Professional and Academic Advise Request

[crcivil]

I graduated from UBC a while ago where a got my Master's degree in Construction Engineering. For the past five years I´ve been working as a sub-contractor in México doing geotechnical construction, mainly shotcrete work and slope stabilization. Some of my clients come to me and ask for the design and construction solution of a given situation, in which case I have to come out many times with an empirical answer to their needs based on my experience and in what I have learned so far from books and other sources of information on the topic at hand.

There are not too many people specializing in slope stabilization in the city where I live with my wife and our three kids, and the few around here offer design and construction services as well to their clients, so they basically look at me as a competitor, and would not be willing to offer me design services, lets say for a required Ground Anchored Wall as an example.

I like this engineering field and enjoy doing my job, but I feel I'm in disadvantage with these people, therefore I srtongly feel the need of getting more knowledgeable in the field of Geotechnical Engineering, specially in topics on in-situ ground reinforcement and improvement, that I enjoy the most. Would you kindly give some advises? Is there any graduate programs on line that you can recommend?

Thanks

 

[oldestguy]

I've seen both fields of endeavor. You are right, about construction firms not being willing to hire you as an engineer as long as you maintain a construction practice. On the other hand, many an engineer owning a construction company, or one of the principals, is in a better position to get new work, than the company without such expertise on staff. Design-build is common in the States, with the clients being owners needing a job done "turnkey", not generally folks needing only engineering services. You seem to have assessed the situation right and your future probably will depend on how accurately you can predict what will occur in your area.

If you want to get more engineering education and/or want to specialize as an engineer only, of course there are many ways to proceed. If you have family and other possible restrictions on moving, look into universities having ON-line programs which then allow you to take those courses in your non-work hours. Internet searches is where I would begin. Lacking a formal approach, attending seminars or conferences of engineering societies in your area can help. Being a member there will also bring you into contact with engineers with similar interests and those persons in authority to hire engineering services. That also may bring in new work.

 

[crcivil]

Thanks a lot for the advise oldestguy.

 

[crcivil]

By the way, I found some interesting information on-line. MIT and Seoul National University offer an OpenCourseWare program free of charge in different areas of knowledge, including Geotechnical Engineering. They basacally open to the public study materials, class notes, bibliographic references, homeworks and exams they use for their in-class undergrad and graduate courses, so this is like a nice aid for a well structured self-studies undertaking. I think this can be a good place to start oldestguy.

 

[oldestguy]

Atta boy. Go get 'em. Good luck.

 

[crcivil]

Thanks again. Greetings.

 

[BigH]

crcivil - could you post the urls??

 

[crcivil]

Here you go BigH:

ocw.mit.edu/courses/civil-and-environmental-engineering
ocw.snu.ac.kr/department.php?clgidx=5&deptidx=11

Regards