Civil engineering offers a flexible, well-rewarded and diverse career with the chance to work and travel all over the world.

 Our society would not work without civil engineering. Infrastructure supports our daily life – roads and harbours, railways and airports, hospitals, sports stadiums and schools, access to drinking water and shelter from the weather. Because it works, we take it for granted. Only when parts of it fail, or are taken away, do we realise its value.

Today, civilisation relies more than ever on teams of inventive people to design, build and maintain the sophisticated environment that surrounds us. People who find they are drawn to civil engineering as a career look to find challenge, self-expression, achievement and personal reward through their work. If you would like to combine your technical knowledge and creative flair to solve problems, civil engineering is an excellent career choice.

 Soon you will be making decisions about your career. We can’t make those decisions for you, but we can offer guidance, advice, information and the opportunity to become a professionally qualified engineer.

 Have a say in what the world will look like

How many jobs affect how our environment looks and works? For many civil engineers, it is the way they can change our surroundings and improve the lives of millions of people that draws them to the profession. They see whole projects through each stage from feasibility to design and implementation.

 Help the developing world

For civil engineers, solving infrastructure problems in the developing world is just as demanding – and rewarding – as solving problems in the developed world. They are needed after earthquakes, during droughts and at times of war, to help the local population rebuild or maintain the conditions that will keep them alive. If you have a real sense of adventure and a commitment to help those in the greatest need, you could join RedR, an organisation that sends volunteers to disaster areas all over the world. www.redr.org

International opportunities

Civil engineering offers unparalleled opportunities to work overseas. By becoming professionally qualified, you will be able to enter the international workplace and work abroad for the short or long term.

Job satisfaction

The major highlight for most civil engineers is the satisfaction of seeing tangible results of their hard work, from designing and constructing Heathrow Terminal 5 to rebuilding bridges in war torn Iraq. The infrastructure civil engineers create benefits society for many years to come. For more information on studying Civil Engineering contact: The Institution of Civil Engineers at: www.ice.org.uk 

7. Careers in electronic engineering

(http://www.science-engineering.net)

Electronics is fundamental to many of the things we take for granted today. Everything from mobile phones to aircraft and medical equipment relies on electronics, and it is difficult to think of any area of life that has not been affected by developments in electronics.

Technology, and particularly electronics, is developing at a more rapid pace than ever before. This makes the job of the Electronic Engineer both exciting and challenging, but it also means that there are great rewards for engineers, both in terms of remuneration and job satisfaction.

 An International Career

Today, engineering in general - and electronics in particular - is an international business. Most of the well-known companies in electronics operate not just in several countries, but across continents, and many smaller companies depend on international trade for their business. In order to compete in this situation, companies recruit engineers from around the world. To succeed, engineers need to have internationally recognised qualifications.

Qualifications themselves are only one of the benefits to be gained from study abroad. A successful career depends on who you know as well as what you know, and the people that you study with are likely to become important contacts once you leave university. If you choose a suitable course, the people who are classmates today will be the leaders of tomorrow.

Britain has long been recognised for its success in engineering and technology innovation, and this reputation is built on an excellent education system. The engineering knowledge you gain in a British university is, of course, the same as you would in any other country, but there are differences in the way these are taught and learnt from many others. You need to be aware of these differences of approach and expectation before you start to study.

In most courses in Britain, there is a lot of emphasis placed on learning to think for yourself and study on your own. This can come as a shock to students who are used to being given all of the information they need, but independent learning skills are vital once you start a real job, solving problems that have never been encountered before. Fortunately, courses develop these skills gradually, with plenty of support available to ensure your confidence is built up.

Engineering courses in Britain are shorter than in many other countries, being three or four years in length. Most students complete the course within this time, since it is unusual for students to repeat years. So although course fees may seem high, the overall cost of study in Britain can be lower than elsewhere.

 Choosing a Course

Deciding what to study and where to study it is a big decision, both in terms of time and money, and so it is vital that you choose the right course and the right university. To make the right decision you have to take account of many different factors, as outlined below.

Looking at the lists of courses available, it is easy to be confused by the wide choice, ranging from straightforward Electronic Engineering to more specialist courses, such as communications, semiconductor devices or microelectronics. There is also a wide range of joint courses, combining electronics with computer science or language studies, for instance.

An Electronic Engineering course will cover all of the key knowledge and skills required to become a successful engineer, including the skills required to rapidly become familiar with new developments, while a more specialist course may neglect some of these topics in order to cover the more specialist subjects. This can be an advantage for those wanting to follow a career in the particular specialisation, but if you do not know which specialisation would suit you best, then a more general course may be more appropriate.

Fortunately, many courses begin by covering general Electronic Engineering, but allow specialisation in later stages of the course. A typical course may be fairly general for the first two years, with specialisation available in the third and fourth years. While following a joint course will give additional skills, it will allow less time for the core electronics knowledge, and so choosing an unrelated subject can leave the graduate not fully qualified in either of the subjects contributing to the degree.