Civil or Construction

[Sousaclone]

Luckily I have plenty of time to decide between the two. I enjoy the designing part of being a CE but I think it would be fun looking over the construction of a project and being outdoors. Do you have a good chance of designing some projects if you are a ConE?

Design in the contractor world depends on the contractor and the type of work you are doing. I know Kiewit does a ton of engineering in house, but they also do massive projects that require it. Your smaller, local contractors don't do so much of that

PS...working with contractors is well...not fun, even outside. All contractors try to do is lie, cheat, steal, and changeorder your job to death so that they can make $1 more than what you agreed to.

Edit...Yeah, I'm that bitter.

Wow, I don't even know where to begin with that statement.

Maybe you need to find some better contractors.

 

[mj4cy]

I get the dumbest questions from Contractors.....it's pretty funny.

 

[ISU_phoria]

Like one of my ConE professors used to say after half the class failed his test...."if you can't hack it here, there's always the CE class across the hall!"

 

[ia8manfan]

Like one of my ConE professors used to say after half the class failed his test...."if you can't hack it here, there's always the CE class across the hall!"

3/4 of the ConE curriculum is CE classes...so I don't know what he was trying to say. 20 bucks says I know who that prof is too and he took every chance he could to degrade CE's

 

[HighOnCy]

IMO, i always was of the belief that a CE can do any job a ConE can (structural, project management, foundation, steel/timber design, etc.), but a ConE can not do any job that a CE can (transportation, traffic analysis, hydrology/hydraulic design, waste water treatment, environmental saftey, etc.)

 

[clonefromNE]

IMO, i always was of the belief that a CE can do any job a ConE can (structural, project management, foundation, steel/timber design, etc.), but a ConE can not do any job that a CE can (transportation, traffic analysis, hydrology/hydraulic design, waste water treatment, environmental saftey, etc.)

Agreed. If you want more freedom in your future, go CE if you know that all you want to do is be in the field doing construction management, go ConE. ;-)

It's that basic of a question. But you have time.

 

[ISUCyclones]

Go ME and then you can do anything you want in the Engineering world.

QFT

 

[Bwalk]

I will go as far as to say that they are almost interchangeable but the focus is different for each. BTW 3/4 of the ConE curriculum is not CE classes. And I see stupid designs from CE's every job...its funny.

Also, part of being a ConE is trying to erase the stigma attached to contractors due to unethical practices by past contractors as stated previously. I guarantee that my clients would say completely the opposite of what was stated by CyinCo. ConE's are not working out of the back of their trucks. It is a professional position and should be treated as such and afforded due respect, just like a CE.

Also, I would say that from my experiences, there are more lawsuits from ambiguous/poor design than there are incorrect assembly.

 

[CyinCo]

I suppose my comments about contractors was rather harsh. I would say that the NEW contractors we deal with are the way I described about half the time. The good half of those contractors become partners we use over and over again to the benefit of both parties, particularly when they are design build groups.

 

[l2alphmacchio]

CyinCo, your statements couldn't be more true.

 

[BKLYNCyclone]

(Be warned, architect barging into an engineer discussion... ) Given the state of the construction industry right now, I'd probably lean toward Civil. If the "New" new deal continues, there will be a lot of public works projects that will need to be designed and built. Construction, at least for my profession, is dwindling. We've more or less been able to name our construction price for bidding contractors as many are just trying to stay afloat until things pick up again.