Construction as career choice

Ranjan K Baruah *

One of the basic needs for human being is shelter and one of the terms associated with this is 'Construction'. Generally construction includes residential building construction, industrial construction, commercial building construction, heavy civil construction. Each type of construction project requires a unique team to plan, design, construct and maintain the project.

For the successful execution of a project, effective planning is essential. Involved with the design and execution of the infrastructure in question must consider the environmental impact of the job, the successful scheduling, budgeting, construction site safety, availability of building materials, logistics, inconvenience to the public caused by construction delays and bidding, etc.

There are many routes to the different careers within the construction industry. Some of the options are:

o Unskilled and semi-skilled – General site labour with little or no construction qualifications.

o Skilled – Tradesmen who've served apprenticeships, typically in labour unions, and on-site managers who possess extensive knowledge and experience in their craft or profession.

o Technical and management – Personnel with the greatest educational qualifications, usually graduate degrees, trained to design, manage and instruct the construction process.

Skilled occupations include carpenters, electricians, plumbers, ironworkers, masons, and many other manual crafts, as well as those involved in project management. Technical and specialized occupations include some work profile like surveyor, architect, engineers like civil engineers, marketing professionals, welfare personnel, etc.

As engineers and architects are of demand in construction industry so engineers may join this career option. One can study engineering after passing out senior secondary classes. Students must be from science background with maths to go ahead with engineering. There are different branches in engineering and construction firms, corporate or companies need different engineers and most promisingly civil engineers. Like engineers, architects are also needed.

One can study B Arch after their Class XII. Apart from B Arch, aspirants may also join classes on planning and management.

As mentioned that there are many aspects related to construction, another important is looking at the safety part and people specialisation with safety engineers also get chance to explore and placed. There are scopes for people who study disaster management as it is commonly related to construction. It is to be mentioned that as people are more into sustainable construction so people who can design sites building or sites in eco friendly measures are in demand. This means people with environmental science background also have chance to get employed.

Now one may wonder is it only engineers and technical person related to construction or there are scopes for people with management and others? In simple term the booming Real Estate Management (REM) involves people from MBA background with specialisation on REM. Expert in marketing professional are in need when it comes to selling of properties whether commercial space or residential areas.

Updates:

AIFD: The Written Admission Test (WAT) 2017 for admission to the UG Course offered by the Army Institute of Fashion and Design, Bangalore, will be held on 13th May at notified examination centers. Last date for sending application is 5th April.

CSP: Preliminary Examination of the Civil Services Examination for recruitment to the Services and Posts will be held by the Union Public Service Commission on 18th June, 2017 in accordance with the Rules published by the Department of Personnel & Training in the Gazette of India Extraordinary dated 22nd February, 2017. Aspirants may apply before 17th March.