An Insight of Career Perspectives in Construction Industry

Preamble:

Building Construction have always been admired career options for students. Abundant varieties of skills are required for construction industry which implies portentous career perspectives. The career paths of budding engineers can be diversified once they specialized in their area of interest. Large opportunities are there in construction industry to make a start-up company and become boss for their own business. This industry exhibits different forms of career paths covering various aspects of construction activities. A statistical study says that 4 million skilled Civil Engineers are required to complete the roll-out project available in the market. Here let’s try to get a glimpse out of this in detail.

Career Opportunities – A Review:

The construction industry is partitioned into two sectors- (i) Construction of Housing, Institutional and Commercial Buildings and (ii) Infrastructural Development.

1. Housing, Institutional and Commercial Buildings

Residential, Institutional and Commercial buildings are the major parts of construction in the globe. Due to its comprehensive presence and equally grandiose job opportunities residential construction is usually appraised as a separate sector. Opportunities of working on mighty construction projects for renowned companies are available in this sector. Always there is a greater opportunity for growth in construction sector for the young and dynamic engineer who is ready work hard and smart; from a humble junior engineer to a project head. Apart from this there is wide spectrum of opportunities are there in the field of maintenance, repair, and rehabilitation area. We all know that the Commercial, entertainment and institutional buildings are accountable for the economic and social well being development. Hence huge jobs are there also for construction. Let us put forth straight like this,  whatever may be the project either it may be housing, commercial, health, educational and industrial, nearly 60 percent of the total budgeted investment need to be spent for constructing operational building. The abovementioned opportunities are demand knowledgeable people in the areas of designing, detailing, supervising, estimating, managing and controlling the projects. The detailed job requisites are listed below.

• Planning Engineer: The role of a planning engineer is to prepare the time schedule of the project and fix the target date of completion of different activities.
• Structural Consultant: Provide technical guidance on secure designs and construction. They obtain planning and/or building regulations sanction and investigate configurations of the basic components of a structure.
• Quantity Surveyor: The quantity surveyor is liable for estimating the costs, materials, and labour required to accomplish a project. They competent enough to use relevant software and very much able to communicate with the site engineers in terms of cost of construction.
• Building Information Modelling (BIM) Analysts: The role of the BIM Analyst is to carry out analyses and simulations based on the BIM model (US GSA, 2009), e.g., building performance study, circulation and security examination. This specialist can work in Drafting and Design Firms, and also as a Design Consultant.
• Site Engineer: The role site engineer as a mediator between the field workers and the management office to ascertain effective communication. Apart from this, they are liable for any problems or conflicts that may come up between the field and the office.
• Construction Manager: The job of the construction manager is to plan, operate, lead and control the construction project to mange time and cost. They are the key persons in the organization to formulate strategic planning, managing and controlling of men, machine, and materials involved in the construction project.
• Procurement Engineer: The job of procurement engineer is to purchase materials, equipments and other service requirements for successful construction operation. Their essential skill-sets are to recognize quality materials, equipments and the relevant suppliers who will provide those with optimal cost to the company.
• Maintenance Engineer: Maintenance Engineers are liable for the fixing and maintenance of industrial equipment and existing buildings. They perform routine equipment safeguarding, troubleshoot issues, and make onsite maintenance when required.
• Safety Engineer: He is the in-charge for preparing safety rules and regulation of the job site to provide safety to all. He is responsible for monitoring and controlling labours health and safety at work place.

2. Infrastructural Development:

The construction of roads, bridges, railways, airports, harbour, water, sewer, power sectors, oil and gas pipe lines all are covered under one umbrella called infrastructures. All of us knew that different central and state government schemes are announced in the budget for infrastructural projects, especially 100 smart cities have been identified and the project is in development stage which unveiling abundant career opportunities and high-paying jobs in planning, operation, maintenance and control. This highly expensive massive scale projects will take several years to get completed and requires hard working and committed employees who even work under difficult situations. These projects are real job providers for Civil Engineering students for numerous years, but one must ready to work flexible enough across the geographic boundary and time. The job profiles included in this sector are:

• Design Engineer: He is the key person in industry who is responsible for new strategies, creating new avenues for business, products and systems.
• Highway Engineer: Highway engineers are specialized in building highways and calculate total funding of the project. They explore new machines and technology, new pavement designs, and enhanced maintenance operations. This research is the origin for well-planned and well-built highways.
• Sanitary Engineer: Sanitary engineers are involved in the projects such as water and waste water treatment, composting wastes to produce fertilizer and energy recovery from the waste materials by following regulatory norms of the government bodies.
• Quality Controller: A quality control engineer is responsible for planning, extending and executing the quality management systems in the construction sector. 

How to Get Started for this Dream Career?

There are multiple of courses being referred at college level which can mould a beginner for a career in construction. A 4-year Civil Engineering Programme can be pursued in a university by keeping into mind the future prospect of the course. Further specialization Courses like Structural Engineering, Construction Engineering and Management, Environmental Engineering, Transportation Engineering, Geo Technical Engineering, and Smart Infrastructures can be beneficial in this regard. While pursuing these courses, internship with leading general builders and core branch engineering companies may give a good grasp for future running.

On a Concluding Note:

The field of construction is a chief employment originator. It promotes the society during economic recession. So choosing a career in this field or being a part of this field is very praiseworthy. With an appropriate perception of the industry and the various amenities it provides aspirants, those undeniably have an affluent and worthwhile career.