What To Do After Graduating From Civil Engineering

Last November you finally had a sudden rush and relief when you finished your last exam, December was even better as you nervously found out that you passed all your classes and you have finally graduated congratulations! Like most of us you have probably spent the summer with your feet up at the beach overdosing on Nanna’s Pavlova, but now it is time to get serious about your job hunt and the beginning of your career.

As a Recruitment Consultant in the Civil space, I am often speaking with young, eager and ambitious Graduate Engineers who are just like you, looking to begin their careers. One of the first questions I ask is which pathway would you like to take as an Engineer - Consultant? Contractor? Client-Side? Often, the answer is “I do not really care I just want a job” (they do not really say that, but it is pretty much what is meant). As a Graduate, I can understand that you would want to grab the first opportunity you could and run with it to get your foot in the door, but I would encourage you to really think about it. I am regularly faced with individuals who followed the strategy previously mentioned and after three years doing something they do not like – they are trying to jump from one division in the Civil arena to the other. Of course, this is achievable, but it is often challenging and in cases may lead you to take a step back in your career progression.

It is not all bad news though, here at Consultive my colleagues and I have put our heads together in the tea room over 2 Espresso’s and an Almond Latte (questionable, I know) to offer some insights. We have come together to outline the common differences, pros and cons of working for a Consultant, Contractor or Client Side respectively.

I will get us started by discussing the consultancy side: The main point of difference here is that Consultancy is a lot more technically driven. You are more involved at the front end of the project with design. This typically suits the individuals who have strong technical knowledge and show innovation for alternative solutions. After speaking with some recently placed candidates, they gave me their pros and cons:

Pros:

• You can be involved with a project from concept through the entire design and take through construction
• You are challenged daily to create innovative solutions to meet your clients’ needs
• Work-life balance
• You get a real understanding of the engineering process and how it all works together

Cons:

• It is very office intensive; you can spend a large proportion of your week in the office at your computer
• You do not often spend a great deal of time on site watching the project being constructed

Our Civil Contractor Recruiter, Aaron Gatt, gave us some input from a couple of people he was speaking to about the Contractor space. This is more on the delivery and the front line of the project. It is a high-pressured environment fighting against tough deadlines; this often suits individuals who are excellent communicators, confident and able to perform under pressure.

Pros:

• Get to see the project be built daily, on the front line getting your hands dirty
• You are largely in control of whether the project will be profitable and delivered to a high quality of standard
• You get to coordinate and communicate with a huge diversity of services, clients, consultants and trades

Cons:

• Long hours and often weekend work
• Project locations are often rural, and you have little input to which project you work on
• It can be an extremely high-pressured environment

Our office Pun-oligist and general good guy, Grant had a chat with a few of his client-side candidates to find out a bit more about what makes them tick. Client Side can be either working for a council or an Authority like a VicRoads or for a Private firm like Transurban. These positions often hold the power to make decisions around who designs and/or constructs what projects, involved in reviewing design and constructed work and uphold the specific standards used in Engineering. Government positions regularly offer very good graduate programs as well. These programs are similar to the first year of uni. You will get an extensive rotation through all areas of Engineering from design through to construction. These can be quite handy for those who are not entirely sure what area of Civils they want to pursue.

Pros:

• On a project, you get a say in who is involved, what is involved, how it will be delivered and when it will be delivered
• You gain a lot of exposure to design review, contract review and engineering standards
• It can give you a great foundation as an Engineer to move to contractor or consultant side

Cons:

• You are often furthest away from the innovation of the engineering
• It can be very data review intensive. There is a lot of time spent reviewing proposals, tenders, business case, approval applications etc

We hope you have finished the last piece pavlova, finished this article and are feeling all inspired! Our ambition is to inform those who are seeking guidance on their step in their careers, and we hope that this article has offered some insight. Whatever avenue you chose you will play an important part of Australia’s property and infrastructure. We must finally add that whatever pathway you do choose there will always be a chance for you to move to another sector.

If you would like to learn more about this topic or want to talk about your next step in your career, then I encourage you to get in contact with me (Bernie). If there are any complaints about this article, then you can get in contact with Aaron as he sips his Almond Latte