A shocking reality!!!!!!!!

Big dilemma to all the Fresh Civil Engineers: Site or Planning ?

Somehow, almost all the fresh budding civil engineers can get a job especially in India right after completing their B.Tech . Everybody is naturally interested in site. Because, after sitting in classes for four years the real construction site conditions excites newbies and offers them a very curious ambience. All the managers and Sr.Engineers will encourage them (freshers /GETs) and they desire to do something new and to innovate in site. Few of the freshers want to learn all basics in the site work. Very few will be interested in Quality and planning. This is the situation in general at the initial stages.. Now, the DRAMA begins. Slowly management increases pressure on site engineers , they will not get encouragement from management to innovate, all the managers appears like sadists, slowly all the freshers feels like doing nontechnical job , colleagues starts playing cheap politics. Managing labor supervisor, getting concrete from batching plant and facing rebukes from manager for uncontrolled situations in site. In this irony site engineer has to face sun, rain,

snow. The treatment of management will clearly change. They apply cost cutting measures at the expense of employees site benefits. All freshers start observing Shear Forces and Bending moments in their bodies instead of observing in the structure. Few people will get viral fever, some of them will get jaundice etc.. After facing this circumstances and being attracted by planning room ambience, all befuddled buddies will be in dilemma: SITE about Quality also).

or PLANNING (few think

My straight answer to them is SITE, irrespective of their interest. Until people know the ifs and cons of the site they cant understand the business. Without knowing intricacies in the site, job in planning will become attendant or accountant work or copy-paste work. If we want to do billing then, mere calculations from drawing is not enough, method of doing the job should also be known. Best example is calculation of shuttering quantity for a trapezoidal footing. Shuttering quantity is not the surface area of the footing calculated from the drawing. It has to be calculated from the site methodology. While planning the concrete quantity for the month, standard labor productivity rates sometimes leads to wrong results. For example productivity rates for slab will vary depend up on the height and reinforcement. In estimating the overall project cost , overheads which are very important needs to be considered with the above factors . Overheads especially in machinery will increase the projects operational costs. Without having exposure to site , it is very difficult to do planning work. But remember one fact , the core business will be carried out in the planning department only. Ultimate aim of the company is

completing the project satisfactorily and to get the pre-defined profit margin .This task will be executed by the planning dept in every project. Planning dept is also a very important sector which we should work in.

So, how long we should work in site and enter in to the planning? Now, the interest and the ambition plays a vital role. My recommendation is simple: work in the site for 2 years or up to 50% billing (for project costs of 200cr and above) whichever is more. Because at that time almost all important aspects of the project will be covered and people will know the way to understand the remaining un completed new works, even though they are not working in the site at that time. Doing drudgery in the site for years and gaining experience to become a greatest manager will not make sense to a SMART STUDENT. Clever thing is just be in site for 1.5 to 2years and learn the basics in all the departments for next 1.5 year and come to contracts department, or to Business Development or to planning department. The idea behind this is simple: today in India, lot of experienced people are there in the industry but only few are there who can create a business. It is wise to develop a business acumen rather than to gain experience. There is no end to gain experience .That to in India construction is not technology driven. Down the years, lot of technological changes will be happen in construction. what if any new technology comes? Again we should get experience to keep us updated. How long should we do this? So a highly ambitious and a smart person shouldnt crave for experience. There will be always a person exists who can recruit 20 or 30 years of experienced person to

work in his business. Sometimes, the employer age will be not even half of this experienced person(employee). So, target to gain the business acumen, get the ability to recruit the experienced and build the projects. This is a very effective, short and objective path to have a fast career growth and to create something in civil engineering which can make the difference. There is no mistake, If the people think about salaries and rating. It is a very long process. Generally, After becoming part of the Indian construction site work culture , people become like a sadistic bosses and inflict the same pressure , what they have experienced from their bosses for years, on their juniors. But, this is happening ultimately since long time in Indian construction industry. Until, the technology change occurs this Pressure transfer path occurs. The Point here is that the above risk is there in blindly working in site for years. So, all budding civil engineers follow the path of business creation but not the path of pressure transfer. Especially , people who feel smart enough to enjoy the civil engineering, should think twice before dedicating their lives to site.