Expert: Jeanette A - 11/21/2008

Question
hi, i am an 8th grade student exploring career oppurtunities. i am very intresteed in being a civil engineer. For the project that i am doing i need to know what a normal day on the job would be like.

Thanks,

Katrina

Answer
Hey Katrina,

This is quite a broad question as it depends on which discipline you will want to venture in. The only thing close to typical is the working hours and even they can vary greatly. Typical working hours during a day are roughly 7:30-8am til 5-6pm (this differs if working on site) and this also depends on what jobs you have which might be quite demanding or whether you have a deadline to meet.

Overall it varies it could be sitting at your desk writing memos, to get different memos out. It could be doing design of a certain system. It could be on site. Throughout the day you might get 'emergencies' or rather tasks which need to be tended to asap which will require you to push your current work to a later time. So generally there is no typical day! That is the beauty about civil engineering, everyday is a new day with new challenging problems and their solutions.

Hope that helps!

Kind Regards,
Jeanette