I got a job as a civil engineer with these skills. (15+ skills)

Nowadays people didn't get jobs and they blame our education system but is it true? So in this article, we will cover all the topics like why people not getting jobs which are the key skills that require as a civil engineer and how can you get that skills.

1. Why people didn't get job

2. Key skills required as a civil engineer

3. How can you develop skills

Why people didn't get job

In every field, whether it is IT field electrical mechanical or you are a project manager and for every labor, you are working in different fields like construction garage It's true for every branch:-

"As without brain, human is worthless, just like that without Skills employees are worthless."

Let's take an example just imagine you are the owner of a big construction company, and you have a lot of construction work pending. To complete all the construction work you need some employees, who had completed their civil engineering.

Now every company hires engineers by taking their interviews and some examinations. and in that examination, they want engineers who are capable of handling the whole side work.

you are the owner of your company so you got candidates who applied for civil engineering posts, and you take an interview with both of them. The scenario is like one candidate has good knowledge about the construction field, but another one has only basic knowledge and theoretical knowledge. so what will you select?

I know the first person who has good knowledge in construction work, because if you select the second candidate then you have to recheck every work in the beginning, also you have to give a training to that candidate and because of this process, you will lose some money, time and energy so, in the beginning, big companies prefer a candidate who has more experience rather than theoretical knowledge.

And due to high experience, you will develop some skills on-site, like how to talk to a salesperson? how to deal with materials? how to handle staff and laborers? overall you will develop a most important skill which is how to communicate with people around us. There are some other skills available that we will discuss later in this article.

We know that technical skill and theoretical knowledge are both essential but in the construction field, we consider experience as a key skill.

Key skills required as a civil engineer

1. Technical skills

As we all know we learn technical skills in our bachelor's in college and universities. this skill is very essential because we must know every technical term and all technical concepts related to civil engineering. 

on-site, we are not using that technical terms but with structural engineers, tested agencies, and some other fields we need to talk in the technical team. so technical skills are basic and a must for beginners.

2. Speaking the local language

language plays a very important role in the construction field. suppose you are working in an area where the local language is Hindi then Hindi is a must for you. so, make sure you know the local language because labor and workers are local and if we want to talk with them then we must speak the same language.

3. Communication skills

Communication is the way you express yourself to others. If you want to share your ideas with your colleague and laborers then you must know this skill. 

4. Time management

time management is a normal skill that is important for every work and field, whether it is doctor or engineer.

5. Problem-solving

On the construction site, we face many problems related to workers, material, concreting, formwork, and other small conflicts. so we must know how to solve this problem instead involve in that problem.

6. Teamwork

In every company or your own construction project, we have to work with coworkers, laborers, and some other people. so working with strangers is also a skill because some people get nervous in front of other people and they didn't express their ideas in front of them.

7. Critical thinking

Critical thinking means simple word analysis and evaluation. In big companies, you have to notice many points which are may affect your work quality and timing of work.

8. Work under pressure

Every company has some circumstances where they have to submit or complete work within a particular time frame. but sometimes they reduce that timeframe and you have very less time compared to the previous also with this you have pressure to maintain quality of work and owner pressure to complete that faster as possible.

9. Monitoring skills

Monitoring sounds simple but on-site when you work in a large area you can't stay at every portion of the site. so you need to know what is happening on your site at every portion of construction. if you miss some information then you will not able to plan the next phases and schedule.

10. Plan Reading

there are many different types of plans available on construction sites, like steel schedules, footing schedules, beam schedules, and a lot more other plans. and every plan gives information about the different components of the building from steel to concrete. so it is a very basic skill in the civil engineering field. without this, you will not able to start and guide at the site.

11. Leadership skills

In every position, it should be a site engineer, project manager, or structural engineer. you will be leading some staff of your company. how to work with staff is important but how to get more work from staff is also one of the important skills.

12. Bargaining skills

To construct a building we need many different types of material, like sand, cement, aggregate, admixture, and other some chemicals. so we should know the price of every material and how less you can get it. because as the prices of material are less the overall cost will be less and you will get huge profit.

14. Sales

This is an extra skill by which you can get some extra income as a civil engineer. most construction building has one program of a broker, where you can get a commission when you help them to sell their flat. and commission is literally so high and sometimes you can get more than your salary in a single day.

15. Report writing

After completing every step or after ordering some material you need to make a report for records and that is very crucial because you have to make reports every day. daily report, weekly report, material report, test report, and payment reports.

16. AutoCAD 

On-site, you don't need to work on ca but if you know this skill then it will be an advantage for you. it will help you to read drawings and it will work fast.

How can you develop skills?

Some skills you can learn and some you may learn after doing it in other words after getting experience.

Like you can learn cad but you may master it by doing some real project.

1. Get experience at a local construction site (under contractor side)

    Local construction sites didn't work with high quality and they don't require very skilled people, so you can start your civil engineering journey from there and you will get some experience as well as high-quality skills.

    make sure to work under the contractor site. there are two different bodies ( owner side and contractor side). if you work from the owner's site then your duties will like to check work and maintain the flow of work. and your salary is also very less because you don't have that amount of work.

    but if you work from a contractor site then you will get every aspect to learn. and the salary is also good.

2. Enroll in a specific skill course

there are some courses available on the market. where they teach you some specific skills. like AutoCAD, technical skills, scheduling, valuation, and quantity survey these skills you can learn from the institute. 

Also read: Civil engineering - role & responsibility | salary | profession