In evaluating a potential job opportunity, the recent graduate or the civil engineer seeking a change of employment should determine whether or not the prospective employer will provide a satisfactory climate for professional development. Such a climate is created if the employer supports professional organizations and societies for engineers, such as the National Society of Professional Engineers and the American Society of Civil Engineers. The new graduate should attempt to determine if employees are encouraged to attend meetings and conventions of technical societies and professional civil engineering groups. He or she should ask if the expenses incurred by employees attending such meetings will be wholly or partially met by the prospective employer. He or she should also inquire if an employee can be an active member of committees or technical groups within a professional organization such as the American Society of Civil Engineers.
If the recent graduate obtains negative answers to the inquiries listed above and feels that employment with a particular company or agency will place her or him in an unprofessional atmosphere, he or she should consider employment elsewhere. A lack of a professional attitude toward engineering employees will probably be a negative factor in personal and professional development. This unpleasant situation would certainly outweigh other advantages such as high salary, excellent fringe benefits, or long vacations. The opportunities for professional fulfillment and advancement to more responsible positions should be much more important than financial rewards in one's career as a civil engineer.
Educational Opportunities
The student in civil engineering who is completing a four-year or a five-year program may approach graduation with the feeling that education is now complete. Nothing could be further from the truth. This feeling would be appropriate only for a person lacking in professionalism and ambition. The conscientious and ambitious civil engineer will attempt to learn something new every day on the job. However, with the ever-increasing complexity of the field of civil engineering, it is no longer possible to be well-informed even about a particular specialty such as structural engineering or geotechnical engineering merely through one's own efforts or through job experience. The new civil engineering graduate will find great difficulty even reading all the monthly journals and magazines associated with one particular area of civil engineering. For this reason, it is important for the new civil engineer, as well as the experienced civil engineer, to be active in continuing education.
Continuing education can take several forms. The civil engineer may decide to participate in short courses or conferences that are held for several days in a particular location, usually on a university campus. On the other hand, he or she may choose to enroll in evening classes for an entire semester in order to develop deeper expertise in a particular subject. In some cases, it may be possible for the engineer to obtain permission from her or his employer to attend college classes during the day. These opportunities are important for the engineer to keep current on knowledge concerning specialized subjects. The opportunity to participate in these various forms of continuing education is an important asset in any job. When evaluating potential job opportunities, the new civil engineer should carefully investigate the opportunities in the offered position for participation in continuing education programs.
Personal Development
Professional development through continuing education and the gaining of experience in civil engineering activities will not be sufficient. Most civil engineers also will seek personal development through advancement to more responsible positions in their particular job assignments or in their company or organization. Obviously, advancement to positions of greater responsibility depends not only on the wishes and efforts of the individual but also on the judgment of the individual's immediate superiors and on the policies of the employing organization. In evaluating job opportunities, it is important for the civil engineer to carefully evaluate the opportunities for professional advancement. He or she should examine the organizational structure of a potential employer in order to determine whether or not it is possible to advance to more responsible positions after gaining experience and/or participating in further educational efforts, and if possible, he or she should try to estimate how rapidly he or she may advance to positions of more responsibility.
Greater responsibility in a job assignment can take a variety of forms. The young engineer may be given the chance to work with greater numbers of colleagues or with a larger labor force if he or she is engaged in the supervision of construction activities. On the other hand, working in an office environment he or she may be given the responsibility to plan and design more complex or important structures or systems. If he or she succeeds in demonstrating her or his capabilities, this personal advancement hopefully will be recognized by promotion to a higher grade or to a more responsible position with a corresponding increase in salary and other benefits.
In many large organizations such as federal governmental agencies, salary increases are given to engineers automatically with seniority at particular grade levels. Promotion to a higher grade level will come with increased experience on the job and with the demonstration of ability to handle more complex systems or to solve more difficult technical problems. Promotion to a higher grade level in a federal agency allows the individual to earn a new series of raises in salary and fringe benefits associated with that higher grade level, increasing seniority, and satisfactory performance of assigned duties.
In other organizations, such as consulting firms, increases in salary and benefits may not come automatically with seniority. However, the young civil engineer will likely have a greater opportunity in such firms to advance rapidly to senior technical or management positions. Nevertheless, in almost every organization, the civil engineer's advancement will be directly dependent upon the quality and quantity of the effort he or she expends on the job. In examining job offers, the new civil engineer should examine the potential for increased responsibility and higher salary that he or she is likely to receive for the investment of time and effort.