Civil Engineering guidance please

[sorcerersapprentice]

My son in Y12 has recently expressed a strong interest to do Civil or perhaps Mechanical Engineering at Uni. He's doing Maths, Further Maths and Physics at A Level. I have no knowledge or experience of this subject and career being an Arts graduate!

Can anyone give advice guidance on best courses, best course structures, internships, entrance requirements etc. Is there any experience he needs beforehand? What will he need to demonstrate to get on a course?
Or anything else that's useful

I started on £21k in 2001 on graduation, and now £60k. I've had 3 lots of maternity leave and a 15 month career break in that time as well.

In reality we recruit from quite a small pool of universities, which are mentioned upthread and we also have lots international colleagues who did Engineering related masters degrees at UK universities. It’s a very diverse sector

Can I just check which ones you do recruit from @RTHJ14?

@PritiPatelsMaker
In reality, the harder the university is to get into, is the criteria used by some firms for recruits. However in reality, lots of universities turn out excellent graduate engineers. DH has not necessarily found the “top” universities produce the best engineers for them. Basically none are the finished article. It also depends very much what area of work you are looking at. It’s actually quite foolish to rule out the majority of universities. So many less stellar ones have great links with companies and produce problem solving grads who fit into teams and want to learn.

Just look at the Complete University Guide and you won’t go far wrong. Go for MEng and certainly environmental engineering is useful but don’t do this as undergrad. In my view it’s too narrow. Look for suitable modules/options.

Just to add: it’s absolutely not necessary to target Oxbridge, Durham and Imperial for Civil Engineering. If your Dc knows they want Civil, apply for Civils/Structural Engineering accredited courses. Also Highways and Transportation etc depending on interests but the best courses cover all bases. So look at Sheffield, Bristol, Manchester, Bath, Southampton, Leeds, Warwick (cannot find it in the guide!) and the usual RG universities in “industrial” cities. DH also rates grads from Northumbria, Teeside and Portsmouth as being great employees. It’s about finding the job and training that allows the individual to flourish and prosper.

Seem to remember that Portsmouth is strong in geotechnics?

Portsmouth still do the undergrad degree, I don't think Sunderland do though.

Traditionally geotechnical eng is done as a final year module + MSc - Leeds, Newcastle, IC, as well as Portsmouth and Plymouth, with Exeter doing variations around mining and Aberdeen doing variations around petroleum/energy.

Not sure that Aberdeen has ever done geotechnics / engineering geology? It was always petroleum / reservoir engineering or geophysics. Exeter / Camborne School of mines was very much mining and natural resource oriented.

I also note that Durham doesn’t have an engineering geology MSc any more.

Really useful info on Unis and courses.
Another question for you all now ...
What personal qualities make a great Engineer?

I did an MEng in civil engineering at Manchester. To be honest it was a bit of a nightmare for me. I was always very academically able at school, but the maths was a massive step up - both in terms of pure maths e.g. calculus, and in mathematical mechanics, which is needed for the structural engineering part. Also found the programming modules really hard. On reflection, although I was bright, my brain just didn’t work in the right way to handle the step up in maths and programming needed. It was a lot of contact hours (30+ hours a week lectures), which left no time for tutorials and there was very little support in place for students who were struggling. Also I’d say the quality of teaching was pretty poor.

HOWEVER - I don’t regret it for a moment. I decided to leave engineering behind when I graduated and joined a quite prestigious graduate programme, and now am a successful and well respected professional in an adjacent field. Having a masters degree in engineering has opened up a lot of doors for me, and I wouldn’t have got to where I am today without it.

tldr - I did civil engineering, it nearly killed me, but I don’t regret it for a moment

Sorry it nearly killed you @BigHeartyTruffle but glad you're enjoying the benefits of your Masters now

Interesting post. I found the step up from A Level to degree maths 'challenging' to say the least despite getting decent grades in maths and physics. The first couple of terms were tough but I did have access to additional maths tuition and to be hones there were a lot of penny dropping 'I wish someone had explained that to me at school' moments. Also agree with the time commitment, I too had 35 hours a week contact time in the form of labs, lectures, tutorials and seminars as well as reading and assignments on top of that. I was always quite envious of some other time rich students who seemed to have about 4 lectures a week and very much seemed to be enjoying the student experience more then me. Ironically I found my masters in Offshore Engineering a lot easier although I did that several years after my first degree. (humble brag warning) I have never been unemployed, have seen the world(ish) and have earned decent money so the early hardship was worth it.

commenting to not lose the thread

This is really interesting. My son has expressed a huge interest in engineering ( civil or others ) and these are really interesting comments.

We hasn’t considered the apprentice route either.

I'm a civil engineer and in the middle of this years grad recruitment.

I look for reasonably strong academic background, curiosity, persistence and willingness to learn and innovate. It's very much a career where you continue learning after university. Ideally the kind of person who will think of a solution, work with team to code or develop a tool and then be able to present and explain it.

It's a very diverse field and theres room for many skills and personalities from very technical to more hands on.

It helps to be quite motivated about the technical problem solving and creating sustainable infrastructure, the pay is not stellar as in finance but it compares well with other graduate opportunities and is in demand as an occupation.

Many companies recruiting civil engineers don’t get loads of applicants! So many grads seek employment in other fields upon graduating. It depends if you are a consultancy or a contractor or project manager company.

DH wanted problem solvers and people with a practical engineering brain. They set practical tests that some grads could not do very well. He thinks over emphasis on maths and lack of practical knowledge is an issue in universities. He didn’t want computer programmers with no other skills. Enthusiasm, general engineering skills, a willingness and ability to learn and eventually lead are important. For them, stepping up to understanding the business is important.