Does Structural Engineering Need to Be More Specialized. 22

[Ron247]

The premise of this thread is whether Structural Engineering needs to break away from Civil Engineering like many other Engineering disciplines (Electrical ,Mechanical etc.) have over the years. If your only desirable path is Structures, should you have to spend to much time on non-structural classes? I did not enroll in CE and later decided I want to be an SE, I wanted structures from day 1. For me, yes it is time to break from Civil Engineering. Looking at the really old "roots" of Civil Engineering, to me, it is obvious it is time to create our own curriculum.

Now, that is my opinion. Please when responding, state whether you are an academic versus practitioner ( or both), a BS, MS or PhD etc. Give us an idea of your background. I am a MS practitioner. I am an old geezer who tries to stay in touch with new educational concepts but tends to fail at the new concepts.

If you are not a structural or civil engineer, please bear that in mind if you choose to respond. I am concerned about the path new structural engineers are traveling compared to the path I am about to retire from. I am not looking for an argument, I am looking for some insight. In recent years, potential SEs have asked me questions, that I have no good solid answers for.

 

[Ron247]

geotech: My senior high school class had several people go into Chemical Eng because it paid $800/year more in starting salary than any other engineering curriculum at that time (mid 70s). So, not only are high schools grads not be sure what specific role they envision, some have no real idea what engineering curriculum to enroll in. They read that stat, decided on ChemEng. A more adult mind would have said, that is now, what will it be in 4 years? A more adult mind would have also deducted taxes and turned it into a weekly amount (less than $10/week after taxes). Many of those Chemical never completed college or changed curriculum.

The 2 main things I remember about people I went to school with is that many of them had a specialty they desired (hydraulic for example) but their career path became more dominated by what jobs were available when they graduated.

 

[IRstuff]

only $800/yr more? So, SEs got close to $30k/yr?

Well, I feel rooked; I only got $21k

TTFN (ta ta for now)
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[Blackstar123]

Focusing a student too early in their career really puts the blinders on them.

As someone who is still in the first decade of their career, I completely agree with this statement.

I’ve a BE in Civil engineering and recently completed my ME in Structural engineering. I was one of those students who were forced into taking admission in civil engineering because of shortage of seats in the discipline of their choice (software engineering to be precise). Back then, the only thing I knew about civil engineering was that it’s the study related to construction somehow.

Civil engineering is such a vast field that I know very few students are 100% sure of the path they are going to follow in their first or even second year. I know I myself wanted to go into management side during the first two semesters and went into structure instead when I fell in love with structural designing. Some of my class fellows who were so sure that they were going to pursue a career in structural designing ended up in construction management because of lack of jobs in consulting firms after graduation. I also know some people who worked in structural designing for a couple of years, found that the pace is too slow for career advancement and switched fields.

So, yes, I’ll say it is important that we were taught all those subjects, which today for us dedicated structural engineers may seems totally unnecessary, but proved to be quite important for some people in their starting career.

College is only intended to prepare you to learn more, by giving you the tools, skills, and basic background

Agreed. For me, if the knowledge I acquired in the university is the foundation, then the structure standing on it, is the knowledge I gained as a practicing engineer. This is the reason I usually advice my juniors to take couple of years break between bachelor’s and master’s degree. I took 4 years break between mine.


Euphoria is when you learn something new.

 

[IRstuff]

There's at least 4 sorts of people who enter engineering:
> those that know what they wanted when they were (fill in the age) and stayed the course
> those that know what they wanted when they were (fill in the age) and changed later on
> those that know what they wanted when they were (fill in the age) and were "forced" into something they didn't want and maybe changed later on
> those that never know what they want

I think that if you're going to spend $160K+ for an education, you ought to have the wherewithal to change horses midstream and even change streams.

TTFN (ta ta for now)
I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert!

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[hetgen]

@IRstuff

I don't fit in any of these you listed, i guess in some part of the world you have to be a chameleon to survive in the Job market and being a Civil Engineer helps.. I was a road geometric design engineer for four yrs, then for 5 yrs hydraulic designer , and then for 12 yrs Structural Engineer . Now i work in a small office and i call my self a Civil Engineer, not a Structural but a Civil Engineer it opens many opportunity.