:

Computers make your job SO much easier. There are spreadsheets for loads of it.

Computers only make it easy if you know what your doing. Thats what college is for. It gives you the understanding of how the computer programme works.

When I started off I did everything by hand and checked it with the computers. No engineer should be reliant on computers. You should have an idea of what the answer is and use a computer to back you up.

Irjudge1

I'd agree that site engineering can only be learned on site however college doesn't prepare you for the design office / consultancy office where graduates are on a steep learning curve before they are actually starting to earn their living.

In terms of volume of work while site engineers are involved with organising a number of site operations at any given time the consultant / design engineer will be working on a number of projects of varying scale and at different stages feasibility - construction at any givem time.

It also has to be said that site engineers worth their salt have a good technical understanding and are able to put forward alternate solutions to the design team in often to save money and increase profits.

godtabh

Irjudge1 wrote:

I'd agree that site engineering can only be learned on site however college doesn't prepare you for the design office / consultancy office where graduates are on a steep learning curve before they are actually starting to earn their living.

Dont agree with some of what you say.

The whole idea of college is to prepare you for the real world. You have the basic tools from college to work in an office. You will then learn as you gain experience

Irjudge1

kearnsr wrote:

The whole idea of college is to prepare you for the real world. You have the basic tools from college to work in an office. You will then learn as you gain experience

College teaches you to learn for yourself, how to research subjects you don't know about. However you do not walk out of college into an office and sit at a computer and start straight into scheme design. Understandably it takes time and the majority of graduates do not earn their keep for many months after they are first employed.

College may assist in preparing you for the real world by giving you a technical grounding but no real insight to the business side of the industry. Some would argue that going to college only cushions you from the real world. Indeed some of the best engineers I know started as technicans and did their degrees part time.

Economics don't come into design projects at college with the same emphasis as the real world. Buildability is something that only comes with experience. Confidence to point out to a client or another member of a design team that their expectations are unreasonable and costly only comes with time.

I'm not saying graduates are useless or know nothing because if they were we would be employing people straight from secondary school.

book smarts

Computers only make it easy if you know what your doing. Thats what college is for. It gives you the understanding of how the computer programme works.

When I started off I did everything by hand and checked it with the computers. No engineer should be reliant on computers. You should have an idea of what the answer is and use a computer to back you up.

Agreed- computers should never be taken as gospel and you should always have a hand calc.

Most programs that I've used are spreadsheets- i.e RCC etc, and FE/stick model analysis. A book will tell you how these work, not college.


I'd agree that site engineering can only be learned on site however college doesn't prepare you for the design office / consultancy office where graduates are on a steep learning curve before they are actually starting to earn their living.

In terms of volume of work while site engineers are involved with organising a number of site operations at any given time the consultant / design engineer will be working on a number of projects of varying scale and at different stages feasibility - construction at any givem time.

It also has to be said that site engineers worth their salt have a good technical understanding and are able to put forward alternate solutions to the design team in often to save money and increase profits.

Agreed- College doesn't prepare you for consultancy either.

When I say volume I mean type of work. More variation in contracting than consultancy, I find. You just have more to learn about how the systems work before you can run a site. In consultancy most of the designs are simple forms which can be (effectively) based on old designs- its not rocket science(although some characters act like it is).

I also agree a good site engineer should know design.