which is better Civil or Structural eng

Mahony

Hey im thinking of doing civil or structural engineering next year and I was just wondering which would ye recommend is the best, Architecture would be my third choice and i havent really a clue which field to choose. Any help would be greatly appreciated

Irjudge1

Most colleges degree course are general civil engineering courses which encompass both civil and structural engineering. At the latter stages of the course you can take on modules in specific elements of engineering i.e. structural design, geotechnics, road design, hydraulic design etc.

In trinity I believe the first two years are general engineering i.e. you can go on to study chemical, mechanical civil/structural etc.

godtabh

Irjudge1 wrote:

In trinity I believe the first two years are general engineering i.e. you can go on to study chemical, mechanical civil/structural etc.

Yeah I went there. I work for a consultant and do both civil and structural.

Each field breaks in to more sub disciplines.

For example:

Structural
Industrial and domestic design

Civil
Roads drainage Geotech.

Each can be specialised or you could be a jack of all trades.

If you aren’t sure which to do I'd recommend the common years that done in some colleges. Look at your CAO book for more details

Mahony

Thanks for the replys so far and as a matter of interest would you say engineering can give you a good life. There seems to be more opportunities in engineering than architecture, I ve spoken to a few washed up architects and they dont exactly fill me with enthusiasm for that course. My friends are going for teaching and they reckon it gives you the best life, but I want to make a real success of myself and do something interesting. Can engineering give me all the opportunities I want.

Irjudge1

OK I'm biased but I believe that an engineering degree and a couple of years of experience can be very useful even if you want to transfer to other professions. An engineering education should teach you to think in a logical fashion and problem solve. So it can be viewed very favourably.

There was a guy on the BBC about ten - fifteen years ago, John Harvey Jones, he was a corporate trouble shooter, went in a revitalised failing businesses. He maintained that somebody with a background in civil engineering was likely to be the best project manager you could get for any walk of life. You will find that a lot of senior management in companies outside of the construction industry have engineering backgrounds.

You would certainly achieve a higher level of pay in other professions but there is the cliche that "no day is like another". There is immense satisfaction to be gained from seeing a building you made stand up, a road, harbour, bridge you designed contiributing to society many years after it was completed.

godtabh

Mahony wrote:

Thanks for the replys so far and as a matter of interest would you say engineering can give you a good life. There seems to be more opportunities in engineering than architecture, I ve spoken to a few washed up architects and they dont exactly fill me with enthusiasm for that course. My friends are going for teaching and they reckon it gives you the best life, but I want to make a real success of myself and do something interesting. Can engineering give me all the opportunities I want.

All depends on how willing you want to make a go of it.

You could be a lazy bollox and work for a county council (not saying all county council engineers are lazy but if you want to hide and pick up a pay packet every week its a good place to start) or you would work your socks off and try and work your way up the ladder with the likes of Arup.

There are some very interesting things you could get involved but here and over seas.

An engineering degree is a great primary dergee that can lead on to other fields such as banking, project management etc. It all depends on how far the person wants to go in life

amen

An engineering degree is a great primary dergee that can lead on to other fields such as banking, project management etc. It all depends on how far the person wants to go in life

as do many science degrees such as physics/maths etc

most employeers look for ppl with strong problem solving and logical skills
these are hard to learn
you can always learn the business side afterwards but its very hard to go back and teach ppl engineering/science skills