In about 1996 or 1997, when I joined Toastmasters (which I highly recommend to anyone who needs to speak in public), my first speech to that group was titled, “I Tell People that I’m a Civil Engineer”. The next line is… “But I’m not”. It was a great icebreaker as my first speech in Toastmasters. And that is true. I have never had a class that is specific to civil engineering. I have three engineering degrees, but none of them are in civil engineering. Here is how the degrees go:
- BS Mining Engineering
- BS Geological Engineer
- MEng Geotechnical Engineer
See? No degrees in civil engineering. I’ve never had a course in pavement design or concrete design. Please don’t expect me to design a bridge. Okay, in reality, I don’t tell everybody that I’m a civil engineer, it’s only when I don’t really have the time to tell the actual story. It complicates things when you consider that my registrations as a professional engineer are as a civil engineer… but geotechnical engineering is a specialty field within civil engineering. Or is it more complicated that my registration in South Africa is as a mining engineer?
People generally know what a civil engineer is, but you need a little more time to explain what a geotechnical engineer is, and that’s why I’ll have a blog called Geotechnical Engineering 101. I’ll also have blogs at some point called Mining Engineering 101 and Geological Engineering 101.
Comments (5)
Dawn Carlos
January 21, 2019 at 6:36 pmYour latest on bring a” civil engineer “ was great!! I wanted more!!!
admin
January 22, 2019 at 5:15 amWell, stay tuned then!!!
There will be much more to come!
Martin
January 4, 2024 at 8:12 pmHi Brian. Thank you for your text.
I have a BS Mining Engineering, a MSc in Metallurgical Engineering, and now I am working as a Geotechnical Engineer in Tailings.
Would you recommend going for a Master’s degree or only if I manage to get a Scholarship? Greetings and thanks.
BRYAN FRANK ULRICH
January 5, 2024 at 9:42 amHi Martin. When I first started out in consulting I was working in geotechnical work in tailings. I was very much a mining engineer. I could do a lot of the work, but I didn’t have a fundamental understanding of what I was doing, and I didn’t understand any of the theory behind all of it. I had to read a lot of technical articles. For example, I tried to make a lot of CPT correlations that had no theoretical basis to exist. I didn’t know that. I didn’t know that most of the CBT correlations were based on good theory. When I went to get my masters degree I gained and improved understanding of the theoretical aspects of geotechnical engineering. I also gained practical understandings. So for you it depends if you want to have a better understanding of the work you were doing. My masters degree was a one year program and I found it to be invaluable. I also found the Canadian universities to be much more affordable than the US based universities. I hope this helps.
BRYAN FRANK ULRICH
January 5, 2024 at 9:41 amHi Martin. When I first started out in consulting I was working in geotechnical work in tailings. I was very much a mining engineer. I could do a lot of the work, but I didn’t have a fundamental understanding of what I was doing, and I didn’t understand any of the theory behind all of it. I had to read a lot of technical articles. For example, I tried to make a lot of CPT correlations that had no theoretical basis to exist. I didn’t know that. I didn’t know that most of the CBT correlations were based on good theory. When I went to get my masters degree I gained and improved understanding of the theoretical aspects of geotechnical engineering. I also gained practical understandings. So for you it depends if you want to have a better understanding of the work you were doing. My masters degree was a one year program and I found it to be invaluable. I also found the Canadian universities to be much more affordable than the US based universities. I hope this helps.
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