EVERYTHING You Need to Know About Civil Engineering (incl. Survey)

How do you become a Civil Engineer?

It all starts with good A-Levels; you’re looking for around a minimum of 300 UCAS Points, with there being a strong preference from universities for subjects such as Physics and Maths.

Physics is naturally important for Civil Engineering as it forms the backbone of your knowledge of mechanics, elasticity, loads and failures etc, although many universities will accept other sciences, such as Chemistry, if it is accompanied by Maths. This tends to be because a lot of the core skills come from a good understanding of mathematics, especially if you study a mechanics module.

I, myself, studied Maths, Chemistry, Biology and French and I went on to successfully obtain a Masters degree in Civil Engineering.

Levels of Education: Bachelor, Masters, PhD

There are essentially three levels of degree you can obtain for Civil Engineering if you opt to go to university, namely the Bachelor’s, Masters and PhD. There is also the apprenticeship route for those of you fresh from A-levels that don't feel the desire to go through university.

Bachelor - BSc or BEng

This is the opening gambit for university degrees in Civil Engineering, and if taken full-time is a 3-year course typically, with many schools offering a placement in industry after your second year. The BEng is the most common form of Civil Engineering degree and is rated higher than the BSc as it is directly associated with engineering, whereas the BSc can be attributed to many science courses.

Masters - MSc or MEng

As with the Bachelors, when it comes to deciding between the MSc and MEng it is the latter that comes out on top. The MEng tends to be an incorporated Masters degree i.e. it is essentially a 4-year course which culminates in a Masters, rather than the traditional route of a Bachelor’s degree followed by a post-grad Masters (MSc).

Having said that, some students, myself included, begin on the BEng course to then, grades-permitting, choose to move onto the MEng course. For an extra year of study, it propels you forward a couple of years if your goal is to become a Chartered Engineer (but we’ll go into this in more detail later).

PhD

A PhD is the highest accolade for an engineer, and one that few people end up taking on. Those who do tend to finish university and go into the industry for a few years, to then attempt the PhD study a few years later.

It is a brilliant opportunity to purely focus on one aspect of engineering, and involves a lot of self-driven research and examination to obtain results and conclusions that the industry has not seen before. One of the benefits of this extra level of education is that you will be recognised as an expert in your field of study, and the job opportunities will reflect that, whilst massively boosting your chances of taking part in pioneering research.

How difficult is the degree?

The difficulty of a Civil Engineering degree completely depends on the level of education you aspire to achieve i.e. MEng, PhD etc. as laid out above. However, even if you are looking for the Bachelor’s alone, you will need to possess strong analytical and numerical skills, as well as a confident understanding of maths and physics.

In addition, it is essential that you’re able to knuckle down and motivate yourself to work hard - make no mistake, university is not the same as school, with each year of your course you will be required to be more and more independent.

Whilst you will have lecturers, tutors and maybe even mentors, you will not have a schoolteacher to push and help you every step of the way. This becomes all the more apparent in the Masters degree, whilst in a PhD you are pretty much out on your own.

General Requirements

I have mentioned previously the grades generally sought after for Civil Engineering degrees at A-level standard, and at the end of your degree, for the best career-opportunities, you should be aiming for a minimum of 2:1 (60%), whilst a 1st (70%) in Civil Engineering would jump out to any employer.

The general pass mark for your exams at university will be 40%, although many universities raise this to 50% after your first year and to be part of the Masters programme you’re likely going to need to be averaging 60% across all modules.

What subjects do you study?

Civil Engineering covers a lot of different topics, the variety of which is one of the reasons it is such a sought-after degree and means you can go into a huge array of sectors once you graduate. Modules include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Mechanics of Structures and Materials
• Structural Form and Behaviour
• Hydraulics
• Mathematics
• Soil Mechanics
• Hydrogeology
• Renewable technology

As each course year passes, you’re likely to find the number of modules reduces and become more detailed, and with that, more intense.

By the final year the few modules you’ll have (as little as three or four) will go into great depth of a certain subject; for example, one of my final year subjects was 'Dynamics of Structures with Earthquake Engineering Applications’. You will also be expected to undertake a Final Project, or Dissertation, where you must prepare a thesis on a specific subject, carrying out your own research and analysis to come up with your own conclusions.

Where to Study?

When it comes to deciding which universities or colleges to apply to, the usual suspects are near the top of the list, with Cambridge, Oxford and Imperial College London all in the top 10 in the rankings.

But there are also some universities that, whilst may not be as strong in the others in some courses, have great programmes for Civil Engineering and these include the likes of Glasgow, Southampton and Strathclyde.

Whilst these should be the ones to aim for, do not be disheartened if you don’t see your prospective university on the list; I studied at the University of Brighton (by no means at the top of the list) and still managed to land a spot at a top consultancy!

Tips for studying

Where to start? You could put together a group of your best friends and family, and it’s likely that each one of you would find your own niche technique for studying, revising and sitting exams. Having said that, there are a few ways that I’ve found effective in the past:

1. Find the best method that works for you. Some people like writing down equations repeatedly to ingrain the various combinations of letters and numbers into their brains, or redoing past papers until the answers click. Others enjoy recording themselves whilst talking through theories, and then listening back to them in bed - although be warned, listening to the various complexities of the Mohr-Mascheroni Circle Theorem is a great way to drift off to sleep...
2. Get yourself a study buddy, or buddies! I always found getting together with a group of course-mates to be a brilliant method to learn because you can bounce ideas and methods off one another, and if you can teach others it consolidates your own knowledge.
3. Make sure you know how to apply your knowledge to scenario-based questions; it’s all very well learning the text for one specific sample question but you need to be able to understand the concept and adapt to the different situations put forward in the question.

Career Opportunities

What do you do as a Civil Engineer?

The range of different roles a Civil Engineer can play is huge, and as such there is a host of different opportunities out there to explore. I was once asked to define Civil Engineering in an interview, and there’s no real definitive answer because it’s effectively anything to do with the Built Environment, which is an incredibly vague way of putting it!

The reality is a Civil Engineer could be anything from someone who is creating an innovative design for a new suspension bridge, to managing the implementation of a giant residential development or carrying out research into cutting-edge renewable technology.

The options are vast, it’s up to you to put in the hard work and then decide where your niche lies. I, personally, currently work as a Project Manager in the urban realm development sector, which at the moment has me focused on public sector highways work.

What can you do with a Civil Engineering degree?

I have already listed some of the options that you can pursue with a Civil Engineering degree, and one of the brilliant aspects of it is that it is a career that can take you around the world. You’d be surprised at how frequently the bigger companies offer the chance to move abroad.

Even if you emigrated elsewhere on your own accord, you won’t have to look far for a company that needs an engineer – and the beauty of it is, the language of maths and physics is universal!

Engineers are highly sought-after individuals because the skills are so transferable. Having the ability to solve problems, analyse data and have the organisational skills to run a project would put you in solid footing in areas such as the financial industry or the digital world.

An example of the typical professions for Civil Engineers can be seen below:

• Highways Engineer
• Geotechnical Engineer
• Bridge Engineer
• Renewable Energy specialist
• Structural Engineer
• Construction Engineer
• Project Manager – Consultant/Construction
• Oil & Gas Engineer
• Environmental specialist

As you progress with a role in Civil Engineering, one of the key goals is to work towards Chartership, usually with the Institute of Civil Engineers, which can take often between 3-8 years to obtain. Once a Chartered Engineer, this opens up the job market massively as you would now be eligible for roles with much greater responsibility, and with it a higher salary.

Is the future bright? How in demand are Civil Engineers?

One of the benefits of Civil Engineering, and this isn’t exaggerated, is that there has been and will always be a strong demand for skilled Civil Engineers. This is because the skeleton of any country is the infrastructure, the hospitals, aviation, highways etc. and all of this is implemented, maintained and protected by some form of Civil Engineering.

There are new adverts out just recently, similar to those you’ll see for the Army or the Navy, urging young people to get into engineering because the demand is growing as the country develops further. This highlights the demand for Civil Engineers.

It doesn’t mean it’s going to be a piece of cake to land a job however, with sectors such as Oil & Gas and Renewable Energy being particularly competitive. If you do struggle, there is always the option of volunteering, which is a great way of gaining some good experience whilst being a lot less competitive that nailing down a job.

One of the most well-known companies to consider would be EngineersWithoutBorders, whose programmes stretch all around the world and could have you working on 3, 6 or 12-month projects in countries such as Tanzania or Peru.

So, let’s talk about the money

Market Averages

The salaries that you can find by researching online are generally accurate, but note that these average salaries may be skewed by big-city weightings and different levels of position. For example, searching the average salary for a Director of Engineering could produce a comparison between the top dog of a national company based in London, to the manager of a 5-man office in rural Wales!

How much does a Civil Engineer earn?

The starting salary for a Civil Engineer can vary depending on location, sector, company and level of degree obtained.

A graduate with a Masters degree, landing a job with a well-known company in London, could expect a salary of close to £30,000, although this could rise to nearer £40k if you start with one of the Oil & Gas conglomerates. Outside of London, the range is typically between £20k-30k for a graduate Civil Engineer.

Across the UK, the average salary for a mid-level Civil Engineer is around £40-50k, and this rises to £50k-60k for Chartered Engineers. It is not quite as simple to provide an average for a Civil Engineer who has obtained a PhD, because there are so many routes to go with from here and, unlike becoming Chartered, it does not necessarily guarantee a pay-rise.

Having said that, a PhD will never reflect badly on you and may well help move up the ladder towards a 6-figure income.

In Civil Engineering, in general, the big money comes once you reach the management positions i.e. Managing Directors, Regional Directors, CEOs etc. If you reach these heights for the big-name companies, you can expect a salary of £100k+, in addition to a range of benefits and bonuses.