Civil Engineer
Salary Levels
The salary for a fresh civil engineering graduate ranges from anywhere between Rs.25000 - Rs.40000 per month. Over a period of time, say around 5- 8 yrs after passing out, the salary level settles to around Rs.10 Lakhs Per Annum.
Famous Personalities
E.Shreedharan: The Metro-Man of India
He is civil engineer from the Government Engineering College, Kakinada (known as JNTU).
For a short tenure, he worked as a lecturer in Civil engineering at the Government Polytechnic, Kozhikode and a year at the Bombay Port Trust as an apprentice.
Later he joined the Indian Railways in its Service of Engineers. His first assignment was in the Southern Railway as a Probationary Assistant Engineer in December 1954.
In 1963, a cyclone washed away parts of Pamban Bridge that connected Rameshwaram to mainland Tamil Nadu. The Railways set a target of six months for the bridge to be repaired while Sreedharan's boss, under whose jurisdiction the bridge came, reduced it to three months. Sreedharan was put in-charge of the execution and he restored the bridge in just 46 days. The Railway minister's Award was given to him in recognition of this achievement.
He retired from Indian Railways as Member Engineering in 1990.
After retirement he was appointed the CMD of Konkan Railway. The project had 93 tunnels along a length of 82 km and involved tunneling through soft soil. The total project covered 760 km and had over 150 bridges. The project was completed without significant cost and time overruns was considered an achievement by many.
Then, he was made the managing director of Delhi Metro, all the scheduled sections were completed by their target date or before, and within their respective budgets. Sreedharan was given the sobriquet of Metro Man by the media. After 16 years of service with the Delhi Metro, Sreedharan retired from service on 31 December 2011.
A Day in Life
A civil Engineer typically starts his career at a junior engineer level and he starts by actually supervising the construction work in a project location. There his key responsibility is to oversee the adherence to set parameters of quality by workers and technicians.
Later on, as the engineer gains more experience then he starts participating in planning and cost engineering functions also. His interaction with Architects’ and designers’ increases and the engineer participates in discussions with senior people to prevent time and cost overrun in the project.
Is Civil Engineering not the career you are looking for? Here is a detailed list of all career options that you can explore.
You may also like to read up on other engineering careers such as:
Automobile Engineering as a career
Career as an Aeronautical Engineer
Career as an Electrical Engineer