Civil Engineering Degree

[MonkeyTennis34]

DS is in his 1st year at Liverpool Uni.
Socially, he’s settled in well.
He’s just told us that he’s finding the course itself “boring as hell”.
A bit of a shock.
Does the second year get more interesting?

Depends on what he expects ‘interesting’ to be!
I have a BSc (Hons) in civil engineering and an MSc in structural engineering. Personally I didn’t find it boring - I’d say maybe it’s not for him if he’s finding it boring.
I studied in Scotland so courses will be a wee bit different but 1st year was quite generic for us - simple, I’d say - then it ramps up from second year. But it doesn’t get exciting. It’s interesting, but whether he finds it interesting may be another matter given he’s bored now! I’d encourage him to consider what interests him about engineering so he can make an informed decision about whether this is the career for him. It is a flexible degree, there’s a lot of variety in civil engineering careers. He could have a career out on site dealing with evolving construction challenges or he could be in a design office crunching numbers. He could work in roads, bridges, nuclear, buildings, maritime, etc. It’s a great career and I love my job. But it maybe isn’t what he thought it’d be.

@8TinyToeBeans
Thank you for your response.
I think he finds the Maths element more interesting but not the physics (hope that makes sense).
Just chatting now, he said he’s going to “stick it out”.
Not sure if it’s too late to change courses?

Is there a work placement? Putting theory into practice usually makes a subject come alive. DD is 26 and has MEng from Bath, she loved her placements and her favourite part of the job now is being on site wearing bright orange! She's in Infrastructure (rail).

@thornbury
Yes
He has to apply for it for Year 3.

Is his first year common to other BEngs -mechanical, aeronautical etc? - so very much based on maths, mechanics, physics etc rather than subject specific content?

I think civil engineering is less mathsy than other engineering types but there are definitely avenues which are more maths forward. Sounds like he may like a consultancy type of career rather than a site engineer type of career. His placement will help give him an idea of what he likes. I did mine in the local council structures team and that told me I wanted something more technical.

One piece of important advice I’d give is that he starts looking for graduate jobs in his final year. When I graduated 10 years ago I didn’t start looking for a job until I finished and that was fine - I got a good job in the company I wanted to work for quickly enough. But now the graduate intake is very different. We know who we will have joining us when they finish uni cause they’ve interviewed for the job while in their final year. I’d also say there’s a trend in desire to reduce the number of graduates we take in, so it may become more important to be proactive.

I remember going on an offer holder visit as a prospective engineering student.

Scratched onto one of the desks was:

If it moves, it's biology
If it changes colour, it's chemistry
If it doesn't work, it's physics
If it's f***g boring, it's engineering.

I did chemical engineering, and I can't remember it being boring. First year is basic groundwork. In future years, things like industrial management, simple economics, computing, get added in.

@CraftyGin
Thanks for that.
DS1 did Chem Eng and did find it boring! He’s now in finance.
I’ve said to DS2 that having a degree, even if he doesn’t pursue that field, is always going to give him a step up.
I’m trying not to worry.

@MonkeyTennis34 mine enjoyed his first term at Southampton. It's been a good mix of maths, physics, DT, even a bit of chemistry. He's been learning how to use AutoCad, doing some Python programming, and learning practical skills like surveying. Some courses at other universities do very generic engineering theory in the first year, so maybe Liverpool is one of those and will get more practical over time.

@8TinyToeBeans I'd go further than your advice to say that final year is the very latest they should be applying for jobs - there are Civil Engineering summer internships open for applications from year 1 onwards and some companies are also providing ongoing sponsorship to students they see as promising future hires.

DD was an ICE Quest Scholar and had a job lined up from before she even started her degree, as well as paid summer placements. In her first year the engineering students worked on several projects with the architecture students and during the course they also did several field trips and site visits. It was unfortunately disrupted by covid (y2 semester 2 and all of y3 online) but they still managed to fit a lot in. She was glad to be doing the 4 year MEng so at least she had one more year on campus in some kind of normality.

Can they switch to a Civil and Structural Engineering combined course?

I did the combined course at university but got my Chartership in Civil Engineering; however, I have ended up doing more Structural Engineering in my job which I find more interesting.

How is your DS doing now @MonkeyTennis34?