"If there is a leak in your house and all the local plumbers suddenly retired. There is a demand for plumbers in your region !! If a plumber agrees to repair your house, would you pay him a million ?"
I have always thought that the fact that civil engineering is one of the oldest professions has influenced public opinion on itself on the lines of "If people have built houses and bridges hundreds of years ago with no technical expertise, that must mean that it is an easily accomplished work. Why should I pay you so much just to build me another one of those usual houses ?"
Too bad this dogma is evident only in developing countries like India.
Here are two areas of structural engineering (construction) where you can choose to develop your expertise in,
A) Off shore structures, Steel structures, High rise buildings, Underground structures, metro's
B) Roads, low-rise residential buildings etc.
As you would have guessed, group A experts earn based on Quality (Few projects, lots of money per project), whereas group B experts earn based on Quantity (Many projects, moderate to low money per project).
The problem that arises in a country with a huge population is that the cost of entry into competition for Group B category is pretty close to zero. A majority of residential houses in India are in-fact designed and built by people with no degree in civil engineering !! (Paperwork says otherwise of course)
This is where the Group B experts get into trouble ! They are relying on bagging lots of projects but are getting competition from random public ! Result ? Less Quantity => Less money
Food for thought: One of the highest contenders for designing low rise residential buildings are college professors !. We all know how much care is given to education in the millions of local colleges all over the country. Neither the professor cares about teaching nor students care about learning. This is where the professor decides to open up a "consultancy" to make some easy bucks. This is of course not the case for colleges like IITs, NITs and other good colleges with dedicated faculty but such is not the case everywhere.
Warning: Do not be blown away by the packages offered by IT or Finance or Analytics companies for college graduates !! Here are a few statements I have perused a lot before.
1) In India, the experts in civil engineering will likely earn less than the experts in finance / analytics / IT / consulting.
2) In India, the average civil engineer (group B) will always earn less than an average employee in Finance/ IT and an average engineer (Group A) will start earning much more at some point of time.
3) The chances of you (an average student) becoming an expert in civil engineering is much much higher than you (an average student) becoming an expert in finance / IT.
Before you decide to throw away a career in civil engineering and switch over finance / IT, think about where you would be 10 years down the line, how frigging much of competition you face and the prospects of career stagnation. I hear this is happening a LOT in finance / IT where people get stuck with one profile for decades, unable to get promotions due to lack of innate skills / technical expertise / other reasons.
I have always thought that the fact that civil engineering is one of the oldest professions has influenced public opinion on itself on the lines of "If people have built houses and bridges hundreds of years ago with no technical expertise, that must mean that it is an easily accomplished work. Why should I pay you so much just to build me another one of those usual houses ?"
Too bad this dogma is evident only in developing countries like India.
Here are two areas of structural engineering (construction) where you can choose to develop your expertise in,
A) Off shore structures, Steel structures, High rise buildings, Underground structures, metro's
B) Roads, low-rise residential buildings etc.
As you would have guessed, group A experts earn based on Quality (Few projects, lots of money per project), whereas group B experts earn based on Quantity (Many projects, moderate to low money per project).
The problem that arises in a country with a huge population is that the cost of entry into competition for Group B category is pretty close to zero. A majority of residential houses in India are in-fact designed and built by people with no degree in civil engineering !! (Paperwork says otherwise of course)
This is where the Group B experts get into trouble ! They are relying on bagging lots of projects but are getting competition from random public ! Result ? Less Quantity => Less money
Food for thought: One of the highest contenders for designing low rise residential buildings are college professors !. We all know how much care is given to education in the millions of local colleges all over the country. Neither the professor cares about teaching nor students care about learning. This is where the professor decides to open up a "consultancy" to make some easy bucks. This is of course not the case for colleges like IITs, NITs and other good colleges with dedicated faculty but such is not the case everywhere.
Warning: Do not be blown away by the packages offered by IT or Finance or Analytics companies for college graduates !! Here are a few statements I have perused a lot before.
1) In India, the experts in civil engineering will likely earn less than the experts in finance / analytics / IT / consulting.
2) In India, the average civil engineer (group B) will always earn less than an average employee in Finance/ IT and an average engineer (Group A) will start earning much more at some point of time.
3) The chances of you (an average student) becoming an expert in civil engineering is much much higher than you (an average student) becoming an expert in finance / IT.
Before you decide to throw away a career in civil engineering and switch over finance / IT, think about where you would be 10 years down the line, how frigging much of competition you face and the prospects of career stagnation. I hear this is happening a LOT in finance / IT where people get stuck with one profile for decades, unable to get promotions due to lack of innate skills / technical expertise / other reasons.
