Talk About Your Profession | Steem Sri Lanka: Contest Series - Week 6 | Civil Engineering

Well, finally I decided to share a few experiences about my carrier for the contest "Talk About Your Profession" hosted by my friend @randulakoralage. It will be short and sweet because I'm still a final year undergraduate at the University of Moratuwa. So, this is about me as a trainee Civil Engineer for 5 months. I think this is the first entry from Civil Engineer for the contest. 😜😜

Why Civil?

I was a smart kid in my childhood. I don't know what has happened to me now🤣 🤣. But from the start, I just wanted to be an engineer, without any idea who he is. So, with successful completion of the Advanced Level in school, I was able to enter the University of Moratuwa. Undoubtedly it is the leading technical college in the country. So, I am a lucky guy. To be honest, I had no idea what to chose when the time comes to select the field of Engineering. With the theory of removing options, I choose the most familiar one Civil. So, here I am in the final days of university life.

What is Civil?

No need to define, you all know about this. It's one of the oldest and fascinating fields in the world. Civil engineering is a broad field that includes building construction, highway and transportation engineering, Hydraulic structures, geotechnical, environmental, etc. Yeah, it's a complete package. But at the end of the day, it's technical and man-management. Then what about the challenges and risks? Well, that's what Civil engineering is? A single bad design or a decision will lead to a catastrophe.

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My Experiences

I had a 5-month internship last year. I was in Kandy for two months and in Hatton for 3 months. Both locations were in the central highlands of the country. The climate is totally different from my area but had to adapt to it in no time. I had the foundation for my future carrier in these few months.

What I learned in the university had to be practically used here. More than that I could learn the whole management part of labor, resources, time, and the technical aspects. We had to make quick decisions in the field. Because always there is a tight schedule in any project. Because the success depends on both a marvelous finish to the project as well as the revenue of the project.

Training Gang

In Kandy, I worked on a construction project of a new cancer treatment center for the General Hospital. It was a 12-storey building. An in Hatton it's an infrastructure development project for the railway station. In both sites, I learned a lot of things. The staff was so friendly and helpful. The most beautiful part is as a Civil Engineer we should have at least a basic idea of all the other staff members. It may be a quantity surveyor, an architect, an electrical/mechanical engineer, surveyor, or whatever-related. Even the work of a mason or a carpenter. That's the biggest challenge here.

So, my supervisor always guided me to learn all of the field works on hand. It may be tying rebars or welding or tiling or using machinery etc. It's really important to handling the labors and making decisions.

In the training period, I could engage in most of the stages in a building project. From the foundation to, blockwork, reinforcement work, formwork, concreting, plastering, plumbing, tiling, electrical works, fixing doors and windows, etc. So I was lucky there.

As I said earlier, we have a tough and busy schedule, especially when working in private companies. Rain, sunlight, inside, outside, day or night we have to work according to the schedule. Sometimes no leave even for public holidays. I could take 2/3 day leave for a month. So, hell yeah. It's a tough game. But once you get the rhythm you will get used to it.

Survey Camp

After 5 months of Industrial training, we had the survey camp for 2 weeks in Kothmale. It's about the usage of equipment in the field. Level machine, Total station, theodolite, and other advanced techniques like GIS are crucial techniques in the field. We had fun and an educative session there.

So, that's it. I had just the start. There is a long way to go in the industry as well as to learn thousands of new things. There are another few months to be graduated. So, hopeful to have a better journey to go.

Just have the happiness of looking at your project touching the sky!!!!!

Thank you.
Best Regards!