Is Engineering Modernizing? Should A New Engineer Just Graduated Worry About Job Market?

For a developing country like India, infrastructure is predominant for the economic progress of the country. With India’s GDP projected at 7.8 per cent in 2019, skilled professionals are the need of the hour to achieve a continued progression. Being a capital-intensive industry, construction is an imminent contributor to the national economy as the range of consumers of the construction market has varied over the years. Considered as the fastest growing industry, construction is poised to become the largest employer by 2022, employing more than 75 million people. With close to 1.5 million engineers graduating in India every year, the country needs approximately 4 million civil engineers on an average, over the next decade, to deliver potential real estate space and planned infrastructure.

Modernization of the construction industry is long overdue – it is the last industry to embrace fully automated methods like:

• Substantially improve quality
• Cut costs
• Reduce construction time
• Prevent waste
• Lessen injuries
• Using recyclable and sustainable materials, the industry’s carbon footprint can significantly be reduced
• Efficiency provided using manufacturing techniques similar to the motor industry

Using one unified system of computer models rather than as separate sets of drawings. It offers enormous gains in saving in cost and time, much greater accuracy in estimation, and avoiding error, alterations, and reworks due to information loss.

With BIM, an absolute virtual model of a building is used in construction. Computer-Aided Designing (CAD) professionals, Civil engineers, and Architects are turning into building information modeling job functions. They handle various responsibilities such as meeting clients and contractors, making sure models are done correctly, running clash detection, and ensuring there is no scope for errors. This includes managing all the information and modeling it. They are also helping companies implement building information modeling by educating them about this new technology. Contracting firms are also hiring specialists who can run the project through project goals using BIM software. Sometimes, architects can also turn to be BIM specialists as they also gather information from consultants and models. It is suitable for candidates to have some construction background because it is primarily virtual construction, project management, and communication.

As the demand for Building Information Modeling technology continues to upsurge throughout the design and construction industries for consultants, contractors, and even owners. The business continues to deal with multiple HR (Human Resources) and organizational development challenges related to understanding the need for talent.

Are you a recent engineering student looking for work?

Just graduated from college and brooding over whether to jump into the job-hunting bandwagon, upskill through industry-oriented focus programs, or start prepping up for the post-graduate entrance tests right away? Believe it or not, you have millions – yes, read it right, millions – for company, all equally at the crossroads and unsure of which path to take. As per a recent article by Ashok Thakur in The Print, “as of 2021, India annually produces one million engineering graduate (from) 3,500 engineering colleges”, and this has created a unique supply demand imbalance in the entry level engineering job market. There are so very few differentiators among the fresh pass-out candidates, and the sheer volume is so huge compared to the available vacancies, it has turned into a lopsided “buyer’s market”.

The engineering curriculum in India has been largely stagnated, though it saw an upgrade across the board as late as in 2017, An intrepid time-traveler may even find shades of the framework that was originally laid in 1847, when India’s first engineering college, the “Thomason College of Civil Engineering (now called IIT Roorkee) was established at Roorkee in present day Uttarakhand state for the training of Civil Engineers.”. Very few courses are regularly updated and repackaged to dance in step with the ever-changing needs of the engineering job market. So that offers a silver lining in the dark cloud. You can create a differentiator by additionally getting trained in what the industry is actually looking for in a fresh engineering graduate – that could make you stand out from any other John, Dick or Harry in the fray. And you could be one among that 31 percent who actually get hired.

If you’re an engineer who is on the search for a new employer, or want to make yourself a more valuable employee to your company, up skilling is a crucial development for you. Up skilling is an umbrella word for learning new skills and improving in key areas that are necessary to move up the career ladder in the engineering fields. If you’re not sure where to focus on up skilling your engineering career, you can use a skills assessment test. Online tools can give you a self-assessment in which you can figure out what critical skills you need to improve, or where you can brush up on things that employers are looking for in candidates. Engineering skills are depending on the field and career trajectory, but overall there are key areas in a candidate that companies prefer to see.

Skills one needs are math and technology skills, and the latest BIM software. Networking is also important as it helps you figure out which companies are hiring and what they’re looking for in candidates, being familiar with several brands of software is recommended.

A good Civil Engineer should be equipped with following skills:

• Technical skills such as identification and solving of civil engineering problems,
• Knowledge of Design techniques,
• Working with tech drawings and maps
• Drawings and models, as well as
• CAD software
• MS-Excel in Civil Engineering.

Now think what if you want to continue your engineering education and focus on grabbing a seat at a post-graduate engineering course. Well, it sure is a good choice if you want to move into the academic side of engineering or are looking to hone your skills further, but if you are planning to do that to augment your chance to land a plum job – well, honestly most would not share your enthusiasm. Having a master’s degree with no real work experience can sometimes do more harm than good. You might find yourself over-qualified for most entry level engineering positions.

That leaves us with the option of reskilling. But why even think of reskilling in the first place?

Graduate schools also look for work experience when evaluating applicants to their program. Not to mention that getting a few years of real-life experience can help you hone in on what it is you really want to pursue.

BIM (Building Information Modeling) is quickly becoming the standard amongst major countries. In fact, many now have BIM standards mandating that certain BIM levels are achieved on projects. India has arguably one of the fastest growing construction industries in the world. With mega-projects in Mumbai and upscale roadway projects on the horizon, BIM in India is looking promising. Because of India’s growing population and economy, BIM adoption will become more important in the coming years.