I TELL PEOPLE I’M A CIVIL ENGINEER

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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:

  1. BS Mining Engineering
  2. BS Geological Engineer
  3. 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. 

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Comments (5)

  1. Dawn Carlos

    January 21, 2019 at 6:36 pm

    Your latest on bring a” civil engineer “ was great!! I wanted more!!!

    • admin

      January 22, 2019 at 5:15 am

      Well, stay tuned then!!!
      There will be much more to come!

  2. Martin

    January 4, 2024 at 8:12 pm

    Hi 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 am

      Hi 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.

  3. BRYAN FRANK ULRICH

    January 5, 2024 at 9:41 am

    Hi 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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