There are thousands of engineering colleges in India, a number which only helps stipulate the fact that the discipline is considered as rather important in our country. Engineering colleges in India also offer a number of varied disciplines in engineering, one of the most popular of which is civil engineering. When we think about a civil engineer, the first thing to enter our minds would be bridges and buildings. Though these are the most conspicuous symbols of civil engineering, fact remains that this is one of the oldest branches of engineering in our world today. In fact, the first instances of civil engineering can be dates back to the time when people decided to give up nomadic living and to settle down to put roofs over their heads.
Engineering colleges in India that offer civil engineering also offer a number of sub-disciplines like forensic engineering, geo technical engineering, architectural engineering, etc. If you have been harboring a notion about becoming a civil engineer, you must first have a basic knowledge of the skills that you will require to become a good engineer. Besides the basic specialized skills, engineering colleges in India try to imbibe the following skills in students, to help them succeed in their choice of career:
Leadership Skills
Leadership skills seem to be a requirement in almost every profession you may choose. In civil engineering, the engineer is the one who ultimately carries the responsibility of the design and the implementation of the entire project. The engineer is the one who takes up the lead of a diverse team of people that includes construction managers, technicians, surveyors, architects, transport engineers, etc. And as they also need to be able to maintain the confidence of the planning authorities, keeping the project in budget and on time depends a lot on the civil engineers leadership skills.
Critical Thinking
Complex problems can crop up in almost any project. Civil engineers need to be ready to completely analyze the problem, come up with solutions, analyze those solutions as well, and then come up with the best approach to deal with the problem.
Visualization
The ability to visualize how every complex component will come together and how the end product will look is another important skill. They must be prepared with dynamic visualization skills, which can help them,identify and resolve issues even before they manifest.
A civil engineer must be able to envision how interrelationships will be affected if one or more of the complex components are changed.
Communication Skill
One of the marks of a good leader is his impeccable communication skill. This does not only include listening to ideas from their own team and others involved, but also the ability to be able to effectively get their own ideas across as well.
Project Management
At the end of the day, the engineer is the one responsible for the project. They are the ones who have to manage it throughout, evaluating everyone’s work, ensuring compliance to all applicable laws, etc. Their success depends a lot on their ability for accurate estimation of costs, the time that will be taken, etc.
Technical Skills
This is probably the most obvious skill required. Being a civil engineer is not easy; it involves a lot responsibilities and needs and ample amount of skills. A civil engineer must be adept in trigonometry, calculus, statistics, algebra, and geometry. Other skills include being good at interpreting financial statements, physics, practical application of scientific rules, architectural design, and so on.
Being a civil engineer is a very exciting prospect, but the preparation that one has to do to get to that stage is proportionate to the amount of responsibility that one has to shoulder. If you’re looking to get an admission into one of the engineering colleges in India for a civil engineering course, make sure that you are prepared for the rigorous training that goes into it.
