How to have a Successful Career in Civil Engineering as a fresher

Civil engineering is an inspiring field that deals with several facets of construction and infrastructure from highways, build environment, wastewater, air pollution to railways and airports among many others. The construction industry and infrastructure development have been showing an upward trend worldwide, with India also not being far behind. It is thus a worrying trend that several civil engineering freshers by the hundred thousand find it hard to find jobs and have a long, successful, and impactful career in the civil engineering stream.?

One can complain about the lack of an updated syllabus and upskilling done by technical institutions in our country or bemoan about the industry’s failure in investing in young minds and training them. The trust of the matter is, it its a grueling under-paying struggle to be a civil engineer, especially in the private sector in India. This said the future has its flakes of hope and one can have a successful career in civil engineering if one adopts a growth and hustle mindset and have a well thought of networked approach. Some tips to adopt such a mindset are the following:-??

• Several graduating engineers as freshers lack digital or computational skills and many might struggle to communicate in English properly. The lack of such basic soft skills is seen as a red flag by any company and one should work to improve the same not just for getting a job but to develop an overall holistic personality and further networking and leadership opportunities.?
• As a fresher, getting hired with just the foundational half-heartedly rote learned knowledge in college is not enough. One needs to show their motivation to work in the industry and position themselves as unique among several similar personas through research-oriented projects preferably in areas that are trans-disciplinary and innovative.?
• Once in a job, showing interest in several facets of daily workings and taking up extra responsibilities to accelerate one learning process is also vital. One must also keep in mind to sense the office politics and learn to say NO so as not to be burdened by extra work even when you have prior personal or professional commitments.?
• Organizing events during one's college life no matter how big or small showcases motivation and project management skills. It shows employers that you can lead teams, meet deadlines, and complete tasks with an efficiency that can be honed in the real professional world.?
• The most important problem faced by a Civil Engineer is the lack of technical and practical exposure. Students can aim to pursue profile based Internships, which will give a great exposure of practical scenarios. This will also reduce the gap between students' skillsets and Industry requirement.

A career in civil engineering might not look the rosiest as a fresher, but can be highly fulfilling, well-compensated, and impactful if one plays their cards right and is passionate about the construction and infrastructure industry. Many of these mentioned above can be generalized for other industries which goes on to say how the construction industry is highly connected and has a corporate ladder to climb.?