Although construction is booming now, with the IR Projects,
sports hub, en-bloc making way for newer condo development, will it
sustain this level of book order after 4 years when you graduated
with a civil engineering degree?
A good example will be during the previous recession. In the
mid-to-late 90s, civil engineering is very popular because of the
property and construction boom. To make things more glamours for
civil engineers, starting pay for graduates was being published in
the newspapers and compared, with civil engineers being the top few
bracket. That also make it easier for people to decide.
The '97 financial crisis did not affect construction sector until
2000-2001 where construction began to experience a laggard and
subsequently a downturn. That is when my peers who opted civil
enginnering graduated with low paying civil engineering jobs or
switched line totally.
My question to you is will you be sure that the construction boom
will be sustainable for the next 5-10 years?
In terms of the subjects modules, as some forumers has highlighted,
3D mechanics (vector calculus) is more demanding. Some would say
civil engineering is easier than the other 2 (Mechanical and
ELectrical/Electronics). Let me give you a perspective of all 3
disciplines. My intention is not to conclude which one is
easier
Civil engineering deals with predominately mechanics and if your
interest or passion lies in mechanics during your JC days, it will
be at an advantage to you. As one forumer has highlighted, CE
people are also exposed to the following specialisation:
- Structural (design of building, bridges, tower etc)
- Water (drainage, sewerage system, etc)
- Transport and traffic (roads, highway, traffic design etc)
- Geotechnical (soil mechanics, foundation, etc)
For Mechanical engineering, they do a variety of fields, such as
thermodynamics, robotics and materials engineering.....as such,
their demanding areas will be required to study mechanics as well
as some electrical modules
For electrical engineering, the five main specialisation will be as
follows:
- Power and Machines
- Computing
- Communications and Microwave
- Control
- Microelectronics
For EE, ththe harder ones will be in the field of electromagnetic
fields and waves and Communications related maths (e.g Fourier
Transform) and also some Microprocessor Technology (Instructional
codes) and Integrated Circuit Design (Silicon Technology)
Hope you have a rough idea to decide whether civil engineering is
for you. The most important I always feel is generally for your
first degree, you should pursue what you like to study. I know that
you also do not want to graduate without a good prospect/career
advancement, but if you generally like what you study, you tend to
do well and obtain a good hons. From there, your future employers
will have a better impression of you and you may end up in an area
totally different from what you study and do it well because you
have a proven track record of your studies. Well it also helps if
your interest in that field is also easy to score.
Wishing you the best in your future endeavours in studies as well
as career.
