Computer Science and Electronic Engineering Or Civil Eng Degree?

dadofsam

dadofsam

dadofsam

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Hi,
Am stuck at the moment, I have to decide between Civil Engineering and 'Computer Science and Electronic Engineering' for my degree course next year,
I have completed a Foundation year so now can get onto either course, I love computers, both the hardware and software side which pushes me towards Comp Sci and Electronics, but I also worry I will struggle being in a constant office environment hence my looking at Civil, does anyone have any experience doing either degree, or advice as to which may be the better option to take,
I know a lot will say its upto me and what interests me, but at the moment I could easily go for either and be equally as happy.
Cheers
 
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If you could happily go either way I would probably say Civil, as it's easier to break into the other fields later on if you want a change down the line whereas afaik you really need a full accredited degree for a decent civil engineering job
 
I did a foundation year in electronic engineering but changed over to comp sci for year 1. Will be going into my 3rd year in september. Im glad i did change to be honest. my two housemates stuck with electronics and are really stuggling and always have massive reports. Im currently passing as 67ish % without too much effort. The last two years have been on quite a wide range of things, some of which i didnt enjoy too much (programming) so ive moved away from it a little. In summary, im ever so glad i changed to comp sci!
 
I did Computer Systems Engineering in my first year and it's a nasty course at Bristol, glad I changed to straight Computer Science.
 
I went into the Civil Engineering field many years back and wished I hadn't. The work was pretty much all office based. You would sometimes make site visits depending on the project you are working on, but these aren't very frequent.

I was based in the design office, so spent all day doing calculations / spreadsheets / RC detailing / drawings etc but you could decide to be site based if you wanted. However, there is a big difference between working out in Dubai on some incredible land reclaimation projects, and sitting in a pokey office on a building site near Kings Cross.

I decided to get out while I could and that was about 7 years ago. Since then I've started my own firm, have much more income, and am so much happier. I'm not in the Civils field at all anymore.

It does vary with the employer, but certainly 7 years ago Civil Engineering was one of the hardest jobs to master, with the lowest pay rewards. We had chartered Civil / Structural engineers on about £32k a year, and brilliant design engineers with 40 years experience who were on less than this. I'm not winding you up either. The company I was with was known however for training people really well, then paying them peanuts. Hence the normal route for most people was to go through all the training, stay with the company for a year or two and then leave for more money elsewhere.

I think if you have no commitments then it can be a fantastic job. You can decide to send yourself off to work on some really interesting & challenging projects all over the world.

However, from my own experience and the the majority of those I worked with, it was all about the 9-5 drudge in the same office, a never ending array of bending moment diagrams and calculations, all of which need to be checked, rechecked, and approved.

You would get an occasional project which was a little different and quite interesting, but generally the type of Civil Engineering projects you would be most likely to work on would be long term ongoing projects which last for years. We worked on the channel tunnel, numerous London Underground projects, countless power stations, water treatment works, sewage treatment works, pumping stations, and sometimes more interesting items such as floating concrete structures and Ministry of Defence work.

I would say don't go into it unless you genuinely enjoy the work, have no ties and are chomping at the bit to be sent off abroad. Otherwise you will probably just end up in an office in this country, doing lots of incredibly hard & intellectually challenging work but not being rewarded well financially for it.

One of the perks was a company share scheme. So glad I didn't go into this heavily as it's now lost about 85% of its value.........
 
Kreeeee said:
I did Computer Systems Engineering in my first year and it's a nasty course at Bristol, glad I changed to straight Computer Science.
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I did CS at Newcastle and wish I did CSE. CS was too theoretical at times and I wish I did more low level/technical stuff instead of boring mathematical proofs/formal methods.
 
I vote for Civil

The industry is huge and variety is extensive. I done Civil and ive ended up being a PM for a water company but most of my experience is topo surveying.

Most of the people I employ, be it Surveyors/CAD/GIS/Network Guys/Design/PM/Planners etc etc have a civils background.

Good broad experience in my opinion with plenty of jobs and good packages. The packages maybe 5 years ago and before we're never great, but now they are much better.

The job can vary from all site to all office and anything in between, just depends what you want to do.
 
Computer Science and Electronic Engineering = Computer Systems Engineering

A hard course, and from what I remember it was basically the hard modules from CS with the hard modules from EE. IIRC, only 1 person got a first in our year.
 
Una said:
I did CS at Newcastle and wish I did CSE. CS was too theoretical at times and I wish I did more low level/technical stuff instead of boring mathematical proofs/formal methods.
Click to expand...

CS at Bristol is hugely hands on, very little formal proofs etc.
 
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